Citation Please

I think we all need to calm down.

I think there are too many people yelling about race.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-21/killings-of-new-york-police-denounced-as-despicable-act-.html

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/12/22/?entry=mb-3&_r=0

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/21/3606040/rudy-giuliani-2-nyc-cops-were-killed-because-obama-told-everyone-to-hate-the-police/

And I think all of this yelling spills out onto the social website Facebook.
http://facebook.com

And I think many of our news outlets report on race relations along with opinions pieces about these race relations (please see above citations).

However, not many people on Facebook note where they are receiving their information upon which they form their opinions.  (please see http://facebook.com for more information about this statement and how infrequently people cite their sources).  Many of my "friends" on this "social" website are posting angry rants about the "race haters" and "race baiters" and how the Obama administration and our current civil rights groups have "stomped" on all the work that whites and blacks have done for so long, and in naming the "Obama administration", and the "current civil rights groups", the only people/groups named who were committing these atrocities were Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the Black Panthers.   Fox News has a recent piece about two men affiliated with the New Black Panther Party allegedly attempting to bomb individuals associated with racial tensions in Ferguson, but not being able to because their EBT cards didn't have the funds needed to buy the explosives.  No one was injured in the alleged attempt to set off a bomb, and the comments section has many people talking about how progressives will want to increase limits on EBT cards and how the Black Panthers, along with Al Sharpton and "a few others" are the major culprits in "race relations" today.
http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/11/30/black-panthers-unable-buy-bombs-because-ebt-card-didn%E2%80%99t-have-enough-money

The New York Post reported this story as well, without any comments.
http://nypost.com/2014/11/22/fbi-makes-explosive-ferguson-bust/

The Black Panthers have denounced the New Black Panther Party, who is generally considered a hate group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party

To summarize: The New Black Panther Party is not the original group known as The Black Panthers, they are generally considered a hate group, and two people who are affiliated with this hate group allegedly planned on bombing people and places in something they saw as a racial issue.  However, they were arrested prior to being able to bomb anybody or anything.

So calm down about the Black Panthers and The New Black Panther Party.  Calm.  Down.

An article from CBS News starts, "Civil rights leaders Sunday condemned the ambush killings of two New York police officers...".
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ismaaiyl-brinsley-nypd-officers-murders-backlash-protest-movement/?google_editors_picks=true

So civil rights leaders condemned the killings.  Calm.  Down.


So where am I going with all of this?


Let's take a look later in the same CBS News article:
"In the wake of the ambush, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani lashed out at New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Speaking on Fox News, Giuliani said: 'We've had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police.'
'They have created an atmosphere of severe, strong, anti-police hatred in certain communities, and for that, they should be ashamed of themselves,' he said."


Citation please, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  Citation please.
WHO created this atmosphere and in WHAT WAYS, and in WHICH communities?  If you're not able to cite your sources for these statements, we cannot be expected to believe what you're saying as factual.

You see, I've given citations for every one of my statements here, giving you, the reader, the same information I'm given, as well as a basis for my opinions.  Often opinions start in with feelings, rather than facts.  Which is fine.  Everybody is entitled to feelings.  But if those feelings lead you to incite fear and panic in others, you shouldn't be allowed to have access to a public forum where your fear endangers people and things.  Sorta like when Chester beats me at Monopoly, my feelings tell me he eats babies and rapes kittens for fun.  So then I take my truth that I feel onto CBS News and tell the world about Chester's kitten fetishes and baby soups, and suddenly Chester is hunted by kitten activist groups and anti-baby soup foundations, and he's not really sure why.

So where am I going with all of this???

I want to propose that all people who are going to speak in public or write in a public forum need to start citing their sources for the things they say.  No, we're not going to get pure fact from everyone, but it will give us some information about what we're listening to.  And if nothing is cited, what has just been said can't be expected to be taken as factual.  I don't want to restrict free speech.  I don't even want to restrict feelings and anger, cuz it sucks when Chester wins at Monopoly.  But, no matter how much of a cock he is for beating me in Monopoly, he doesn't deserve to have his family read that he rapes kittens, or have his friendships strained or ruined because people believe he eats babies.  Because Chester DOESN'T do those things.  And the Obama administration HASN'T given four months of propaganda about how everybody should hate the police.  And Al Sharpton ISN'T a race hater or race baiter.  And the most recent thing I could find on Jesse Jackson is that he wants to bring diversity to Silicon Valley.
http://fortune.com/2014/12/20/jesse-jackson-talks-diversity-in-silicon-valley/

