Take a Letter Ivanka

Last night, as I got home, about a half-past ten

There was the woman I thought I knew, watching CNN

I kept my cool I ain’t no fool let me tell you what happened then

I packed some clothes and I walked out and I ain’t going back again

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Say I won’t be coming home, gotta start a new life

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Send a copy to my lawyer, gotta start a new life

You’ve been many things but most of all a very good daughter to me

And it’s times like this I feel… You’ve always been close to me

Was I wrong to cheat and lie, I gave her a very good life

Ever since I’ve been President, my life’s been full of strife

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Say I won’t be coming home, gotta start a new life

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Send a copy to Giuliani, gotta start a new life

When a man loves a woman, it’s hard to understand

Why she would turn from Fox News, and start watching CNN

I never really noticed, how sweet you are to me

It just so happens I’m free tonight

Would you like to have dinner with me?

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Say I won’t be coming home, gotta start a new life

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Think I’ll go to Russia, gotta start a new life

And now here comes Impeachment, it’s all based on fake news

Just because I used other countries, to make sure I couldn’t lose

I told Ukraine you’ll get no money unless you get the goods on Joe

I just don’t get why people think it’s some kinda quid pro quo

And now it’s out all over town that I keep two sets of books

One that shows I’m ultra-rich on top of my good looks

The other set says that I’m dead broke so my taxes are really low

I know you understand Ivanka because that’s the way we roll

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Say I won’t be coming home, gotta start a new life

So take a letter Ivanka, address it to my wife

Send a copy to my lawyer, gotta start a new life

Apologies to R.B. Greaves

Who Thought John Bolton Would Be The Moral Center of Trumpworld?

I don’t pretend to like John Bolton. He is the warmonger of warmongers. He has no use for the rest of the world and thinks they deserve no input into anything.

“If I were doing the Security Council today, I’d have one permanent member, the United States, because that’s the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world. All international laws are invalid, meaningless attempts to constrict American power.”

His solution to problems with other nations is typically regime change.

“The only way to resolve the North Korean problem is to change the regime.”

“Iran has essentially mastered all of the complex science and technology that they need to have a completely indigenous nuclear weapons program. That means that our options on Iran are extremely limited, to regime change or as a last resort, the use of force.”

“It was right to overthrow Saddam Hussein. It was the regime itself that was a threat. I think in hindsight, what I would have done is turn authority back over to Iraqis much more quickly and say: “Your country, you figure out how to run it.”

When you look up “neo-conservative” in the dictionary. John Bolton’s mustache is next to the definition. Yet still, in one of the few bright moments from within the Trump administration. John Bolton saw a crime, refused to take part, and had it referred to White House lawyers for review.

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.”

Bolton went further according to former NSC Russia Expert Fiona Hill, he said,

“Giuliani’s a hand grenade and is going to blow everybody up.”

Bolton made sure that when shit goes down, and it will, he had absolutely nothing to do with it.

John Bolton recently left the Trump administration with differing accounts of the circumstances. Bolton says he quit… Trump says he fired him. Bolton has said almost nothing publicly since his departure but left no doubt he has plenty to say and will in due time. I didn’t like Bolton when he served as American Ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush administration. I didn’t care to hear and see him as a contributor to Fox News. I didn’t like him in the Trump administration. But when he’s inevitably called to testify in a House hearing. I’m getting the popcorn and pulling up a chair.

Why Republicans Want House Democrats to Vote for Impeachment

Mitch McConnell already said it…

“I would have no choice but to take it up. How long you’re on it is a whole different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up.”

Democrats in the House of Representatives now have the votes without needing any Republicans, to vote to Impeach the President and send the matter to the Senate for a trial; and that’s just what Trump and Republican lawmakers want.

Right now, Republicans are the minority in the House and though they control the other two branches of government. There’s little they can do to keep 6 separate House committees from investigating and calling witnesses. One or more breaking or even leaking negative news against the President. The dam has broken on the White House stall tactic of refusing to let witnesses testify. Even after the White House demanded they not, they are starting to come forward, last being former Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She dropped some new names when she quoted John Bolton as telling her to contact White House lawyers saying,

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up.”

