Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when cops are bad, too?

I am madder then a bunch of bees in an empty honey jar! This week in Oklahoma, an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) while driving a patient to the hospital was pulled over and assaulted by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer. Here's the article and an excerpt...
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http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0509/626636.html
An Emergency Medical Technician who was involved in a scuffle with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper is speaking out about the incident.

Maurice White, Jr. is a critical care paramedic with the Creek Nation EMS. He was nearly arrested after the confrontation, which was captured by the cell phone of Kenyada Davis.

White says the officer was in a rage when he approached them and yelled "get your a-- back here! I am giving you a ticket for failure to yield." White says he told the trooper they had a patient in the ambulance and that they were on their way to the hospital.

"He ignored my statement, became even more belligerent, and demanded my partner come to his patrol car so he could write him a ticket," White says. "I calmly told the officer that we were transporting a patient and we could continue this at the hospital."

White says the trooper then approached him and shouted "you are under arrest for obstructing a police officer" and grabbed his arm to handcuff him. A brief struggle followed, at which point the trooper grabbed White by the throat. The cell phone captured this incident on video. (end Excerpt)

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Now I went ahead and read the entire statement of the EMT to see what wrong, if any he(they) had committed. The ambulance White was in had yielded to police cruisers as soon as it was aware. White remained calm throughout, only resisting arrest long enough to get his patient to the hospital, where he turned himself over to the troopers (who after a call to base, decided that arresting an EMT for doing nothing after you, the officer, had assaulted him was unwise.)

But here's the most outrageous part. EMT White repeatedly asked the officers where he could report the assault that the original officer had committed against White. Officers arriving on the scene, IN COMPLETE DERELICTION OF THEIR DUTY, told White, "We don't take complaints or charges against other officers." When White asked who he should report the crime to (assaulting an EMT in the line of duty is a felony), the officer told him "It's not our job to tell you where to report the incident". That is, of course, a lie. After much pressing, the officers gave White the name of the office of investigations for police complaints.

So these cops stopped an EMT while IN ROUTE to the hospital with a PATIENT, threaten him, assault him, and then lie to cover up their misdeed. Why? Could it be like the officers said, "the driver flipped me off"? Or could it be that Trooper "Honky" didn't like to see a big black man with a job? Either way, these are NOT the kind of folks who should be carrying a gun, and defending our laws, and running around with impunity, commiting hate crimes at their liesure.

Recently in Chicago, an off duty cop, driving drunk, killed a young teen and left the scene of the accident. He was arrested, but for "some reason" he wasn't given a breathalizer until 4 HOURS had passed. His levels were just under the legal limit at that time, but the family charges that the cops gave their fellow unfair treatment.

Cops are out of control, and power mad. We must immediately rethink how we select officers, and what criteria and tests we perform to ensure that only those who are able to "protect and serve" the public are given the authority of a badge. Because, as it stands now, many cops are as criminal as the perps they chase, and who polices the police? That's right, no one. To steal from Marge Simpson, "America became a fascist police state so gradually, I hardly even noticed. "

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WHY I LOVE BLACK PEOPLE and other essays on Color Celebration

March 18, 2007 - Sunday


WHY I LOVE BLACK PEOPLE and other essays on Color Celebration


I love Black people. I love them. I mean I love all people, I am at heart a humanitarian, but for some reason, perhaps many reasons, I have always loved black people as my own people.

I guess saying that makes people uncomfortable, and with the history between blacks and whites I understand. Neither white or black people are comfortable with their history or current situation, and being together often brings out that discomfort. Both sides are suspicious of the other's motives. Both sides fear the other's anger. So mostly they avoid each other, and we self segregate.

Which sucks for me, because I love black people. I love their music, their bold fashion, their strength in the face of prejudice, the beautiful range of colors their skin can be, their sense of humor, the passion I find again and again in strong black men and women to make their lives remarkable. Black is beautiful, brave, stylish and strong, and I love to be around life's beauty. But I live on the north side of Chicago and my neighbors are Irish families and lesbian couples. Ah the curious mixes created by gentrification. None of my neighbors are black, and doing stand up on the north side of town I got bored of the GAP mentality of your average middle class white kid. I don't care to listen to the same tired jokes about homeless people and living on ramen noodles. And so when my friend John offered me to come out and do stand up in Bellwood, I was excited to get in front of a diverse audience, and to talk about the things that mean something to me.

See I found out about slavery in second grade. Black history was just getting around to being included in the curriculum after the founding of Black History Month in 1976, a few years earlier. I remember reading stories and letters of the horrors of the violence and inhumanity of the slave holders. I was devastated for a week, and never felt the same about man kind. It's funny but of lot of my white friends my age say the same thing, that the first time they learned about slavery it traumatized them. I don't know if they tell black people that, I get the impression sometimes that the myth is that all white people are tolerant of the concept of slavery, because it benefited them. I understand that the legacy of slavery has created an environment in our society that is easier on me cause I have white skin, it's easier on all white people. Our society is sadly racist. But I have always felt not benefit from slavery, but profound loss. Loss in our dignity as a country, loss of fellow human brothers and sisters, loss of the dream of America, a melting pot of cultures and peoples living in equality and piece.

