DragonCon elicits peaceful, sci-fi creativy in Atlanta

Talk about positive energy bundled into entertainment...



Tomi Johnson meets The Penguin on Marta going to DragonCon Parade. (Photo by Kurk Johnson)

Some people think DragonCon attendees are kooks just trying to have fun, but it turns out that many of these cos-players are engineers, techies, and wardrobe experts showing that pleasure and science can be a positive mix.

Many there want to be noticed for exemplary work on their costume and acting abilities. Forget the troubles of the world...


Tomi Johnson poses with scantily clad cosplayer on Peachtree Street. (Photo by Ayron Johnson)

It also shows that folks in the U.S. can don handmade weapons and congregate peacefully regardless of racial, sexual, political, or economic differences and without killing each other... a welcome sign of peace! Why should police want to detain someone just because they're dancing in a costume in the hotel lobby?


Tomi Johnson and cosplayer with elaborate headdress on Peachtree Street (Photo by Ayron Johnson)

 Stay tuned for more DragonCon parade route and show pictures to come.


Lest we forget the fallen

It took just two weeks for the mainstream media to de-focus on the killing of eighteen year old Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed black teen killed by a cop in Ferguson, Mo., and re-focus on  the late Douglas McAuthur McCain, of San Diego, Calif.

Again, this type of rhetoric objectifies young black men who cannot defend themselves because they have been silenced by death. I'm not being told anything about McCain other than he was a black American turned bad. There's that negative image again...

The latest picture of a black terrorist is a corpse who is still frightening, a poster child for ISIS violence labeled "One Dead Jihadist."

What about these American poster boys: Mark Zimmerman, Daniel Pantaleo, etc.... What can we do to stop this list from getting longer: http://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-memorial/civil-rights-martyrs

Police mug shot of George Zimmerman
 

 

Quote for today...

A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.
A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization.
A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization.

---Aime Cesaire

Question for today:

Liberia was colonized in 1820 by African Americans who were former slaves..

Why are whites being cured of Ebola while 50,000 black Liberians are quarantined and left to die?
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2024355394_liberiabarricadexml.html

Global war on unarmed people needs to stop!

The African image is no longer exotic but is pathetic. Unarmed black people around the globe are suffering from homicide and incurable diseases. Who is willing to end racism?

The U.S. has been called the most powerful nation on Earth. It is fighting three wars that we know of in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ferguson, USA.

In the former two countries, armed militants are fighting our armed forces on the ground and from the air. In Ferguson, armed troops are confronting protesters carrying bibles, protest signs, firecrackers, and bottle bombs. This seems really strange and highly unacceptable in a U.S. city - citizens fighting the military.

We are not disposable, but who do you think is gonna win? Obama, the Commander in Chief?

Let's get real. Black people and their friends are weaponless. They don't even have a mountaintop to climb up like the people of Iraq. They are out in the open, being killed by bullets instead of detained by Tasers. These protesters are up against trained killers.

Black men, women AND children are being mistreated, leaving a depression of heart that cannot be assuaged until racism is eliminated.

Our hope is that the first will be last, and the last will be first!

Chaos in Ferguson has been rigged!

The Last Poets warned in the '60s that the revolution would not be televised.

Before tear gas clouds appeared, I saw a woman crying on T.V. because her 18 year old son, Michael Brown, had been shot dead in the street by a police officer. “He didn’t deserve that,” she said.

Then, there was a peaceful march of demonstrators.  Marchers in the street wore sandals or tennis shoes. One elderly black woman rode in her wheelchair, pushed by an adult black male.  Another woman pushed her son in a stroller down the sidewalk in the same direction, toward the spot where Brown’s body was left to bloat for four hours. One more black woman walked around with multi-colored perm rods in her hair at the burned out QuickTrip, protesting another killing of an unarmed youth.

All these women had one thing in common with Mary, the mother of Jesus: they could not protect their sons from violence perpetrated by government employees. They did the only thing they could do – protest.

