Kent Connecticut is the scene of a largely unknown struggle for reclamation of native American  tribal lands. The Schaghticoke tribe is fighting to survive, the U.S. government has required native tribes to show the ownership of the land they live on since before colonization, under new guide lines they only have to show continuous existence since 1934. This allows the tribes to own the lands they exist on and even the lands now inhabited by newcomers (first white settlers). The Euro presence in the modern and past world has been noted by the conquest and indenturing of all native people wherever they went. This conquest resulted in the death and elimination of many people  and their traditions. It is a far cry now from then as people we have all come to the realization that in order to survive as a species we need to work together beyond religious, color, ethnic and gender lines. Even “Star Trek” has moved beyond those barriers. Why can’t we?

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George Zimmerman is currently a free man, His lawyers now want the State of Florida to pay his legal expenses, this after his wife attempted to hide their assets (she is now being tried for that). If the State of Florida pays his legal expenses then does this mean it is open season on anyone of color, any of the LGBTG community (which includes all colors) or perhaps a person of a different religious persuasion?  We have a murderer who is free due to the lack of personal conviction on behalf of all of the jurors. The Prosecution missed opportunities in some key areas of their case. Was this deliberate or just an omission due to inexperience, lack of funds or something else? It has been pondered about the result if the Zimmerman was Black ( yes there are non whites with name of Zimmerman). This is just the latest in a series of injustices against minorities and will not be the last as the fringe extremists such as “George” or Jorge  as he would be called in Latin America will take heart in doing the same thing in their own communities. These last few years has brought out the best and worst of us all but this situation is almost like giving a tacit OK on assaults on NON whites of all types. If this were monopoly George would have a “get out jail free card” from the stack of cards in the center while the rest of could not pass go, let alone get $200.00

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The post below could apply to “LBGT”, Native Americans. Latinos and immigrants.

Editors note: Tanner Colby is the author of “Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America.”

(CNN) — “So, how many black friends do you have now?”

It’s a question I get asked a lot, ever since I set out five years ago to find out why I, your typical middle-class white person, had no black friends at all.

I do have black friends now, actually. Several. But I rarely offer that information when asked, because to ask white people how many black friends they have is to pose the wrong question.

Recently, a Reuters poll came out showing that 40% of white Americans have zero nonwhite friends, and only 20% of white Americans have five or more nonwhite friends. People seemed shocked that the numbers were so bad.

Tanner Colby

Personally, I was surprised that they were so good. America remains a deeply segregated and divided country. Even accounting for institutional and socioeconomic barriers, in the places we have the opportunity to integrate—the high school cafeteria, for instance—we largely don’t.

The Reuters survey itself is misleading, lumping all minorities together under the vague heading of “nonwhite.” Depending on what part of the country you live in (e.g, anywhere but Minnesota or Wyoming), it’s not uncommon to have Asian or Hispanic friends.

But the social divide between whites and those groups is more a function of the slow-rolling, generational process of immigrant assimilation. That is a wholly different phenomenon from the social divide between whites and blacks, which is the product of 400 years of slavery and segregation. That’s the social divide we should worry about, and if the poll had focused on that, the numbers would surely have been much worse.

The reason why “How many black friends do you have?” is such a terrible question is because it shows how we typically talk when we talk about race. Even when we try to talk about race in a constructive way, we usually make black people the object of the sentence, rarely the subject.

Black friends are the things to be acquired to prove one is not racist. The way the question is asked accords black people no agency, nor does it reveal anything about the real character of the white person being queried.

What you really want to know is not “How many black friends do I have?” but rather, “Have I become the type of individual that a black person might choose to be friends with?” That’s a real question. Poll a couple thousand white people with that and you might start to get some interesting answers, or at least some confused and befuddled looks.

White people are products of their own whitewashed, sanitized environment. Black people have been systematically excluded from white neighborhoods. Black stories rarely surface in popular culture. The history of race in high school textbooks has been boiled down to a handful of bedtime stories about Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks. Try to tap into the average white person’s feelings on race and you won’t necessarily find feelings of hate and antipathy. You just won’t find much of anything, no fully formed or well-considered thoughts about race of any kind. There’s nothing really there. Even white people who want black friends don’t know where to start.

America’s lack of integration wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that relationships and social networks are vital to economic advancement.

Even when programs like school busing and affirmative action give black people access to white spaces, when those people go to climb the social ladder there’s nothing there for them to grab onto, because there’s very little reciprocal effort coming from the other direction. It’s high effort and low reward.

The result is that black people end up with integration fatigue. Many black writers responded to the Reuters poll with essays on why they didn’t want white friends, and didn’t need them. White friends weren’t worth the bother.

This is their prerogative, but ultimately, it’s to society’s disadvantage because white people control the access to, well, just about everything. If you don’t have white friends, you might have a decent job and a comfortable life, but all the doors of opportunity in this country are not open to you. “I may do well in a desegregated society,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “but I can never know what my total capacity is until I live in an integrated society.”

