Pink Thunder

Possible Changes to PinkThunder.com

Hello Pink Friend. I have been considering whether to shift this blog to be all Tai Chi Sword all the time. Of course within that subject are many of your other favorite subjects such as Love, Evil, Racism, the End Times, Home Decorating, etc. But it might bring some long-needed structure to this rather stream-of-consciousness, freewheeling look into the corners of my mind. Any thoughts on that? Speak now or forever hold your peace...

In other news, PinkThunder's mom is buying a brand new red Prius. I talked her into some bells and whistles like Bluetooth, Backup Camera, GPS Navigation, etc. Might as well go all the way, I say. Yet though Hal the 2003 Prius is much loved by both Monte the cat (it makes her purr) and my grandmother for its silent stealth and LCD computer screen, I fear that Hal may not be able to compete with my mom's new ride. Sigh. So jealous. Out-cooled by the madre again.

Richard Pryor

I was sad to hear of Pryor's passing, though not surprised. African-American men don't live that long. It's a statisical fact. Also, he has been ill for awhile. Hearing his some of his old bits from back in the day, it is so obvious how influential on comedy he has been. Think Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, the Wayans Bros, Robin Williams, the Boondocks, Rosie O'Donnell, Roseanne Barr, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld and more.

I remember going to see "Stir Crazy" as a family with my parents and little brother. I was 9 and my brother 7. I still am perplexed why my parents thought it would be appropriate to take us -- at that age -- to that particular movie. It really stands out as one of those little parenting goofs due to inadequate research and the best of intentions that I am certain befalls all parents at least once or twice. In their defense, I think the pairing of an African-American director, Sidney Poitier -- a ground-breaking rarity at the time -- along with Pryor's biting socio-political satire were the persuasive factors at play. The history in the making. The thought-provocative drama/comedy. The Black experience. After all, Poitier was the star of Important, Influential, and usually very Serious Films. Not movies, but Films.

Unfortunately there was also...the tittie bar scene. 

Tookie Williams

I am of 2 minds on Schwarzenegger's denial of clemency to Stanley "Tookie" Williams this afternon. On the one hand, executing a Nobel Prize nominee puts the U.S. in the same company as places like Nigeria, South Africa and Myanmar/Burma in terms of public treatment of Nobel-recognized peacemakers. For those of you who aren't sure what I am talking about (aside from Nelson Mandela), I give you the continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1991), the persecution of Wole Soyinka (awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986) and the international outcry and disgust surrounding the execution of enviromental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (Nobel Peace Prize nominee, early 1990s) reaching as high as UK Prime Minister John Major:

"His death on 10 November 1995 shook the world. John Major described the trial that sent him to the gallows as a “fraudulent trial, a bad verdict, an unjust sentence.” Nelson Mandela thundered that “this heinous act by the Nigerian authorities flies in the face of appeals by the world community for a stay of execution.”  Bill Clinton and the Queen added their voices to the worldwide condemnation, Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth, countries recalled their diplomats and there were calls for economic sanctions and a boycott of Shell oil."

-- Ken Wiwa, Saro-Wiwa's son, writing on The Black Commentator

It is interesting that the U.S. media has been downplaying Williams' Nobel Peace Prize nomination as the execution has drawn near. I pray that we do not soon see the world turn against us in the form of economic and political sanctions as those countries have experienced in the arc of history. Sounds farfetched?

Hurricane Katrina

Watching the footage over the day of the devastation wrought by Katrina, I thought of my friend Dr. Bob. He's an artist down in New Orleans and made a picture for me that is the first thing you see when you enter my house. It has both our spirit animals (mine is a big brown turtle and his is a little white dog), a giant white alligator, a Mardi Gras Indian and a starry sky. It's based on a dream I had. I am really hoping the Doctor got out of NO. He grew up on the bayous and is an old waterman but I am hoping he had the sense his Seminole grandmother gave him to bail out along with his silly exotic dancer friends. He built his studio and home himself. That's all gone now, I expect along with a lot of great folk art in progress.