House Republicans have no power to stop this assault on the well-deserving Trump. They spent years running roughshod over Democrats when they were in the majority and you know what they say about payback. Rep. Matt Gaetz tried to sit in on a hearing of a committee he wasn’t on and got kicked out. Their ability to question witnesses is limited and they don’t have subpoena power. Trump has demonstrated his full lack of understanding of the Constitution by calling for the Impeachment of Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi (House members can’t be Impeached). He’d have been better off using King Henry II’s tactic of asking, “Will no one rid me of these meddlesome Democrats?” Of course, Trump has little knowledge of history though there’s a small chance he caught the line in the award-winning movie, “Becket.”

So, how do Republicans end the madness, watching as polls slide more and more in favor of Impeaching and removing the President? Put it in the hands of the Senate of course. Didn’t Mitch McConnell handle Neil Gorsuch’s nomination for the Supreme Court? And like it or not, he got Brett Kavanaugh through, even conducting a fake investigation where he and the White House controlled the scope, refusing to interview multiple witnesses who called the FBI saying they had relevant testimony. If the House has an Impeachment vote, Mitch will immediately begin a Senate trial as he’s promised. His first order of business will be to try shutting down the investigations of the House committees which he’ll say were interfering with the solemn duties of the Senate.

As soon as Mitch gets his hands on the process, he’ll start shaping what will be investigated, which witnesses will be heard, and what will be held in the open vs kept in the dark. Casual observers will wonder exactly who is on trial as at least half the testimony will be about whistleblowers, the deep state, and Hunter Biden. They’ll lead you to believe Donald Trump has acted no differently than Democrats doing opposition research and the Hillary campaign. All while planning to host the next G-7 conference at Mar -a- Lago. Trump will probably suggest the Senate Hearings be held in the Trump Internationale ballroom because the acoustics are “the greatest.”

Make no mistake, Republican efforts to have an immediate House vote are a ploy to take over the reins of the investigation. If you’ve ever watched a Senate confirmation hearing you get the gist. Republican Senators like Susan Collins (ME) will wring their hands but ultimately vote with their majority. They’ll find Trump’s actions “concerning” but that they don’t rise to the level of “High crimes and misdemeanors.” Meanwhile, the unindicted coconspirator from a case which saw one of his personal lawyers go to jail, won’t be prosecuted as a sitting President, while another personal lawyer of his faces the same fate.

Nancy Pelosi is doing the right thing by holding off the Impeachment vote. Trump’s reputation such that it is, is dying by a thousand cuts and even the Trump base is realizing the crimes he’s committed. Whether some of them care is another matter but public opinion is shifting and fair-weather Senators will invariably shift with it. Unless they get an early chance to stop the Impeachment altogether.

Rudy Giuliani Wouldn’t Do Very Well In Jail

This has nothing to do with the story but has anyone ever noticed how much Rudy looks like the vampire from the 1922 silent film, “Nosferatu?” I’m not pointing that out to mock Rudy, but to say that he rose to be the top Federal prosecutor of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on his talent as a lawyer, not his good looks.

If you only know Giuliani from his television interviews where he contradicts himself repeatedly and lies on behalf of his maybe still client Donald Trump. Trump was asked if Giuliani who’s found himself on the hot seat was still his lawyer. The answer was less than clear.

It’s been reported by CNN and the New York Times that Rudy is under investigation for among other things, lobbying violations of the type that have tripped up many a Trump associate including Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. It can’t help that two of Giuliani’s associates were just arrested trying to leave the country with one-way tickets, charged with federal campaign finance violations. The men had been working with Giuliani trying to dig up dirt on Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Before Rudy was Trump’s tv lawyer, before he was Mayor of New York, he was appointed US Attorney for SDNY where he handled a number of high profile mob cases. In a close to two-year trial, the Mafia Commission Case, Rudy put away three of the heads of the Five-Families using RICO charges to seal the deal. The mob allegedly put a hit out on Rudy which extended into his first year as Mayor. Some of the people Rudy put away are still in jail and still pissed. It’s ironic that the SDNY that Giuliani once led is the office now investigating him.

