Race to the Bottom

Bias and prejudice have been the way of the world since Homo sapiens began to dominate the earth. An innate suspicion of “different,” which some social scientists trace to a general survival emotion in which caution at the unknown prevails over other more warm and cuddly human instincts, can be traced to the earliest writings. As mankind has moved up the emotional evolutionary ladder, notions of democracy, brotherly love, tolerance of differences and the removal of that emotional threat perception have increasingly become the more dominant human values, more likely seen in more modern and progressive societies. But add precipitous change and impaired economic times, and watch the cultural backpedalling.

As Russia and Uganda move to reinforce their traditional anti-homosexual phobias, there is plenty of evidence, from proposed anti-gay rights legislation in many American states to out-and-out racism not just in the lingering backwater communities in the deep south, but even in the bastions of liberal American education in the north, that bigotry is alive and well in the United States. But even as some racially-motivated students recently placed a noose (with a Confederate emblem flag) around the statute of civil rights champion Medger Evers, the first African American to enroll in Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) and a man who was assassinated for his activism, evidence of continuing racism at the University of Michigan also made national headlines.

Black may be beautiful and deeply embedded in Michigan’s biggest cities, but the number of African American undergraduate students attending the prestigious University of Michigan is dropping – from 6.2% of the total enrollment in 2009 to an embarrassing 4.6% in 2013. As the economic strain of skyrocketing tuition costs and lower access to financial aid, particularly in state institutions, the toll among those least able to afford the cost of education has been steep.

But looking down on minorities is today as much an issue as it has been for too many years. “The scene at the undergraduate library one night [in mid-February] was quite different, as hundreds of [U of M] students and faculty members gathered for a 12-hour ‘speak out’ to address racial tensions brought to the fore by a party that had been planned for November and then canceled amid protests. The fraternity hosting the party, whose members are mostly Asian and white, had invited ‘rappers, twerkers, gangsters’ and others ‘back to da hood again.’” New York Times, February 24^th.

Black students at U of M watch their numbers drop, and a feeling of isolation mars their educational experience. But with an African American president, people are beginning to believe that we live is a new world where the racial divide has all-but-dissipated. “In the news media and in popular culture, the notion persists that millennials — born after the overt racial debates and divisions that shaped their parents’ lives — are growing up in a colorblind society in which interracial friendships and marriages are commonplace and racism is largely a relic.

“But interviews with dozens of students, professors and administrators at the University of Michigan and elsewhere indicate that the reality is far more complicated, and that racial tensions are playing out in new ways among young adults… Some experts say the concept of being ‘postracial’ can mean replicating some of the divisions and insensitivity of the past, perhaps more from ignorance than from animus. Others find offensive the idea of a society that strips away deeply personal beliefs surrounding self-identification…

“The number of complaints related to race and ethnicity filed against colleges and universities rose to 860 in 2013 from 555 in 2009, according to the Office for Civil Rights at the federal Education Department. Some experts believe that the increase reflects, at least in part, the role of social media in creating and then publicizing episodes… Students nationwide responded to a reporter’s request on Facebook and Twitter for stories about racial issues on college campuses. The experiences they described ranged from overt racism to more subtle forms of insensitivity…

“David J. Leonard, a professor in the department of critical culture, gender and race studies at Washington State University, said young people often viewed racism as something associated with extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. ‘People who don’t see themselves like this think: ‘We can poke fun. We can engage in stereotypes,’ ‘ Dr. Leonard said. ‘Racism gets reduced to intent, as if intent is all that matters.’” NY Times.

The bottom of the socioeconomic ladder has been particularly brutal for young Black males: “Approximately 12%-13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 40% of the almost 2.1 million male inmates in jail or prison (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009)…

·         A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.2

·         Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.

·         One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.

·         Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.” Wikipedia.

The President announced the official start of his “Brother’s Keeper” mentorship/support program, a venture between private donations and a federally-funded effort, focused on “at risk” minority boys, who are the raw material for the above statistics. “The aim is to ‘start a different cycle,’ Obama said. ‘If we help these wonderful young men become better husbands and fathers and well-educated, hardworking, good citizens, then not only will they contribute to the growth and prosperity of this country, but they will pass those lessons on to their children, on to their grandchildren...