Despite a curfew being set by the governor, people were still on the streets with their hands up past midnight on the seventh night after the killing. They knew they would be arrested, beaten, tear gassed or killed. But they went into the streets anyway and were met with force.

Why were they willing to confront danger? Was it a desire to see a pyrotechnic display? Why were they willing to risk their lives just to steal a hub cap, bottles of beer, diapers, guns, or a loaf of bread? Why was it so important to display their dissatisfaction now?

I think people are fed up by systems which discriminate in the areas Dr. Frances Cress Welsing identifies as economic, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, sex, religion, health, and war. It’s about more than Michael Brown. It’s about oppression in the black side of town.

And as the Race War against black people in the U.S. continues, we are reminded that the out gunned CANNOT win battles unless a checkmate occurs.

Justice is demanded and must be realized before riots are quelled. Amen.

Check this out, though. This is all staged. Police, the Justice Department, the FBI all know the scenario. Riots are not new, and psychologists have experiments which suggest that people will get angry when they are mistreated. They will protest and risk their lives in Ferguson. The world knows that Michael Brown was cheated out of his life.  No more investigation is needed.

Are you serious?

The chaos has been rigged!!! Think about it. Something very bad is about to happen, and Ferguson is practice for what's to come!

Facts surrounding Brown shooting still emerging...

Tear gas smoke rising from Ferguson on Night 5 after Michael Brown's killing.



As information unfolds about the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, one has to ask themselves is this just another case of police and pseudo police (neighborhood watch) killing black men for nefarious reasons.

They used to kill blacks for stealing watermelons...or winking at white girls. Times have not changed. Trivial encounters with armed vigilantes lead to death of the powerless.

Trayvon Martin was killed for not answering properly and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Eric Garner's breathing was halted because he didn't want to be arrested for allegedly selling a cigarette.

Maybe Michael Brown was killed for stealing cigars. He can't speak for himself because he is dead.

They are all dead.

Dead men tell no lies, cannot speak for themselves or amend their wrongs.

Was Michael Brown killed over a box of cigars?

What's compelling about these stories and the many other ones over the years is that we live in a country where death occurs and questions are answered later. People are targets, and the powerful possess war weapons. We have no power to admit our sins or try to rehabilitate ourselves, but are either thrown in jail or shot dead; no time to call a priest for forgiveness. No lawyers or deep pockets to keep us out of the prison industrial complex.

Justice is swift and elusive with citizens on the losing end. One strike and you're out!

Police "protect and serve" motto misleading in 21st century U.S.

Carrying a big stick is no defense against vigilante police with guns.

I needed to take some papers downtown yesterday but refrained because I didn't want to see the police who seem to be stationed everywhere. I decided to use USPS instead.

Didn't want to walk or drive pass officers with badges.

Didn't want them following me in patrol cars.

Didn't want an altercation.

Although I have not broken any laws, I feel intimidated just thinking about the police.

How many others feel this way? How many others are just staying inside their homes and peering out windows instead of enjoying leisurely walks in the sunshine?

How many feel freedom is under lock and key because they are afraid of brutality being inflicted for no reason by our protectors?

Is this the beloved community we have created?

You can't ask Brown or Garner, so ask Miller and Pinnock.

Respond.

Robin Williams' death not funny!

Sunset near Robin Williams' house in 1999

On one of my visits to California, a friend of mine drove us by expensive houses of the rich and famous. There, above street level, he pointed out the mansion of Robin Williams, a guy I said I would never like to interview because there was no telling what he would say or do.

Yesterday he did the unimaginable - took his own life which turned his comedic memory into a tragedy.

I wonder whether he left a note, a message to his wife and kids. What was he thinking, that his last moments would lead to his audience crying from sadness, not mirth?

I remember his house having a pink hue to it. I remember Robin Williams as part crazy, part angelic, part hilarious, part drugged.

What a loss of soul.