Putting aside for a moment the guilt or innocence of Giuliani. If he is convicted, he wouldn’t find jail a very friendly place. He’s made more than a few enemies along the way. Besides the crime families (who have been known to hold a grudge(, there’s the Haitians who might remember the time Rudy fought against Haitian refugees seeking asylum. He was working in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department then whose immigration policies with regard to brown and black people were little different than the current resident of the Oval Office. Rudy has been a spokesman for Trump’s immigration policies and he might end up housed with people who resent his defense of caged brown children in horrific conditions. Imagine if Rudy decides to cut a deal with prosecutors and flip on his client that will no doubt have thrown him under the bus long before the metal doors clang shut.

Rudy has lived fairly well in his adult life. When Mayor he lived in Gracie Mansion (except when he moved out when he couldn’t move his mistress in). He’s stayed in Trump’s luxury resorts and now lives in a $3.5 million estate in Water Mill, NY. Even if he goes to a relatively nice Club Fed facility, the views will be nothing like he’s accustomed to.

Gracie Mansion

I imagine ex-prosecutors can’t get on the friends & family plan in prison. He likely still has friends throughout the Justice Dept (though they might be hesitant to cross Trump) and they might assist him with his placement. If he can just find a prison without mobsters, Haitians, Hispanics, blacks, Democrats, and Republicans. He might do just fine?

The Black Codes: The Period Between Slavery and Jim Crow

At the end of the Civil War, there were between 3–4 million slaves in America. They were freed in stages. The Emancipation Proclamation, announced January 1, 1863, in the middle of the war; freed only those slaves in states that seceded from the Union. That action immediately freed between 25,000 to 75,000 slaves in territory already held by the Union. Slaves in Confederate-held territory were still slaves, they had to escape to Union-held territory to gain their freedom.

For all practical purposes, the war ended April 9. 1865 when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. States had to sign individual surrender documents with the last of those signed May 26, 1965. About 250,000 slaves in Texas had technically been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation but until the end of the war, there was no one to enforce it so they stayed slaves except for those who escaped. They gained their actual freedom on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers notified them the war was over. The delay was part of an agreement to allow the slaves to harvest the cotton crops before telling them they were free. Juneteenth is now officially recognized as a holiday or special observance in 46 of 50 states.

The 13th Amendment was the document that officially freed slaves nationwide. It was passed by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, and President Abraham Lincoln signed a joint resolution for ratification. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee became President. Johnson had remained loyal to the Union although he held staunchly segregationist views. He replaced Lincoln’s first Vice-President on the ticket for Lincoln’s unexpectedly shortened second term as a concession to those with Southern sympathies. Ratification of the 13th Amendment required a certain number of states to individually agree which occurred December 6, 1865. As part of each Southern state’s agreement to be readmitted to the Union. They had to agree to the terms of the 13th Amendment and it was this on a state by state basis that actually freed most of the slaves in territory not held by the Union. So what happens to 3–4 million people without property or jobs?

You rarely hear about the hundreds of thousands of slaves that starved to death. In historian Jim Downs’s book, “Sick From Freedom,” he concludes that a quarter-million slaves either slaved or suffered serious illness from lack of food.

Many of the slaves stayed on their existing plantations and agreed to work for wages. The sharecroppers were offered unfair agreements under which most actually owed their former masters at the end of the year and were forced by indebtedness to remain, free in name only. Others were sent to “contraband camps” near Union bases. The nation mostly looked the other way as former slaves faced starvation and disease. Many expected slaves to simply die out including one white religious leader whose name has been lost in time.

“Like his brother the Indian of the forest, he must melt away and disappear forever from the midst of us.”

In many areas of the South, the newly freed slaves outnumbered white people. Having received the right to vote, run for office, own property, and more. The Reconstruction Period saw great advances for some freed slaves while others were faring far worse. They were only able to make those gains because of the continued presence of federal troops. One of the reactions was the formation of terrorist organizations including the Ku Klux Klan who sought to keep blacks from voting and to address any form of insult they felt the need for action. Tuskeegee Institute estimates the Klan killed over 1,500 people (including 300 white) between 1865–1867. The other reaction was individual states imposing “Black Codes” with the encouragement of President Andrew Johnson who saw this an issue of “states’ rights” and not the business of the federal government.

