Gibson said “Of course it could happen here — Greensboro is another perfect city for something like this.
“The difference is, in Greensboro, a lot of people don’t see it.”
We can’t tolerate this injustice anymore
City Councilwoman Yvonne Johnson
Greensboro’s first black mayor
“When you go into some neighborhoods in Greensboro,
police are seen as an occupying force
instead of neighborly protectors here for our best interests
In Greensboro we haven’t even arrived at a shared sense
that there is something urgently wrong,
There are too many people who want to say,
‘That’s all in the past. ... Why are we still talking about it?’
In some ways we’re an amnesiac nation
We don’t come to terms with our history.
We don’t acknowledge that these things are still happening today.
And in Greensboro, we’re an amnesiac city."
Lamar Gibson
.
.
In the summer of 2013, the arrest of 11 young men after a series of downtown fistfights received a lot of publicity — some of it sensational.
Video of young black people fighting and running as a shot rang out was played repeatedly on local TV stations. Reports of as many as 400 people “rioting” downtown went viral online and were reported nationwide. Police reports contradicted those numbers, instead describing a series of small fights in a much larger crowd.
...in reaction to the fights, the City Council imposed a curfew, banning minors not accompanied by an adult from the center city after 11 p.m. for 60 days.
Many young black people said they were stopped and questioned without cause as police presence increased downtown once the curfew was imposed — a complaint still made regularly two years later.
Things that happened in Ferguson, Mo.,
and in South Carolina,
the tragic death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore
— we don’t want those things to happen in this community
Deputy Police Chief James Hinson
http://www.news-record.com/news/local_news/activist-what-happened-in-baltimore-could-happen-in-greensboro/article_5bc119d2-f11a-11e4-8284-7ffcb44ea826.html
If an opposition of a status quo demands nothing,
does the status quo have nothing offer
other than capitulation?
If the goal of a non-violent political movement with no demands
is to initiate positive change
... and the only way to initiate positive change
is to peacefully testify in mass without demands,
could political movements without demands
increase the likleyhood of creating positive change?
Can not demanding anything allow an unnamed movement
to evolve and re-evolve?
How can you win
if you don't have demands?
How can you lose?
Is the only way for a current status quo to "win"
against a demandless subculture
eliminating the opposition by outlasting it peacefully
or by force?
Can a demandless subculture lose
only by stopping started?
Is an offer of negotiation by a status quo
a win for a demandless occupation?
Is an uncalled for concession a win?
Could renegotiated undemanded concessions
indicate positive change?
How should Americans respond
if the economic and political leadership of both major political parties
in the greatest nation in the history of the world
are just as corrupt?
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
What could happen if a generation
of underemployed, underpaid, educated and indebted young adults
became disillusioned by their elders’ financial mismanagement
and sought to identify and punish those responsible?
Is dissent the highest form of patriotism?
Have the educated underemployed
instigated most rebellions?
In times of economic volatility
do the wealthy fight to preserve the status quo as some rich become poor
giving some underprivileged a chance to prosper?
How many advanced degrees are awarded annually worldwide
compared to American graduates
are there job openings for new workers to fill
and how much pay will who accept where for what, when and why?
What could happen if high school graduates
can’t afford or finance higher education
while indebted graduates can’t find jobs paying enough to cover bills?
What could happen
if a new generation of middle class college graduates
can’t find jobs which pay enough to pay off debt
and live?
Have the powerful created symbols for the powerless to destroy
to turn tyranny into nationalism?
Have the powerless created symbols for the powerful to destroy
to create dissent by turning apathy into perceived oppression?
Can a nonviolent movement
survive against an information censoring violent opponent?
Is it worth giving unlimited power to a few
to create perceived safety for many?
Is stability a legitimate reason to repress justified dissent?
Should local economic 'incentive' plans
rely on those who both those who created and stand to profit
via retained political power or monetary gain
from the same relatively unknown and lucrative
'incentives' oppurtunities in the first place?
Capitalism without financial failure is not capitalism at all
but a kind of socialism for the rich
James Grant
If the natural cycle of laissez faire capitalism
revolves between risk and aversion
what should happen if government intervention perverts the process
to benefit connected cronies?
by favoring connected others who finance campaigns
with taxpayer money?
Did some local elected leadership artificially support a select few
to defend political legacies and financial interests
regardless of long term consequences?
What is a capitalist democracy
that subsidizes to dis-favor the unconnected?
Has Greensboro's elected and selected government
been borrowing from relatively younger voters and their children
who may not reap the prosperity of their parents
via short term profligacy?
If power can corrupt a few
can apathy devastate many?
If democracy is government by the people, plutocracy by the wealthy
oligarchy by a few, aristocracy by nobility, theocracy by clergy
corptocracy by business and autocracy by one
who in Greensboro is whom
and who’s on who’s side and why?
Should the majority protect the weak from the powerful?
What should the electorate expect
from leadership dependent on the status quo?
Has Greensboro's government
reached an unsustainable level of incompetence?
Are the wants of a few who own most of Greensboro
outweighing the needs of many who don’t
until enough figure it out
and collectively choose to act?
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe
if the people tolerate the growth of private power
to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself
That, in essence, is fascism
ownership of government by an individual
by a group or by any other controlling power
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
If Greensboro City Council candidates raise money
for advertise in the Rhino Times etc...
are political campaigns indirectly paying the salaries
of those relied on for unbiased analysis?
Why would those controlling information dissemination
like Roy Carroll, John Hammer and Warren Buffett
want to promote political candidates proposing
taxpayer funded oppurtunities for Roy Carroll
and Warren Buffett?
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation
the first thing to be bought and sold are legislators
P J O'Rourke
Some of Greensboro's politicians
have pacified the electorate with platitudes
while dolling out legislated benefits
to financial 'supporters'.
If a few in Greensboro have contributed
the majority of large campaign donations that many can’t afford
who works for whom
and what do the few expect in return
that most probably won’t receive?
Special interest groups
have manipulated Greensboro's electorate
by influencing government with campaign contributions
and foundation leverage.
Corruption of Greensboro's political system
has negatively influenced our region's economic performance
through legislation, budget appropriation and over-taxation
to benefit a few at the expense of many.
Was it justifiable for Greensboro's oligharchs
to promise themselves millions of taxpayer funded benefits
for future generations to pay for?
Why would some of Greensboro's oligcharchs
want to covertly confiscate some of everyone else's wealth?
If you found the present negatively affecting the future
should you try to fix it?
