Motley Moose – Archive

It has been disheartening lately to read about the penny-wise pound-foolish despoiling of our earth for short term profits and jobs that will disappear in a few years. West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin … the list goes on. Maybe we need an Earth Day wake-up call to remind us of what is important.

Yesterday I was reading Kwik’s “Black Male Teen Unemployment Astronomical; Indicator Of How Society Stigmatizes, Rejects Them” which opened with:

My son is 19 and has been trying to get a job for three years…but nobody will hire him. I don’t want to believe it’s because he’s black, but…

When my son hit 16 in March of 2011, I told him: “Welcome to the work force!” I took him around to various fast food joints and grocery stores where he put in applications for basically any and every entry level job you can name from dishwasher to bus boy to bagger to stocker to janitor. We both thought it would be a matter of time before he got an interview and then a job. However, here it is over three years later and in spite of our continued efforts to find a job for him, he still hasn’t been hired.

My son is a great young man. He graduated from high school last year, made good grades and never got into trouble. Right now, he’s attending the local community college, where he continues to do well. To put it bluntly, he’s a model citizen.

One thing that really exasperates me is that one of his best friends of the Caucasion persuasion who I know well because he lives down the street from us and is roughly the same age, has already been hired at three different nearby places.  All of which are places where my son also applied, including the place with the golden arches, which generally hires almost anyone white that walks in without a prison record. That young man from down the street is not nearly as intelligent, responsible, well-mannered, well-groomed or well-spoken as my son. Not even close. Yet, he gets hired repeatedly?  And by the way, the reason he’s had at least three jobs is because he keeps getting fired.

We all are aware of the school-to-prison-pipeline, for profit-prisons, the targeting of young males of color in police programs like Stop and Frisk…and the death statistics for far too many of our youth cut down by gun violence and police. We also know that this nation has a long history of stereotyping black males into the roles of animals, and ‘wilding’ rapists, and thugs.  

Wherever there is a narrative, there are also efforts to build counter narratives. These young brothers have a video they would like you to see.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

  Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely. Sorry it’s over so soon.

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”. For example:

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Lenny the Cat – an upstate New York kitteh who was adopted from a shelter, then returned by someone … claiming he broke wind all the time. But he has now been re-adopted, and is doing well.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

President Obama held an impromptu press conference yesterday. Among the topics were the success of the Affordable Care Act and Republican intransigence … in both Congress and statehouses.

From the remarks:

I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been.

They still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working.  They said nobody would sign up; they were wrong about that.  They said it would be unaffordable for the country; they were wrong about that.  They were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law that is working when they have no alternative answer for millions of Americans with preexisting conditions who would be denied coverage again, or every woman who would be charged more for just being a woman again.

Wrong. Wrong. And Wrong.

Plus:

I’m going to say one last thing about this, just because this does frustrate me:  States that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite.  You’ve got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now at no cost to these states — zero cost to these states — other than ideological reasons.  They have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens. That’s wrong.  It should stop.  Those folks should be able to get health insurance like everybody else.

Political spite … bordering on criminal negligence.

Transcript below the fold …

Friday Coffee Hour and check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.

A Washington State Ferry plying between the San Juan Islands and Anacortes with Mt. Baker in Background

Working boats are those that haul our freight, catch our fish, transport us where bridges don’t go, and rescue us when we are either unlucky or foolhardy at sea. These are hard working craft with hard working captains and crews.

Pleasure boats are often elegant and great for sport. We’ve all seen the graceful sailboats with their colorful billowing spinnakers and sailors’ hair blowing in the breeze. And then there are the really big giant multimillion dollar yachts that for many of us elicit varying parts of envy and repugnance. I believe that far too little attention is paid to the real boating troopers who toil daily in all kinds of tides and weather. In this photo diary I highlight these intrepid mules of the waterways. No fair weather sailors here.  

I live on a bay at the edge of the Salish Sea. We have a wonderful harbor that moors both pleasure craft and working boats, including a sizeable fishing fleet that fishes both locally and in the waters of Alaska.

Most of these photos are taken on or around Bellingham Bay including Squalicum and Fairhaven Harbors. A few photos are from the nearby San Juan Islands and the Northern Puget Sound, all parts of the Salish Sea. Some boats are at dock while others are underway carrying out their various nautical occupations.