Black Kos Tuesday: Thanking you for your service! – Daily Kos

Thanking you for your service!
Commentary by Chitown Kev
Honestly, I’ve never been so…parochial is the proper word for me to use here…that I’ve felt that I could usefully describe myself as being an American. I embraced myself as being a cosmopolitan sort guy even before I learned the etymology of that word; learning that etymology only made me embrace the cosmopolitan identity even more. In fact, one of my missions now at Daily Kos is to reclaim that identity from the knuckle-dragging white christian nationalist MAGA folks that have deigned to use that word as both a pejorative and an air-raid siren for antisemitism.
I say that because I’ve never been the military type, even though I tried to entry the military once (to escape from a bad intimate relationship) and was (rightly) kick out of boot camp. I am one of the few males in my immediate family that has not gone into the military; my grandfather, stepfather, brother, both of my nephews, many second cousins, uncles; many of my relatives have served their time giving service back to their country. Some (two of my second cousins) even made careers out of the military.
They all had their varied reasons for going into the military. Some had mouths to feed. My nephew said that he wanted to travel. Nevertheless, they all did their time and served honorably. including in the wars that this nation was involved in just before and after the turn of the millennium.
They have the scars to prove it; the scars that can and cannot be seen. I’ve learned over time to honor that service and to honor them for being of service to their country.
So when this country’s commander-in chief is no more than a bone-spurs-having tacky-ass shoe salesman…well, I don’t know what to say.
When I see stories like this:
“War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge” apnews.com/article/dei-…
And this:
“The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters ‘DEI’ added to the site’s address… The URL was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to “ ‘deimedal.’”
And this:
The purge, which also targeted multiple webpages about women and LGBTQ+ service members, highlights how aggressively military leaders are pursuing President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI mandate. Read more here:
And this:
“Articles about the renowned Native American Code Talkers have disappeared from some military websites, with several broken URLs now labeled ‘DEI.’”
/smdh
Black people and other people of color were fighting for this nation even before this nation was a nation and even when they came back home in order to be disrespected, disregarded, cheated, and were even killed in uniform by MAGA’s ancestors.
I have half a mind simply to say “well, fu*k you too, America” about this utter disrespect but on second thought…
I’ll simply say, “thank you for your service” to all of my relatives and to all of the Black people and people of color that served this country honorably and (in the case of a couple of my relatives) with true distinction.
American doesn’t deserve you.
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The struggle for equality and civil rights has been a long and hard-fought battle in the United States. However, one of the most powerful tools used to amplify the voices of African Americans in the early 19th century was the press. Among the first and most influential publications dedicated to giving voice to the African American experience was Freedom’s Journal, founded on March 16, 1827. It was the first newspaper owned and operated by African Americans. Its creation and impact marked a pivotal moment in the history of Black journalism and civil rights.
Established following the end of slavery in New York State, the Freedom’s Journal was founded in NYC by a group of free African American men. Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm played an instrumental role in the publication’s success and served as its senior and junior editors, according to PBS. The historic news source came at a time when African Americans were fighting against oppression, marginalization, and the growing racial tensions of the era across the country as a number of states were still entrenched in slavery. Having no outlet to express themselves, learn about Black history, or to protest for civil rights, the Freedom’s Journal provided African Americans with a platform to document and talk about their experiences. It also served as a soundboard, providing a platform to form calls for social justice.
At its inception, Freedom’s Journal was a subscription-based publication that aimed to address issues of slavery, racism, and civil rights. It was created to combat the rampant negative stereotyping and misrepresentation of African Americans in the mainstream press, which was often hostile to their rights and humanity. Cornish and Russwurm, both well-educated and deeply committed to their cause, envisioned the paper as a means to inform, educate, and inspire Black people to fight for their rights and for an end to slavery.
PBS highlighted that the groundbreaking publication shared similarities with other antebellum reform papers in that it featured news of current events, editorials, and anecdotes while addressing critical issues of the time such as slavery and “colonization.” The concept of colonization was promoted by The American Colonization Society, a predominantly white pro-emigration group founded in 1816 with the goal of sending free Black individuals back to Africa. Although initially opposed to colonization, Freedom’s Journal strongly condemned slavery, advocated for political rights for Black people, and called for the right to vote.
Per Black Past, the newspaper provided its readers with a mix of regional, national, and international news, combining both informative and entertaining content. It aimed to improve the lives of the over 300,000 newly freed Black men and women living in the North. Over 800 copies were distributed throughout 11 states and the District of Columbia. It reached as far as Canada, Haiti, Sierra Leone, and the United Kingdom. Users paid an annual subscription cost of $3 per year.