“The White House posted a list of figures it said underscored a need for the initiative: The unemployment rate for African-American men over the age of 20 was 12 percent last month, compared with 5.4 percent for white men. Hispanic men over the age of 20 had an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau showed a poverty rate of 27.2 percent in black households and 25.6 percent for Hispanic households in 2012.” Detroitnews.com, February 27^th.

Without some pretty strong support from our school systems and more opportunities for higher education, these statistics could actually get worse. And with increasing beliefs that racism is no longer an issue, it is unlikely that these anomalies will be corrected. Change for the better requires a positive environment, a sympathetic constituency and, most of all, a recognition that the underlying problem is both serious and not remotely “solved.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless we all pull together, some of our nation’s most serious inequalities will continue unabated.

We Are the Weakest Link!

What do Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple, NBC, Evernote, TJ Maxx, Snapchat, Kickstarter, Skype, Target and Neiman Marcus have in common… with thousands of other small to middling to huge organizations (including the United States government) have in common? They’ve all been hacked! Sometimes the intrusion is minor… and sometimes the release of credit card and personal information can be devastating to massive numbers of individual victims or a hard slam to our national security priorities. Edward Snowden anyone?

“‘These days, criminal hacking is a business,’ Patrick Thomas, a security consultant at Neohapsis, [says] ‘Everything that is done has a chain linked to real dollars. And hackers are looking for the shortest chain.’… Sometimes, that entails stealing credit card numbers directly. Other times, it's selling user emails and passwords en masse on the deep web. Whether it involves an SQL [Structured Query Language, a data management program] injection or, in the case of Snapchat, the exploitation of faulty script [an error in the underlying code], these recent incidences again beg the question: Why do major Internet companies keep getting hacked? Shouldn't we have learned our lesson by now?” FastCompany.com, February 24^th.

In many cases, we are dealing with programming superstars with malevolence on their minds. They spend endless hours “data scraping,” or searching programs for entry-points, programming errors or, as noted above, injecting their own disruptors and deflectors into the existing code in data systems and online financial programs. But so many of the problems derive from the world of human error. When new software programs are released to the public, beyond the initial beta testing that is pretty routine, everyone expects problems. We are all familiar with the litany of patches and updates that follow as the selling company discovers all the little glitches (some not so little) in the millions and millions of lines of code embodied in the new release.

Imagine building cars that way. We rush to get the vehicles to market, and as people crash and burn on the highway, we issue patches and updates! Sure there are recalls, but they are considered extraordinary remedies, since there are rather stringent government tests required for any vehicles licensed for sale in the United States. Clearly, no parallel program exists for software. Why?

“One reason: Human beings are still the weakest link in the aforementioned chain to real dollars. ‘Humans can't be upgraded,’ says security blogger Graham Cluley in a phone conversation. ‘You can't fix the bug in people's brain that makes them click a link, or choose a really dumb password.’

“Take the recent Target hack, which leaked the personal data of 110 million customers. The breach reportedly began as an email-based phishing scheme. Although the retailer's consumer-facing website is well defended, hackers were reportedly able to gain access into Target's corporate network by using stolen authentication credentials from a subcontractor that dealt primarily in air conditioning. Someone in that subcontractor's office clicked something bad.

“You can hardly blame them, though. Social engineering attacks over email have been refined to a point that they're, at first glance, unremarkable. They're now built to ‘sail right through spam filters,’ explains Thomas. ‘It might look professional and well worded. It might use words from your business. It might even look expected.’” FastCompany.com. And damned fool people open these phishing expeditions, often responding and even providing the requested information without giving it a second thought.

And software engineers love all the cool new bells and whistles of their work… Security isn’t part of that new cool. “While the human element is an inescapable part of our hacking vulnerability, the other, equally messy part of the equation is that security is rarely a priority for the companies actually building software. Developers would rather ship a product fast than spend time testing a product for potential risks…‘The bigger problem is that security is just not top of mind for most developers,’ says Chris Eng, vice president of research at Veracode. ‘It's not something that has worked its way into a product's life cycle.’" FastCompany.com

So add a dollop of common sense and a dash of skepticism to your online presence and your use of software (especially the newest adds to your system). Love apps for your phone? So do hackers! Make sure you have the latest (and continuously updated) malware protection, a firewall, and make sure they are on and operational. Change your passwords regularly, adding a bit of complexity and unpredictability to your choices. Check your credit card statements carefully. And hold on, nothing is going to make this an easy and ultra-safe ride! There are a whole lot of nasty people out there who want your money… and your most private information.