As a girl I threw myself into learning about abolition, civil rights and Black History. I was deeply inspired by Harriet Tubman, and still to this day feel that what she did touched me somehow. When I learned about how white women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were foundational in forming the abolitionist movement, with no power of their own, no vote, no right to property and in fact not even protected against domestic violence, as it was acceptable to beat your wife "within reason" (not to death) in those days. I felt a sense of hope when I learned this. I could now see that other people of those times felt as I did, repulsed, and took brave action to support their convictions.

It hard not to notice that the prevailing attitude of white folks is guilt, the idea being that all us white folks descended from slave owners. Some of us did, to be true. Some of us however also came from those women and men who fought the political battles against slavery, and some came from those who housed travelers on the Underground Railroad, and some came from poor Scotsmen who were worked like slaves, paid little or no wages, working to pay off their cost of passage, many to their very deaths. I don't know my geneology, but I like to imagine my great, great, great, great grandmother hiding Harriet and one of her groups, bringing them bread and soup and worrying about them as they set off. Or writing letters and speeches to deliver to the abolitionist meeting or straight to the governor if necessary. It is what I would have done.

I guess as such, I don't feel white guilt as much as I feel human fury. Fury that the greed and sadism and pure evil of people has left our nation with this great and perhaps unhealable wound. And what's worse, the abolition meetings aren't the same anymore. We live in the modern delusion that we are all equal, because the Declaration tells us so, but just one look with our eyes makes it obvious that we are not treated equal in the world. Blacks, Latinos, just about all races not white, and of course women, are considered underdogs. And are given less power and money and liberty. Heck, you can still be white and if you are gay or marry outside your race or be poor and you will also be stripped of your social power. And every year it gets worse. A rich white elite pushes everyone one else down.

Thankfully, many of the "minority" groups (women are actually a majority of the population, the "majority minority" as I call it) have been working towards civil rights for their people. I can't help but think there would be strength in numbers, and I can't help but notice how the rich elite try to keep us apart. Turning poor whites against blacks and with the war on terror and illegal immigration, turning poor whites against Mexicans, and Muslims and just about anyone who is different.

Not that a lot of these crazy rednecks are that difficult to convince. Hatred and bigotry is sadly often the status quo in rural white America. I was born trailer trash myself. I've seen first hand how hateful and ignorant white folks can be. I grew up with two Native American aunts, one Navajo, one Hualipai, both adopted into the family at birth, long before I came along, and they were just my normal old aunts to me. But out in the world, I got a chance to experience people's looks and rude comments with regard to my brown aunt and her little white niece. Perhaps that changed who I was, and helped feed my love for black people, seeing as my aunts were brown skinned too. Perhaps I was black in a previous life. Or perhaps I just know beauty and strength when I see it. No matter what color wrapping it comes in.

No matter how I got this way, I find myself moved to live the dream of that globe picture we all had in our classrooms as kids, the one with all the different colors of children in their different outfits holding hands around the Earth. And even in the face of a world that looks nothing like that globe, I keep trying to make it, trying to reach for harmony.

So I talk about white people and black people and all the races and the struggles we share. And if you've seen me do stand up, you know that some of the stuff I say has a lot of painful truth in it (this is comedy?) but to me only the truth will set us free, and the best tool of truth I have is my funny bone. So if you get the chance to catch me live, come out, see for yourself why I call myself the whitest black comic in America. And check back to this blog, because I will be doing other installments about my life and experiences with the great American "melting" pot, in the continuing series, "Why I Love Black People and Other Thoughts on Color Celebration".

Thanks for reading me, much love,
Suzzanne Monk

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'TIS THE SEASON (To Push Your Religion on Others)

November 29, 2006 - Wednesday


'TIS THE SEASON (To Push Your Religion on Others)

Season's Greetings everyone!

You may have heard in the news this week about the hubba baloo in Chicago about a nativity scene at a local tourist site. A judge has ruled that the nativity scene can stay, but the venue can not advertise a movie about the nativity on video billboards around the event. The idea being that the video (and audio) advertisements cannot be ignored by non christian guests but the nativity scene can be avoided.

And that's what living in a melting pot has come to. Ignoring one another, and using the law to force people to be ignorable. Living in a "tolerant society" in modern America means living the fantasy that no one else exists.

But we ALL exist. Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddist, Atheist, rich, poor, the homeless, the criminal, single mother, illegal immigrant....ALL OF US EXIST. To try to pretend otherwise is literally delusional. And the concept that America was founded on was a land where everyone could live in mutual respect for individual choice. YOU get to decide who you are and I get to decide who I am, and both of us will defend that right to individual choice from anyone who would try to take it away. It is what makes us countrymen. What makes us brothers and sisters in the American family. Our willingness to defend LIBERTY. Liberty and justice for ALL.

And that's the thing about liberty. Liberty and justice have to be for all, or they are no longer liberty or justice. When liberty is given only to the priviledged, or to the moral majority, it changes from liberty into oppression. If justice is given more to whites in the court of law, prisons become slave camps. The founding fathers set us off on this mission of liberty and justice for all, but we have yet to achieve the dream.