The United States has expelled South Africa’s ambassador after accusing him of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates America and president Donald Trump.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday that the envoy was “no longer welcome in our great country”.
“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.”
Mr Rubio reposted an article from the right-wing website Breitbart that quoted the envoy saying in a webinar that Mr Trump was leading a white “supremacist” movement.
Since Mr Trump returned to the White House, ties between the two countries have reached their “lowest point”, according to Patrick Gaspard, former US ambassador to South Africa.
Diana Salazar Méndez—the youngest person, at 42, and the first Black woman to serve as Ecuador’s top law-enforcement official—has one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in the western hemisphere. While she has pursued challenging cases before—not every prosecutor can say they have successfully secured convictions of a top football executive and a former President—Ecuador’s Attorney General is now spearheading the effort to prevent violent and well-connected drug traffickers from ruining her beloved country.
As she prosecutes embedded webs of powerful political, judicial, police, and economic players allied with the drug traffickers, she and her family have been subjected to a stream of threats, rendered credible by gangs that have a history of targeting with guns those who have targeted them with the law. In a country where trust in institutions has been low, Salazar has earned the respect and support of a population desperate for calm and safety. As she puts it, “It’s time to tell all of Ecuador that justice will not kneel down.”
Authorities and environmentalists in Zambia fear the long-term impact of an acid spill at a Chinese-owned mine that contaminated a major river and could potentially affect millions of people after signs of pollution were detected at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) downstream.
The spill happened on Feb. 18 when a tailings dam that holds acidic waste from a copper mine in the north of the country collapsed, according to investigators from the Engineering Institution of Zambia.
The collapse allowed some 50 million liters of waste containing concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals to flow into a stream that links to the Kafue River, Zambia’s most important waterway, the engineering institution said.
“It is an environmental disaster really of catastrophic consequences,” said Chilekwa Mumba, an environmental activist who works in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province.
China is the dominant player in copper mining in Zambia, a southern African nation which is among the world’s top 10 producers of copper, a key component in smartphones and other technology.
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema called for help from experts and said the leak is a crisis that threatens people and wildlife along the Kafue, which runs for more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) through the heart of Zambia.
Authorities are still investigating the extent of the environmental damage.

Last July, Nigeria’s third-most powerful man gave a rare apology on the floor of the senate which he heads.
Godswill Akpabio had chastised his colleague Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for speaking out of turn, saying: “We are not in a nightclub”. But after receiving what he said was a deluge of insulting text messages from Nigerians, he apologised publicly a few days later.
In recent weeks, the two have been at the centre of a political row that has gripped the country, after an interview that Akpoti-Uduaghan gave to the broadcaster Arise TV in late February in which she accused Akpabio of sexual harassment.
She alleged that in one incident Akpabio had told her that a motion she was trying to advance could be put to the senate if she “took care” of him. In another, she said that on a tour of his house he had told her – while holding her hand – “I’m going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here. You will enjoy it.”
Akpabio has denied the allegations.
Akpoti-Uduaghan submitted a petition to the senate alleging sexual harassment, but on 6 March the ethics committee struck it out on procedural grounds. It also handed her a six-month suspension without pay, citing her “unruly and disruptive” behaviour during an unrelated argument in the senate about seating arrangements.
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