I’m Peter Dekom, and individual cyber-security does require some localized individual responsibility.

Rebuilding the Unbuildable

Has New Orleans remotely recovered from a reported population loss, mostly spurred by 2005 Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of the city and its environs, of 29% in the last decade? Its 370,000 population is half what it was 50 years ago. In 2010, an estimated 90,000 housing units remained abandoned, jobs plummeted in the post-Katrina era, and the recession added to the toll. An initial 2006 proposal, to allow the city to shrink down to its core areas and focus the rebuilding effort where it mattered most – buying out the poor souls where rebuilding was not economically justified – died quickly in the Crescent City’s populist and politicized smoke-filled rooms.

Even today after much has been done to reduce the roiling urban blight, you can still walk by homes rotting, weeds grabbing at the remaining pillars and boards, as too many parts of greater New Orleans still remains withered and decimated, far short of the golden years of this great urban mix. Of course there’s been rebuilding and restoration… but the city, well, it’s just not the same anymore. Did the politicos at the top, those who have not been convicted of corruption, just bite off more than they could chew?

New Orleans was decimated by a natural disaster, an infrastructure suffering from America’s bad habit of “deferred maintenance” – cutting costs of necessities to pay for unbelievably generous public pension benefits – and the political battles that ensued only made that damage worse. But there is another major city that has been decimated by drastic change… this time not a sudden natural disaster, but a slow economic erosion based on excessive labor costs slammed by global pricing in an outsource-driven international marketplace.

“The city of Detroit has gone through a major economic and demographic decline in recent decades. The population of the city has fallen from a high of 1,850,000 in 1950 to 701,000 in 2013. The automobile industry in Detroit has suffered from global competition and has moved much of the remaining production out of Detroit. Some of the highest crime rates in the United States are now occurring in Detroit, and huge areas of the city are in a state of severe urban decay. In 2013, Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history.” Wikipedia.

Detroit has become America’s largest slum (see the picture above). As basic government services have contracted to the bone, police response times mixed with dark, unlighted streets, have become a criminal’s delight. Schools have deteriorated well below America’s already-abysmal standards. At every level, a skeleton staff of civil servants struggle to handle a workload that truly requires vastly larger staffs. Garbage collection to street repairs to health inspections are ridiculously sub-par.

But the post-bankruptcy plans for Detroit are more about “fix and repair,” lower taxes to attracted entrepreneurial investment, cutting as many pension commitments as possible through the provisions of Chapter 9 (municipal bankruptcy) of our federal bankruptcy code. Fixing all of Detroit is still the agenda, even though there is no reasonable expectation that the population necessary to justify a total fix will remotely return to the city in the very, very long-term vision. And we know that between the taxpayers in both Michigan and across the land, the appetite for the big repair just isn’t there. Further, while you might attract a few die-hard entrepreneurs into the core city, exactly how crazy do you have to be to move into this high-crime wasteland of a city to begin a business focused on growth? It might work for a few, but it is hardly a business plan that strikes me as credible.

It’s time to face the reality that we need some serious reprioritization in rebuilding decimated communities. Detroit won’t be the last such economic disaster, and New Orleans won’t be the last town slammed by natural devastation. If these cities simply cannot be expected to restore populations to peak occupancy, let’s focus our economic resources where it can actually create a sustainable solution. Buy out the outliers in the unsustainable sections of the community and focus resources where they matter.

“The scale of the two cities and the nature of their calamities differ, but Detroit can learn from New Orleans, where a fix that appeared rational to some experts and civic leaders was thrown aside for a way forward that has been slower and messier but politically more palatable and, many here believe, fairer.

“Shrinking the footprint ‘was a logical and practical idea that was completely irrelevant to the time and place it was presented in,’ said Steve Bingler, an architect who played a role in the humbler city plans that came later. ‘They really wanted a silver bullet.’