The Black Codes were simply an effort to reimplement slavery as best they could under the law. Mississippi and South Carolina issued the first Black Codes. In Mississippi, former slaves were required to show proof of employment each January. If they left their employment before the end of the year. They would forfeit their wages and were subject to arrest. In South Carolina, if blacks worked in any other occupation besides farmer or servant, they were subject to an annual tax. Failure to pay would lead to forced servitude on a plantation. Blacks were unable to own guns and knives.

Preventing blacks from voting was one of the major themes of the Black Codes. Laws were passed requiring ownership of property. Poll taxes and unpassable literacy tests were en vogue. Other measures including scaring voters away or just killing them,

The 13th Amendment eliminated slavery except for those convicted of crimes. The Black Codes encouraged America’s first efforts at mass incarceration with the result being hundreds of thousands of blacks being forced into slavery under the guise of law and order. Vagrancy violations were punished by forced work, orphans were sent to plantations against their will. Parents had to demonstrate their ability to support their children or they could be removed, ultimately sent to a plantation. Legalized slavery by another name.

Republicans reasserted some control and passed a Civil Rights Act (over Johnson’s veto) and the14th and 15th Amendments which granted some measure of equality. Any rights gained were only sustained by the continued existence of federal troops which were hated by the Southerners hindered by their presence. After a contested Presidential Election in 1876, Southerners agreed to let Republicans win the election (Rutherford B. Hayes) that was almost certainly won by Democrats, in return for the removal of those federal troops. To complete their end of the bargain. Hayes gave us, “Posse Comitatus” which ensured those federal troops could never return. That gave way to a wave of terror, caused the end of Reconstruction, and the introduction of Jim Crow laws which replaced the Black Codes.

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One could make the case that ending slavery was conducted like the end of segregated schools, “with all deliberate speed.” Slavery was replaced by the Black Codes which was replaced by Jim Crow. Many of those laws have been replicated in more subtle forms including the ability to suppress votes of “urban” voters whether by redistricting or outright suppression. Modern-day mass incarceration and the lack of will to restore voting rights is another means to the same end. Knowing America’s history is one way to recognize patterns and fight the reimplementation.

Mitt Romney is Sitting by the Phone But Nobody’s Calling

Mitt Romney is ready if the Republicans need him. Perhaps he’s thinking back to the 2002 Winter Olympics. They were heading into the games with a financial shortfall of $379 million dollars. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee hired Romney as its President and CEO based on his business and finance experience at Bain Capital and his ties to the LDS Church (Church of Latter-Day Saints or Mormons) that were important in Utah. Romney was a whirling dervish, making commercials, lobbying Congress, hitting up his rich friends for donations. He waived his salary and contributed $1 million of his own money toward the effort. He became the face of the 2002 Winter Olympics and when all was said and done, the Games had an excess of $100 million making it the most successful Winter Olympics ever. According to himself and most everyone else, Romney saved the Games, he was a hero.

Mitt has tried three times to bring his leadership to the Republican Party as their candidate for President. In 2008 he watched John McCain get the nod and ultimately watched him lose overwhelmingly to the upstart Barack Obama. In 2012, he became the Republican Nominee, yet lost to Obama himself, despite a significant portion of the country’s rage against the first black President. In 2016, he’d explored running again but found little enthusiasm in the Party for a two-time loser and was unable to make the run, On January 30, 2015 he announced he would not run again saying, “one of our next generation of Republican leaders” would be better positioned to win the general election.”

We are approaching the 2020 Presidential Election, it would normally be a no-brainer that the incumbent President Donald Trump would again be the Party Nominee. The economy is doing well, for the most part, joblessness is at a 50-year low, and he has the overwhelming support of the Party base. The downside is that more than half the country opposes him and there’s the growing realization that “Individual #1” is a criminal that engaged in election fraud and obstruction of justice at a minimum. The Democrat-led House of Representatives has begun an Impeachment Inquiry with six separate committees running down various areas of interest. The one getting real traction is Trump’s efforts to get the new Ukranian President to investigate Trump’s Democrat political rival, former Vice-President Joe Biden, in order to receive almost $400 million in military aid approved by Congress. Unlike every other scandal (and there have been many), this one has taken root and new revelations are occurring literally every single day. While none dare say it publicly yet, Republicans are having the prospect of coming up with a new Nominee at the last second. Mitt Romney is thinking he might get that call.

