There is a whole ticker tape of thoughts going through my mind over this quote. Not sure how to put it together, most of it would be in four letter words.

For truth -- and the sadness and the horror of it

Yet does one not take priority over the other?

For me it does. The lack of outrage over black people being gunned down in the street at an alarming rate horrifies me. Black women dying when incarcerated, once again at an alarming rate horrifies me. Where the hell is that outrage? Why do black lives not matter?

Seriously...tell me what I can do to change anything.

The lion thing was easy...it was outrage against one man and social justice has pulled him down.

The BLM thing is also getting the same outrage on social networking, and here on DU, every day as new stories are posted. But we can't change it with social networks like twitter and facebook and even DU, because it affects a lot of people, and there are a lot of haters out there (including in politics) and it is going to be a slow change.

We can try to put someone in the whitehouse who will try to make a difference. I hope either Hillary or Bernie will do that. It certainly has become the issue of the day, as they are both talking about it now and that brings me hope.

Actually I was going to refer you to bravenaks thread, saw you already posted there.

I say, listen to black people, they are asking you to please listen. Some interpret that to mean STFU. Not what was said, yet angry people will see it that way.

I don't speak for them, I listen and I love talking to members here. They are some of the best and brightest souls on DU.

But the passion is there for many people who stand with POC and BLM. The problem is there are a lot of haters who don't. You won't see the haters on the Cecil issue because nobody in their right mind is going to speak up and defend the damned Dentist. There are too few people who would protect him and they don't have the courage. So, of course, you are not seeing the same level of compassion, but it is certainly there for many of us...especially here on DU.

Even if this is made a priority, it takes time to change systems and it takes cooperation and it will have all those haters out there trying to block it, so while I agree it needs to happen now, I wish I could see it happening overnight. I don't. We just have to keep fighting and stay in their faces, everywhere. The more we stand strong and bring in new people to stand with us, the sooner that change will happen. But racism is something it takes generations to breed out. And there are places where the politicians are not going to stand and fight with us, because they are racist too. So it will take longer in some places than others.

I wish it weren't so.

And I agree a lot of people here need to learn how to listen better, including me. And on the campaign trails.

I can't fix this or it would be fixed tomorrow. I wish I knew how long it will take, but human nature being what it is, it won't be as fast as anyone wants or needs it to be. But we can all work together and push as hard as we can to make everyone uncomfortable enough to start taking it seriously. And that is already happening with the BLM movement and the exposure of all the killlings on social media. I can only hope that each year gets a little better, but I'm really wishing each year it would get a lot better.

If we get a new President who takes this seriously and can help push the country forward, maybe it will happen faster than it has in the past.

I don't know what else to tell you She...you seem to think I'm the one slowing it down and not caring.

I know your frustration... We have got to keep this moving.

I've been messing around on computers for about 30 years and the evolution of what we can do with this technology...

There are several ways to bring into fruition what we want for ourselves and generations to come. If we combine them, imagine the power yo.

I'm an idealist, though most times an angry one.

We can do this.

Yet, to give more compassion to an animal than a human being

Ferguson




'
Eric Garner



His daughter lays down where he died. Eleven minutes for the eleven times he said he could not breathe

Melissa Harris Perry did a good overview of why yesterday. See if you can catch it online. I wasn't aware of the European 'love' for lions and how entrenched in their history it is.

This is the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Württemberg, from whence my family immigrated in the 1840s.



Lions, lions everywhere. The three lions passant on the sinister (viewer's right) side of the central crest has represented peoples of southwestern Germany since at least the 10th century, when the symbol was adopted by the Duchy of Swabia; and the Kingdom's motto, "Furchtlos und Trew" ("Fearless and Loyal", in some incomprehensible High German dialect), describes qualities people of European extract have long associated with lions.

And lions have been extinct in Europe since the 1st century CE. I very much doubt the sweeping majority people represented by these symbols had ever seen a lion until modern times.

But still, I think the gentleman's point about how conservation is marketed as a "brand" using popular marketing tropes is probably more applicable to Americans than historical symbolism.

republicans did to that lion.


But I also believe there are many who care about the lion and little about black folks because if you get shot in America by a cop you must have done something to deserve it, no matter how many eye witness testimonies and videos say otherwise.

Social media, etc. etc.

That was a good thing because I could have been really offensive to people.

It's also a good thing I kept quiet - because I'm not going to lie to myself or anyone else -


It's sad, it's horrible, it was evil what this man did - But it's not in the same league as a George Zimmerman.


I have a different depth of empathy for the lion than I do Trayvon Martin. I do. And I can't change.

between us and the folks I am thinking about.

Must not laugh out loud!

Seriously though - their severe lack of empathy for human beings is astounding.

Thanks JAG.

Will find and watch. Thanks.

and lion in the same sentence again I think I may pull my hair out.

I feel for the wildlife I really do but there's more caring poured out to a lion than to human-beings.

just ACK