“The arguments heard in Detroit in recent years echo those that were made here at the time: The New Orleans population had been contracting long before Katrina and would certainly be much smaller afterward; even the billions of dollars in federal recovery aid would be insufficient to rebuild the whole city; those who came back would be stranded in parts of town lacking services like police protection and streetlights…

“Debt refinancing, property tax reassessment and, most critically, a huge infusion of recovery money have all helped maintain services, but the money available is still inadequate. The city has had to prioritize the paving of roads, the fixing of streetlights and the building of parks. The Police Department has been spread thin, an issue in this year’s mayoral election, but plans to hire more officers have required significant cuts in many other departments, including public works.” New York Times, February 21st. Americans deserve plans and dreams that can be implemented and that are both viable and sustainable. We need to rebuild, but we need to keep it real.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if we deploy our rebuilding capital intelligently, we may actually generate a new cash-generating tax based… instead of a costly and constant bailout to prevent a slow and inevitable failure.

$700 Billion Later

That doesn’t include all the future veteran pension, healthcare and disability benefits that will linger for decades to come. Yup, it’s the basic cost to the United States government (since 2001) for its involvement in the clearly failed effort in Afghanistan (see below). It doesn’t count the $818 billion cost of other clearly failed military effort – oops there goes another car bomb in Baghdad and another al Qaeda raid against Shiite targets… anywhere – in Iraq, a government that by reason of its overwhelming Shiite population (60%) has effectively turned that country into a political satellite of Shiite-dominated Iran. Austerity? Budget cuts? We don’t have money for schools, infrastructure and the poor? The Bush administration got us woefully into this under-thought mess, and the Obama administration couldn’t figure out how to extract our troops from these unwinnable wars within anything like a reasonable time.

We had the Taliban by the tail early in the engagement (right after our counter in 2001), but instead of finishing the job, we repositioned our troop priorities to Iraq in 2003, allowing the Taliban who gave comfort to the 9/11 al Qaeda attackers to rebuild their power based, reinforce their military capacity and raise money from sympathizers all over the world. They specifically reconfigured their forces and underlying strategy to decimate NATO priorities and begin the long, lingering effort to take down the mega-mega-corrupt Karzai government (which is termed out this year… likely to be replaced by another regime with a need to fill its coffers to mirror the wealth siphoned off by Karzai and his cronies). They might share power with some regional war lords, but it seems that taking down the U.S.-installed government in Kabul is a Taliban priority.

While we struggle in our negotiations with Kabul to leave some NATO forces behind after the bulk of our troops are withdrawn by the end of the year (there are no longer regular parts of the combat forces in the country), an ungrateful Karzai is playing to the Taliban crowd in the hopes of working out some power-sharing arrangement so that his cronies can keep their ill-gotten gains (at least those not exported to Swiss bank accounts).

Why would Americans even want to stay? Oh yeah, we can use bases in Afghanistan to launch our much loved drone strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan… but mostly in that nefarious tribal district in western  Pakistan, a no-man’s land filled with well-armed, Western-hating terrorists with death and destruction on their mind. And though Pakistan has repeatedly stated that it abhors such anonymous strikes from above, they too are struggling against their own Taliban insurgency.

So how exactly is the “legitimate” Afghan army doing against the Taliban insurgency? Here one of a litany of rolling failures: “Taliban insurgents overran an Afghan National Army base near [Asadabad on the morning of February 23rd], killing 21 soldiers in their bunks in what appeared to be the worst single blow to government forces since 2010, according to both government and insurgent officials.

“President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation and canceled a planned state visit to Sri Lanka in response to the attack, in the Ghaziabad district of Kunar Province, near the eastern border with Pakistan.

“The attack highlighted the vulnerability of Afghan military units, which are generally no longer accompanied by American or other NATO advisers and do not have the close air support they often enjoyed. And it raised questions about the Afghans’ ability to hold out against the insurgents on their own as the NATO mission winds down and international forces prepare to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014… At the same time, there were new signals that efforts to start peace talks with the insurgents were foundering.” New York Times, February 24th.