Over night, more people than I care to imagine lost their lives. Many more have lost everything but their lives -- home, car, possessions, job. All in one fell swoop. I hope that you will consider making a donation to disaster funds of the Red Cross, Salvation Army or another charity. Even if it's small like mine, it looks like a lot of people are going to need a lot of help for an indefinite period of time....

Michael Jackson -- Acquitted?

MJJ is a lucky man. This is nothing short of a miracle for him, a gift from God (and the jurors), and I hope he sees it that way. Certainly the prosecutors didn't have an iron-clad case offering as witnesses and victims a family of convicted grifters. However, even the jurors felt that Jackson's behavior in the past and even in this case has not been above reproach. Yet, I can see how they might come to the conclusion of reasonable doubt though I still think Jackson is a dangerous man.

On Johnnie Cochran, R.I.P.

I think it's sad that someone who spent his early career as a pioneering civil rights attorney ended up being remembered chiefly as the attorney lampooned on a popular comedy "Seinfeld" for his performance successfully representing a cold-blooded murderer. It is very sad that the man who worked so tirelessly to free Geronimo Pratt, a Black Panther Party member wrongly imprisoned, is remembered most for freeing O.J. Simpson, brutal killer of two.

Johnnie is remembered fondly in the black community. Why? I call it the "Marion Barry Phenomenon" whereby a person gets a free pass in the community re: dubious behavior based on a history of civil rights work in their youth. He is revered due to this early record and his skill in playing the race card while defending some of our most famous criminal stars -- Todd Bridges, P. Diddy (when he was still Puff Daddy), oh and lest we forget -- Michael Jackson in his first major child molestation case.

I think the fame and money got to Johnnie. But even he had a conscience and after the O.J. trial, said publicly that he didn't want to take any more criminal defense cases. Instead he moved his firm towards personal injury and civil rights.

It's important to note, however, that one should live one's life as one would like to be remembered. Cochran's family must surely regret at least a little that his name is associated not with his community activism, but with his defense of known criminals wealthy enough to afford his expert counsel.

Michael Jackson Needs to Go to Jail

I am sorry, but like O.J. before him, this desperate call to Jesse Jackson's Easter radio show and claims of a racially-based conspiracy only re-inforce in my mind his guilt. He has a lengthening history of inappropriate relationships with young boys, many publicly played out such as during the Thriller Grammys and the Martin Bashir documentary. It's as if he was asking our indulgence and understanding about his preference for little boys as playmates or companions, sexual or otherwise. Playing the race card, like his claims of injury, only serve as ruses to distract viewers from the evidence in the case and evoke sympathy whereever he can find it. Who's really guilty of conspiracy here?

It's clear to me, at least, that if acquitted, he will continue to slake his thirst for more children unabated. He will just pick kids who are even more needy and whose parents are more easily bought off. Or he will travel to other, more lenient countries and indulge his compulsions elsewhere.

As much as I loved Michael Jackson's music and dancing as a child, teenager and young adult, I can't help but think that his genius has taken a monstrous turn. If you read the Smoking Gun transcripts around this new case, it is hard not to come away with a serious concern for his alcoholism, denial and its likely impact on his own children. If nothing else, hopefully a jail term might provide a life-changing experience that brings a much needed dose of reality to Jackson's sick soul. If nothing else, a jail term will at least temporarily remove him as a threat to kids -- other people's and his own.

Reggie Fowler buys the Vikings

Reggie Fowler would be the second black owner in the four major North American professional sports leagues. The first black owner was Robert L. Johnson of the atrocious and embarrassing B.E.T., who bought the expansion Charlotte Bobcats of the N.B.A. in 2003 to round out his empire. Fowler appears to have a more innocuous and less booty-shaking oriented business selling containers to supermarkets and grocery stores. His company, Spiral Inc., is doing well, thank you very much.