The problem with Mitt though is that for all the times he has been “alarmed,” “shocked,” or “frustrated” with Trump and his actions, some of them inhumane like the caging of children coming across the Southern border. Romney has folded like a chair every time and ultimately used his role as a Senator from Utah to support Trump at every turn. America will never forget how you genuflected at Trump during the 2016 Election process, trying to become his Vice-President or Secretary of State. Trump made Mitt grovel and then publicly rejected him. Pride is normally thought of as a deadly sin but Mitt could have demonstrated just a little.

Should Republicans go looking for a respectable candidate they, unfortunately, have few places to search? Lindsay Graham has contorted himself into a Trump puppet, Paul Ryan slinked away from being Majority Leader and went to the board of Fox News. Only John Kasich, former Ohio Governor has shown any integrity and refused to participate in the Trump madness, even before things started going wrong. And then there’s Mitt… He’s one of the few speaking out even mildly against Trump’s behavior, hoping someone is listening.

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Whoever answers the call if it comes will be asked to perform a miracle, picking up the pieces of a political party that Trump made his own then trashed. It may be far too late for anyone to undo the Trump damage but Mitt is thinking, “I did it before in 2002!” He’s sitting by the phone waiting for that call.

Partus Sequitur Ventrem — The Rule That Perpetrated Slavery And Legalized Rape

“That which is brought forth follows the belly (womb)”

This was the legal doctrine that made any child of an American female slave a slave as well. It meant any white fathers had no financial responsibility for their progeny. They were free to rape their slaves at will as there were no laws against that either. With no concern for any children that might come from the forced union. In fact, there was a market for mulatto and octaroon children who would be purchased to work as domestics. Some owners (Thomas Jefferson) used their half-white slaves as their concubines, finding them more attractive the closer they were to white. Sally Hemings was Jefferson’s wife’s half-sister, the product of her father raping a slave. Then again the master might sell their offspring to keep the peace with their wives who might be annoyed at little slave children running around who favor their husbands.

English common law held that a child’s legal status followed the father. Men could be forced to provide at least nominal support for even their illegitimate children. English courts preferred for the fathers to take responsibility, sometimes providing apprenticeships, so the community didn’t have to care for the child. Those laws no longer applied across the ocean. The colonies went rogue and adopted new laws in 1662, freeing them of any responsibility for the tan slave children they were creating. It also kept the number of free black children low as any child born to a female slave was also a slave.

Not talked about in proper society were the children of free white women and black slaves. White women who weren’t sure what color the child might be could get a legal abortion those days. “Cottonwood” was a remedy known to slaves who sometimes refused to have children after being raped or as often as the masters would like. Some women would be forced to have over a dozen children if they survived as death during childbirth was relatively common. The rare slave would be offered their freedom if they produced enough children. Sometimes the dark child of a white woman was abandoned or given away. Usually just sold off although technically they were legally free.

There was a growing population of free blacks in America. By the year 1810, over 10% of blacks in the upper Northern states were free. In Virginia at the same time, just over 7% of blacks were free; mostly through manumission but a few being born to white women. Then cotton increased the need throughout the south for labor and suddenly slaves weren’t being freed so much but sold. The price of domestic slaves had gone up because America had made importation of slaves illegal. That move, spearheaded by our old friend Jefferson but envisioned in the Constitution (Article One: Section Nine) was about protectionism and making Virginia slaveholders who had excess slaves rich but harming South Carolina slave owners who had been importing cheaper slaves from Africa.

Partus Sequitur Ventrem is a Latin term but its application was uniquely American. The Founders codified into law a means to further dehumanize those who they enslaved, walking away from all responsibility. Another lesson in American history.

I’m Trying To Write Fiction But History Keeps Coming Out.

I’m working on a novel, it’s at least historical fiction although it straddles a couple of other genres including sci/fi fantasy. It covers a period of time between the early 1800s and the present so it required a lot of research. It also takes place in four continents of which I’ve only been to two of them so, “a lot of research” is a bit of an understatement. My plan is to be traditionally published which means getting representation by a literary agent, finding a publisher, editing, editing, and more editing. The bottom line is the novel might not see the light of day for two years or more if ever. I’ve found I can’t keep the history I’ve uncovered inside me that long. It’s like the song lyric, “I’ve got a praise and I’ve gotta let it out!”

