Why are people in Indianapolis going postal.

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   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #201  
Thing is, with most of us being white in color, do they ever teach this in school on what black people had to endure?

Reality is even in the early to mid 1900's, being black was a pain in the arse.
I have no idea of what life is/was elsewhere but only two white families in the neighborhood growing up in Oakland.

Never gave it a second thought... the black families were just like any other and we shared keys for emergencies... carpooled to school games, etc.

Immediate neighbors were letter carriers, teachers, CPA, Teamster, Warehouse Manager and UPS driver.

Neighbor across the street and very close to mom started as a telephone operator and worked all the way up to regional manager at AT&T and I enjoyed family day there and at the Toyota plant where another neighbor was in operations...

Mayor, Council, Representatives African American... the police officer that came to our school in the 60's also African American... I really enjoyed the open question and answer sessions and the class visit to Police Headquarters and Court system where I put on judges robes and presided over a mock trail with real prosecutor and public defender making motions for me to rule on...

The judges sponsoring both went on to become State Supreme Court Judges.

Dad grew up in Oakland and his public school in the 30's and 40's was fully integrated...

I'm guessing my experience is a typical for the period?
 
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   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #202  
A great example of individuals in positions of authority who had little regard for human life (or issues with seeing others as human because they were "different"). ....something that's been experienced by every race (or even nationality) throughout history.
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It is a shame we do not teach more history in school regarding other countries. It is normal to focus on one's country, state, locality but looking over the horizon can be very educational and put things in perspective.

This is a long post, and I am trying to cram centuries of complicated history from multiple countries in one post, so bear with me. :)

The US used to be very biased against Catholics. This was for several reasons, one of which that Catholics came from certain countries that were looked down on by the established people in the US. For instance, Irish and Italians. This was bias against people from those countries for whatever reason, but also because they were Catholics and not Protestants.

It was not that long ago, that a man was running for US president who was a Catholic and the concern was that he would answer to the Pope and not The People.

We forget, or maybe think, that the conflicts between Catholic and Protestant are history. They are in some parts of the world, but in others, the conflict still exists, or at a minimum, the results of conflict from centuries ago, still resonate, reverberate and cause violence to this day.

The Irish flag is green, white and orange. Those colors are important and matter.

Since Henry the VIIIth had split with the Catholic church and formed the Church of England, a Protestant organization, there had been conflict, often very bloody warfare, between the Catholics and Protestants. This pretty much ended when William the Orange, who was from the Netherlands, was invited to be the UK King because the current King, James II had converted to Catholicism and married an Italian, Catholic princess, and it was worried that James would try to force his faith on a nation that was almost all Protestant. So William of Orange landed in the UK and took the crown while James fled. It was a peaceful coup.

However, what was NOT peaceful, was that William then went to Ireland, but a quick history of Ireland prior to William...

Ireland had been invaded by many peoples over time but the Normans started to invade Ireland after taking over England and this would continue for centuries until Ireland was completely subjucated. This took centuries of war, massacres, famines, and horrible depopulation of Ireland. During one of the English Civil Wars, Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649, and as a result of his invasion, ethnic cleansing, massacres, shipping people off to the sugar plantations as slaves, war induced famine and plague, estimates are that up to 85% of the population died. Cromwell is still "remembered" in Ireland today.

The better known potato famine reduced the Irish population by about 25%. With half that number leaving the country and other other half dying. This was in the 1850s.

Of of the reasons the potato famine was so bad was that after the Cromwell invasion, so many of the Irish landowners were simply killed, sold as slaves, or forced to march to the very poor land in south west Ireland, in the middle of winter, with little to no provisions. The soldiers in Cromwell's army were rewarded Irish land for their service. Furthermore, to fund the war in Ireland, people bought shares in the war, hoping for victory, and when they had that victory, they wanted their money and reward, which was the land and houses of the loosing Irish. The Cromwell invasion was very much a religious war against between the Catholics and the Protestants. A few centuries later, when the potato famine happened, these landowners were still "English" who, in many cases, still looked down on the Irish. During the famine Ireland was still exporting food to the rest of the UK...

Back to William of Orange. William's invasion ended Irish rebellion led by the remaining/surviving Irish land owning leadership against the British. At the Battle of the Boyne July 12, 1690, the Irish and James II Catholic forces were defeated. The Irish leaders that could, fled to the continent, as did James. July 12th is a VERY important date that is still causing issues to this day.

How does this matter today? Glad Ye Asked. 😁

Prior to the recent death of Prince Phillip, there had been 10 days of rioting in Northern Ireland. The rioting was a result of the long running conflict between Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Loyalist groups that was triggered by how Brexit is being handled, lack of punishment for a funeral that appeared to be in violation of pandemic rules from a Catholic/Republican group, and the EU's invoking a part of the Brexit agreement to go after the UK. The EU quickly ended the invocation but the damage was done and rioting started soon after. The rioting was quickly getting worse and it only stopped as a result of Phillip's death. Will the rioting start up next week is a good question...