Interracial friendships, social bonds across the color line, are a key factor in putting the sins of America’s past behind us. But it’s not something that’s accomplished by white people knowing lots of black people. It helps if white people know how to be better white people.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tanner Colby

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Has George Zimmerman single handedly caused a glut  of hoodies due the high profile case resulting from the death of Trayvon Martin? Since the master profiler and his adjunct members (Geraldo (Gerry Rivers) et al have designated hoodies as the garb of choice by criminals (especially if they are non white), the industry has all but collapsed. What ever will happen to the athletes who wear them, what will happen to the manufacturers and the sponsors who pay to have their logos placed on them? Are we looking at the end of the hoodie? Could it be that ski caps, beanies and watch caps be next on the list of  “criminal” wear?  When will we approach the final frontier of “criminalizing” wearing apparel the business suit?  When in the future you have to get a permit for a hoodie-Thank George Zimmerman!

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I have read the State Journal Register  for a number of years and had a few opinions printed. I understand that opinions are just that-opinions but many are rooted in personal politics and  biases with a shortage of facts. There are two syndicated columnist that appear regularly whose entries are treated with more regard than they deserve as their  basis serve no one than the author while denigrating the American public and the newspaper. I am purposely omitting the names as I do not want to give any more coverage to these individuals than the currently receive. I have always thought journalists were supposed to offer truth first regardless of their personal politics but apparently this is not modern norm. I am considering ending my subscription as the SJ-R seems to support this unilateral method of news gathering and presentation. The print media while certainly suffering in this electronic age still has the responsibility to present the facts in as neutral a manner possible, the bias should be the personal bailiwick of the reader, not the publisher or editor.

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The furor over the N.C. voter’s bill is at once not as bad as it appears and as bad as it seems. The identification part is reasonable to me in that the state will have a uniform method of identifying  legal residents as far as voting and accessing State resources.  Unfortunately there are other elements within the bill that are suspect.

I have excerpted a portion of the bill below. The entire bill is available on YouTube and multiple other sources.

“The bill will require voters to show photo identification — a driver’s license, passport, veteran’s ID, tribal card — beginning in the 2016 elections. Student IDs are not an acceptable form of identification. The bill also reduces early voting by a week, eliminates same-day registration, ends pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds and a student civics program, kills an annual state-sponsored voter registration drive and lessens the amount of public reporting required for so-called dark money groups, also known as 501(c)(4)s.

The bill does provide for a “free ID” to be offered at DMVs, though the state estimates that between 203,351 and 318,643 voters registered in North Carolina lack ID, and that providing them with one would cost $834,200 in 2013 and 2014, and $24,100 every year after”

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Limerick illustrates American Dream

Abel Oldsworth, my hardworking reticent friend, frequently despairs of his two low paying part time jobs with no benefits.  He can barely pay for his basic needs.  To lift his spirits, he watches a tape of Congressional members hastening down the Capitol steps on Thursday afternoon after a three-day work session, that is, if they are not on one of their five-week vacations around a federal holiday. They have achieved the American dream—getting full pay, premium health care, space and office staff, and travel allowances–for part time work at the Capitol.  Surely, ones so blessed will think of struggling workers and vote for job stimulus funds and support health care for the middle class working poor.  But skepticism encompasses him; he penned these words.

Many Congressional members seeking reelection

Are promising good jobs creation and less government regulation.

They speak as examples

For their perquisites are ample,

But as a do little Congress, it’s all speculation.

Martin Egelston

Battle Creek Enquirer

August 13, 2013

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In the years I have participated in group meetings of all sorts, I have noticed that some other participants have the need or urge to speak out at all meetings even if what they say is irrelevant , misplaced and often incorrect. It takes an effort to listen rather than speak. More often than we know the speaking does nothing to further a discussion beyond leaving a way to continue the discussion or pursuit of another discussion in the future and sometimes with no resolution. The adage that the “squeaky wheel” gets the grease has been so imbedded in many of us that it has become a curse. We have lost the art of listening and understanding, this does not mean you do or do not  have to agree with what has been put forth but it affords an opportunity to get a another viewpoint which may not be as far away from yours as you may think. Looking back at the major and minor events of this and  last century, many Americans from a wide assortment of circumstances have come together to create new laws and correct old problems. Even to day these coalitions are still in evidence. The pity is that our non  egregious 535 have not learned that lesson. We have a governing body that has evolved into a disparate group of talking heads who are all but non functioning. This is not about parties or personal beliefs but more about doing what is correct  for the Citizens and the Nation. This ability has been long-lost in public service from the smallest municipality to the Washington D.C.. The talking heads dominate the media but do nothing in the confines of the government  halls to govern as required by the Constitution.

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I am including a link below to a column on Trayvon Martin. This is the blue or underlined  link.
Native American Journalists on Trayvon Martin

“We have our own system of injustice, and we’ve been living it for 100 years,” one veteran Native journalist said.

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