Most of what is forcing its way to the surface is American history although from time to time I might let a little European, African, or Central American history slip out. I thought I had a good grasp on American history but I’ve found almost everything I thought I knew was wrong, especially if it had to do with slavery. I’ve taken to asking the question, “How did slavery impact that situation?” The answer almost always turns out to be that slavery had a great impact. An example would be the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The act provides that US Troops cannot be deployed to enforce domestic policies on American soil. My presumption was that it was to prevent a military coup as happens in other nations. I watched an episode of “West Wing” titled Posse Comitatus in which the fictional President Jed Bartlet had to work around the act to assassinate a despot who had visited the United States. No mention of slavery whatsoever. One day I asked myself what did Posse Comitatus have to do with slavery? The answer was it was implemented to ensure that Federal troops never return to the South where they had protected the freed slaves after the Civil War. Another low spot in history, the Compromise of 1877 allowed for the removal of those troops which ended Reconstruction and ushered in Jim Crow.

American history is like that, what’s taught puts the best spin on things so we can still look to the Founding Fathers as heroes and not see them also as flawed men. George Washington didn’t have wooden teeth buy had dentures made of teeth pulled from slaves among other materials. Thomas Jefferson gave each slave family one blanket every three years (except when he was President when the overseer of Monticello gave them none). The Constitution which established that the International Slave Trade could be ended after twenty years was not setting the stage for ending slavery. It was an allowance that South Carolina could keep importing African slaves before Virginia and Maryland slaveowners could implement protectionist measures to keep the value up of domestic slaves, often forced breeding involving marriages approved of by the masters or flat out rape.

I keep plugging away on my novel. But forgive me if from time to time a little history slips out because I can’t keep it contained.

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Stacey Dash: Sorry You Had To Find Out The Hard Way

As mug shots go yours wasn’t bad. I never did understand people that smiled or laughed when being booked. I suspect you might have been suffering disbelief at the fact that during a dispute with your husband of one year. You called 911 but it was you that got arrested. It may be sinking in that the fact your husband is white and you are black just might be a factor in why the officers found him to be more credible.

I thought your demeanor during the arrest was admirable. You were cooperative, polite, you didn’t cry which would have made it an awkward situation for everybody. I sincerely hope you and your husband get past this though the publicity won’t help. I wrote about you in January 2018 after you were fired by Fox News. I shamefully say I wasn’t very forgiving of you for all the times you had negative things to say about black people (Oprah, President Obama, etc.) and wholeheartedly took the Fox party line. I acknowledged I was being petty but I’m sincerely saddened you now find yourself in this situation.

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Regarding your arrest, it must have been confusing after you called 911 and got taken to jail. The officers took one look at the scratches on your husband’s arms and determined you must have been the aggressor. It’s completely reasonable that he could have gotten scratched while you were acting in self-defense, but the police didn’t see it that way. They took the word of your white husband over you.

According to the 911 call, he put you in a chokehold, took pictures of scratches she said she didn’t cause. You said he instructed the children how to lie when the police arrived. They were in the background along with the husband at various points beating you.

It must be hard after all those years as a Fox commentator, always taking the side of the police, then one day finding the cuffs being placed on you. Even as your hands were behind your back and they were snapping them on you asked, “Am I being arrested?” Yes, Stacey, you were.

I wasn’t there and don’t know what happened. I wish you the best in all future endeavors. I do wonder what you thought about on your ride in the back of the patrol car? When you were having your mug shot taken? Placed in a cell? You likely thought you didn’t deserve to be arrested. You were innocent. Why didn’t they believe me?

You were quite fortunate in that black men and women have been shot under similar circumstances. Arrest notwithstanding, you seemed to have been treated with respect and will live to see another day. You claimed you couldn’t afford a lawyer and asked for a public defender. Your husband eventually bailed you out after two days in jail.

This is a side of life you haven’t been exposed to before and it had to make you at least wonder if race played a role in the outcome? This education may have been painful, what lessons are learned will be up to you. Good luck.