In fact what we have is something more of a nightmare. The courts are too busy regulating how loud you can celebrate your faith to dish out justice. Big retailers are going back to a more christian biased "Merry Christmas" greeting by their clerks (yes I'm talking about you, Walmart) instead of a simple and inclusive Happy Holidays. What's next, the ten commandments on the courthouse wall?

What we should be doing on the holidays is sharing traditions. The nativity is often shoved down our throats, but the response isn't to repress the nativity. It is to celebrate our other traditions loudly and with pride. A menorrah in the mall holiday display. An effort in schools to teach all religions, so we can understand what the hell is Ramadan. A Kwanzaa parade down the Magnificent Mile is sure to bring bounty and goodness to all in the coming year. Then just around the corner we can all go down to our local China town and get our Chinese New Year on. (Happy Year of the Fire Pig). The holiday season is about love, peace and tolerence. It's about sharing joy. What better way to share joy than to open our homes, our hearts and our traditions to everyone. I say pony up to the bountious buffet of life and try a bite of everything. You never know, you just might find something you never thought you'd like....

So I sing out a challenge to every atheist, Muslim and Jew in America (and all you other faiths as well). Sing the driedel song from the rooftops, host a Ramadan dinner for your non muslim friends, build huge non faith based winter wonderland displays on the courthouse steps. Don't let the Christians drown you out with their Harking and Heralding. The chorus of the American dream is most beautiful when everyone sings loud.

PS: I would love to be invited to Ramadan dinner. Do they serve dessert? mmmmm dessert.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!

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WORLD WAR III: Jews vs. Muslims

July 26, 2006 - Wednesday


WORLD WAR III: Jews vs Muslims

As anyone who has a TV must know by now, World War III has begun. Or at least thats what the media is calling it. And by it I mean the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

But see, here is what I think is messed up. Even just stating the fact, THE FACT, that Israel has invaded Lebanon is bound to piss off some of my Jewish readers. There is a phenomenon among some American Jews to have a blind allegiance to Israel, no matter how heinous Israel behaves. "But Hezbollah, and the soldiers, they have our soldiers." But who do you mean by they? Hezbollah? That is a large multi national organization with facilities all over the region. But Israel is bombing Lebanon. The airport and infrastructure. Even when we invaded Iraq, we didn't blow up the airport. To destroy the infrastructure of another soveriegn nation seems vindictive at best, and war mongering at worst. The airport did not steal the soldiers. Criminals did. But as is Israeli policy, the conservative run Israel feels it has the authority to bomb and kill anyone that may be related or have contact with terrorists.

In comparison, when shoe bomber Richard Reed was arrested, US military planes did not blow up his mother's house. Such a thought is absurd. As Americans we know that everyone is only accountable for his/her own behavior. Criminals are the bad guys, not necessarily their families. But so many American Jews I come across are willing to suspend their American values when discussing Israel. Why?

When the nation of Israel was formed by the UN after WWII, it was seen as a solution to the grave situation of a long suffering people. To give them a homeland. But the land that was given had people living on it, however spread out they may be. As part of the charter in creating the nation of Israel, the UN prescribed that Israel take steps to create a Palestinian state. So many decades later, they are still fighting over this.

A big part of the problem is Jerusalem itself. It is the holy place of at least 3 world religions and sharing holy places has never been easy. As it stands now, no solution to the conflict in Israel is possible because Israel doesn't want to share Jerusalem.

Now what should happen, and what the UN should have done in the first place, is to make the city of Jerusalem a city state, like the Vatican in Rome. A nation soveriegn unto itself run by a city council. Now I know that no one will do that, so while I'm at it let me throw out another idea.

Why don't we sell Jerusalem to Walt Disney Co. and they can make Religion Land, a faith themed amusement park? Just think of the rides: Moses parts the Red Sea Log Boats, Jesus's descent and ascent from Hell, Mohammed's Conquering Ride. It would raise awareness and tolerance of all religions. The city would be run off the revenue and as such would be a modern paradise. Think of the concession stands: Kosher Moshe's Holy Hotdogs, 2 Fishes & 7 Loaves Fish and Chips, Hasan's Happy Halal Meat. By selling out all of our religious values maybe we will find the one value that seems to be in short supply....the value of Human Life.


In all seriousness, I urge each of my readers, Jewish, Muslim, Secular, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, Agnostic, whatever you are I urge you to understand these three things.

1. Israel does NOT represent Judaism. Just because Israel does something doesn't mean Jews have to support it. As such it is not Jewish people's fault if Israel acts stupid.

2. Invading a soveriegn nation for the actions of a few of it's citizens is wrong. It was wrong when we did it, it is still wrong now. War is for fighting countries. Interpol is for fighting international criminal terrorists.

3. This is not WWIII, but it could be if we all sit idly by and let the values of international diplomacy be flouted, by our leaders and by the leaders of other nations. It is time we all go back to acting civilized. Or we could lose civilization itself.

So I say....
End the war in the Middle East. All of them. Before it's too late.

Yours in Furious Comedy,
Suzzanne Monk
2 Boob Productions

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