It seems to me that it was only a matter of time before a former N.F.L. player, most of whom are African-American, bought a team. I had wondered if a group might come together to form a joint purchase deal. Currently, there is a bit of an image problem in sports, including the NFL. Most of the players are black, the quarterbacks are mostly white, the coaches are mostly white and the owners are very white. Doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for anyone else, either at the bottom or the top.

We can only benefit as a nation from having our sports heroes come from all walks of life and represent our country's diversity -- its greatest strength. This is important not just for our nation but for the world, which follows American sports and culture so closely. We must tap on creativity, prowess, intelligence and business acumen wherever we find it on the basis of merit and not birth.

I wonder if being a former player and/or if being African-American will impact Fowler's leadership of the Vikings in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. He has an insight into and instant cameraderie with his players that few owners can claim. It will be interesting to watch Minnesota's team over the next few years. In the meantime, it's always gratifying to see black history in the making, to watch doors open to others that once were closed to just a few. Goes to show that nowadays, it matters less and less the color of your skin as long as your money is green...

A little inside MBA knowledge

I'm afraid i've had Blogger Block this week. However, a conversation with a friend yesterday gave me something to share with the peeps. My former Reiki teacher surprised me with her theory that Republicans are usually good for the U.S. economy and that all things being equal, she's planning to vote for Bush in Nov. She also mentioned that she didn't think Kerry was stable or solid.

I have my own mixed feelings about Kerry, primarily centered on his original vote in support of launching the War in Iraq and his current mealy-mouthed excuses in the face of what was ultimately a politically craven decision. And I won't argue with her theory on Republicans' correlation with a positive economy. I think that Bush I put the country's economy on a solid track after Reagan's "voodoo economics" and Clinton was able to propel the nation's economy forward with that initial positive momentum. Does anyone remember the brief period from 1998-2001 of a balanced budget with surpluses projected for 10 years or more? Bush changed all that within the first 2 years of his adminstration through what observers might call out-of-control spending and mismanagement of the nation's resources.

Indeed, I must take issue with the wrong-headed and dangerous concept that the current Republican (whose traditional conservative values might be argued) in office is making wise decisions about our economy. One by one, over the past 2 years, many of my MBA professors at Georgetown warned us that the Bush administration's rate of deficit spending is not sustainable even in the short term. Our economics professor explained it best: the ratio of any nation's deficit as relates to its Gross National Product (GNP) must remain within a certain range. Otherwise, 2 things happen. As other nations buy our debt, we may lose our strength and independence as the world's largest economy and experience a weakened ability to negotiate with nations that hold our debt (and our future) in their hands.

Are those classified papers in your pants or are you just glad to see me?

What was Sandy Berger thinking? Everyone in DC knows you don't just "inadvertently" pick up classified documents. Especially from the National Archives where you have to request and check them out -- those types of documents are not just sitting on a shelf waiting to be reviewed by the general public. And one definitely does not destroy classified documents. That is a big no-no. No one in the know is buying that half-baked story.

News reports have indicated that the former head of the NSA under Clinton had been observed taking papers before and Archives staff specially marked some of the papers in a sort of sting to catch him red-handed. He was seen stuffing papers into his pants and jacket. What was he trying to cover up? We all know that somebody and probably a long list of somebodies dropped several balls leading to planes flying into major American monuments. We all know he's on that list of somebodies. But it's a big list. A lot of people guessed wrong -- not just Berger.

In making a desperate attempt to prop up his reputation, he has completely decimated it. Instead of being a yawn and a small footnote as one of the many people asleep at the wheel in terms of Al Qaeda, eyebrows around town and around the country are raised to Orange Alert -- what did Sandy know and when did he know it? What could he have done -- and did not do -- that might have prevented 9/11?

Is there some politics behind this coming out in the news now -- sure. He's been under investigation since October so why is this all of a sudden a big news story? Yet, partisan finger-pointing aside, this smells pretty bad. What on earth is in those documents that would be worth the risks he took to hide the truth from the 9/11 Commission and the public? That's what I'd like to know.

Democrats are saying nice things about him in the news and I am sure he is a very nice man. But there seems to be something fishy going on here.