Northern Ireland was created out of six counties who were populated mostly by Protestants. Well, four counties were mostly Protestants, but the Irish government was out thought by the UK government. Again. The Troubles started in the late 1960s as a result of the civil right abuses against the Catholics by the Protestants that had been going on for centuries. In the Cromwellian time, Catholics in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England were not allowed to own land, vote, serve in the military, etc. There were riots were hundreds and thousands of Catholics were massacred in England. Eventually, in 1829, after great debate, and political turmoil, Catholics were emancipated. However, even with emancipation, abuse continued against Catholics across the UK, not just in Ireland. Catholics in Northern Ireland did not get the best jobs, only the poorest paying and unwanted jobs. They had no political power, by design of the creation of Northern Ireland, as well as how voting was set up. Only ONE person could vote per house hold. Think about that one! 😁 Protestants were given preference for public housing, which was bad enough, but many Catholic homes had two or three generations of voters in the house, but only one could vote. This overcrowding, and thus vote suppression, did not happen often to Protestant families.

So, in the late 1960s, the Catholics started to protest against the unfair treatment they endured in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, it did not take long for violence to break out and the British Army shot a couple dozen people, killing 14. This started The Troubles that lasted for a couple of decades. While worst of the violence ended as a result of the Good Friday agreement, the embers of the violence still exist.

Back to the Battle of the Boyne. The Loyalist/Protestants celebrate the 12th of July to this day. There are clubs called the Orange Order all over Northern Ireland. This is a Protestant/Loyalist organization that marches during the Marching Season in remembrance of the 12th of July. The Order parades with Marching Bands, as well as the rank and file of the organization, through their own neighborhoods but also try to march in Catholic/Republican areas. This would be like the KKK marching through a black neighborhood. The government tries to block these particular marches through the Catholic/Republican areas but sometimes the marches seem to get through. These marches happen all over Northern Ireland during the Marching Season.

They also have bonfires. Now, these are not wee, little fires where one roasts a hot dog or marsh mellow. They are huge structures made of pallets that are stacked four, five, six stories tall. They are HUGE. They don't always build the bonfires in safe areas either. I saw images of one bonfire, in a city, near a major, tower hotel, that if the fire had fallen the wrong way it might very well have burned down the hotel. One should ask WHY, the government allows this to happen? The reality is that they cannot stop the bonfires or the marches. Houses have burned down because of these bonfires. I have seen video and images of firefighters responding to a bonfire, not to put it out, but to spray water on the structures AROUND the bonfire to keep them from catching fire. If the fire department tries to put out the bonfire, their hoses will be cut, trucks attacked, and worse. So they let the fires burn.

There are Peace Walls in Northern Ireland. These are tall walls keeping the Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Loyalist separated. Some of the Peace Walls have been torn down but surveys indicate that most people see the need for the Peace Walls for years to come. :( Schooling in Northern Ireland is very segregated. The vast majority of Catholics and Protestants kids go to different schools...

The police in Northern Ireland, PSNI, is almost completely Protestant. That Catholics do not trust the PSNI. Period. For valid historical reasons. The PSNI has tried to recruit Catholics but with out much success. One Catholic did join thinking that the PSNI needs to have Catholics and needs to build trust with Catholics. He was right. But his Catholic friends warned him off joining the PNSI. He stayed with it. He got in his car one day to go to work and a bomb went out putting him in a wheel chair for life. The bomb really should have killed him but he some how survived.

The Irish flag is green, white and orange.

Green represents the Catholics, while orange represents the Protestants, and white is for the idea that there can be peace between the two groups...

The Irish flag is green, white and orange.

Later,
Dan
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #203  
A shooting in Kenosha WI that left 3 dead this morning and another in Austin TX that left 3 dead today. I'm blaming all of us. I truly think it will take all of us to work together to act in a more friendly manner. It would be a tough thing to accomplish but wouldn't it be nice to make the world a better place? I really wonder what kind of world we are leaving future generations. Just because we can act with hate and anger doesn't mean we should.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #204  
A shooting in Kenosha WI that left 3 dead this morning and another in Austin TX that left 3 dead today. I'm blaming all of us. I truly think it will take all of us to work together to act in a more friendly manner. It would be a tough thing to accomplish but wouldn't it be nice to make the world a better place? I really wonder what kind of world we are leaving future generations. Just because we can act with hate and anger doesn't mean we should.
After one of the many HS shootings a student was quoted as lamenting "Oh Great. Now we have to be nice to everybody." I pointed that out on another site and got jumped all over by one poster; she called it "Blackmail at the point of a gun". To her credit though she didn't agree with anything I ever posted, often "flagging" me for no reason except to control the discussion.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #205  
A shooting in Kenosha WI that left 3 dead this morning and another in Austin TX that left 3 dead today. I'm blaming all of us. I truly think it will take all of us to work together to act in a more friendly manner. It would be a tough thing to accomplish but wouldn't it be nice to make the world a better place? I really wonder what kind of world we are leaving future generations. Just because we can act with hate and anger doesn't mean we should.
Human nature seems to preclude your altruistic wishes... I'm wondering if we are what we are?
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #207  
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #208  
If everybody got along, there would be some extremely miserible people and organizationss that are out to conquer, by dividing and sowing hate.
 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #209  
Why doesn’t the guy just kill himself?
Too long to post, but an interesting perspective in this article.

 
   / Why are people in Indianapolis going postal. #210  
If everybody got along, there would be some extremely miserible people and organizationss that are out to conquer, by dividing and sowing hate.

Plus - they would lose millions in donations.

MoKelly
 
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