Without these citations, people are allowed to scream their feelings at the top of their lungs, and others believe those feelings to be facts, and share in the hysteria.  "Chester rapes kittens!" we all scream, because I screamed it first.  And people lose their minds about how we need to tighten security on the pound so that Chester and others like him in his liberal/conservative/vegetarian group can't rape kittens.  And people freak out about all the babies that are being eaten by Chester and those he's indoctrinating and we must ban guns/provide more guns and shoot everybody/nobody who believes that Chester should be killed/spared.  We get all in an uproar, all because I got my feelings hurt and screamed uncited words about Chester.  We all get in an uproar because Giuliani got hurt, and then somebody put a microphone in his mouth and allowed him to speak while he was hurt and didn't demand he cite his sources.  Facebook doesn't care if you cite sources or not, and often acts like an enormous echo chamber of hatred and anxiety about whatever your friends feel.  They share their moments of anger, and you pick up on those moments and suddenly you're angry, too, and after that we need to make sure that all/none black people are locked up so that all/none white people can live without fear of being shot/not being shot.  And we're all fucking out of our minds and freaking the fuck out because something happened!  We don't quite know what happened, and our busy schedules don't allow us to read about it or investigate it like we should, but we know how we feel, and it's a FACT that I feel like we're all doomed!!!

Run for your lives!!!

Look...

...stop running...

...please, take a breath...

I get it.
You're tired.
You don't want people to hate anymore.
You don't want to think about black vs. white.  White vs. black.  Anybody vs. anybody.
You wanna watch TV, eat dinner, play with your kids.
You wanna live nicely.
You wanna smile.
You wanna feel good.
I get it.
You're tired.
You want to feel good.
But you don't.
And you're tired of it all.

I wonder, if you can, try to imagine that the person closest to you, whomever that may be, feels exactly like you.
Try to imagine...
that another person...
feels the same tired you feel.
He or she is tired of it all.
He or she is trying to feel good but doesn't.
Can you imagine that?

And now, if you're able...
Can you imagine that one more person feels the same way you do?
Somebody close to you.
Somebody you talk with regularly.
Somebody else is tired of it all and wants to feel good.

And maybe, if you're able to do that...
You can imagine that somebody close to somebody close to you
feels exactly the same way you do.
Somebody maybe you don't know.
But they feel just like you.
They're tired.  They want to feel good.

And if you're able to imagine all of that, maybe you could imagine a little more.  Maybe you could imagine that everyone in your city feels exactly like you.  Everyone in your city feels tired of it all.  Everyone in your city wants to feel good but doesn't.

Let's start there.
Let's start with everyone feels exactly like you.
Everyone feels tired of it all and everyone wants to feel good.

We are all on the same boat of feeling tired of it all and wanting to feel good.
We are all unique, we all have different stories and we all have our own opinions.
I am not denying anyone that.
Everyone is special.
And
Everyone feels tired of it all and wants to feel good.


Stay in that place just for a moment.
Stay where everyone feels tired of it all and wants to feel good.
Stay there.

We all want the same thing.
We all want to feel good.
We all are tired of it all.

There is no need to be upset now.
Because we are all feeling the same thing.
You don't have to be upset now.
You can let the upset go.
Let go of the anxiety.
Let go of all of it.
And breathe.
Breathe in
and when you
breathe out
you let it go
all of it


And now, we all feel the same, and we are all calm.
And now...
...very slowly...
...very carefully...

...and calmly...

...we take one step forward toward our goal.
We Will Feel Good.
And by feeling good, we will no longer be tired of it all.
We will step together.
And when somebody gets hurt, we will take care of them.
And when somebody needs help, we will help them.
And when somebody starts to get upset, anxious, and starts to Yell (!) ...we will help them breathe.
We will help them calm down.
You are not going to drown, we will say to them.
You are safe.
You are secure.
You are not alone.
Because we are all here together.
Because we are all stepping together.
Calmly.
Carefully.
Together.
Towards feeling good.
Together.