As Chinese troops practice beach landings, sending a clear message to Japan about who really controls the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, Ukraine struggles to replace and regenerate a government in direct contravention of Vladimir Putin’s aspirations for this economically and politically decimated nation, as the civil war in Syria seems unending, as Iran seems to be falling behind on its de-nuclearization pledge, and as riots continue to plague Thailand and Venezuela, it fascinating to watch how little foreign policy matters in the great debates within the United States.

While the Democrats have former Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden with relevant international expertise, the GOP seems to have zero viable presidential aspirants with any relevant foreign policy experience whatsoever. It’s not an issue that seems to matter to them. All we hear is the sleepwalking-mantra of keeping our military at current or higher levels, notwithstanding the legacy of military failure that has been our overwhelming pattern since the Vietnam War.

But the harsh reality of budget cuts is impacting our military nevertheless: “The Pentagon said on [February 24th] it would shrink the U.S. Army to pre-World War Two levels, eliminate the popular A-10 aircraft and reduce military benefits in order to meet 2015 spending caps, setting up an election-year fight with the Congress over national defense priorities… [Defense Secretary Chuck] Hagel said the Pentagon plans to reduce the size of the Army to between 440,000 and 450,000 soldiers. The Army is currently about 520,000 soldiers and had been planning to draw down to about 490,000 in the coming year.”

Reuters.com, February 25th. Lacking any senior diplomatic stars and relying heavily on a simple military threat, senior GOP members of Congress immediately protested that the United States cannot afford to reduce their armed forces.

If we are going to keep our nation safe in an unpredictable and hostile world, we need more than sophisticated weapon systems to defuse global situations that threaten our food supply, fuel prices and undermine our economic and political goals everywhere. Come on, GOP, we know you can do better! Come on Senate, the world is a tough place so deal with it. And as for you House, you might consider picking up some history books to see the mistakes others have made that you seem destined to repeat.

I’m Peter Dekom, and for a multicultural nation, it seems that we have less of an understanding of global issues than we have had in almost a century.

Say Nay to Gay?

Here’s the bias or bigotry (you pick) of backlash that is attempting to counter the accelerating passage (or judicial affirmation) of gay rights in America: “In New Mexico, a photographer declined to take pictures of a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony. In Washington State, a florist would not provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. And in Colorado, a baker refused to make a cake for a party celebrating the wedding of two men.

“The business owners cited religious beliefs in declining to provide services celebrating same-sex relationships. And in each case, they were sued… Now, as states around the nation weigh how to balance the rights of same-sex couples with those of conservative religious business owners, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona must decide whether to sign legislation that would allow business owners to cite religious beliefs as a legal justification for denying service to same-sex couples.” New York Times, February 21^st.

The arguments against gay rights are almost always rooted in religious tradition: “‘In America, people should be free to live and work according to their faith, and the government shouldn’t be able to tell us we can’t do that,’ said Joseph E. La Rue, the legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization based in Scottsdale, Ariz., that advocates religious liberty and supports the measure passed by the State Legislature. ‘Faith shouldn’t be something we have to leave inside our house.’” NY Times. And after all, we are a nation of religious freedom.

It is, however, interesting to understand this religious bias, particularly in our Judeo-Christian traditions. Here’s one of the most articulate responses to that religious justification. It came in an open Web-posted letter in response to Dr. Laura (PhD Psychologist, Laura Schlessinger) after she cited the  biblical passage on her socially conservative radio talk show. As a practicing Orthodox Jew, she said, according to Leviticus 18:22, homosexuality is an abomination against God’s will. Got it. But James M. Kauffman (pictured above), Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia, wrote this stunning and biting response to Dr. Laura’s self-righteous position:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan,

James M. Kauffman

“James M. Kauffman (born December 7, 1940 in Hannibal, MO) is an American who has made significant contributions to the field of education, specifically special education. He has authored or co-authored several books and many journal articles in the fields of special education, education reform, child psychology, and child development and has served in various editorial capacities. The topics he has written about include behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, mental retardation, instructional and behavior management techniques in the classroom, education reform, and ethical and policy issues. He has also made presentations in multiple countries. He currently is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he became a faculty member in 1970. He has had an active career in education since the 1960s.” Wikipedia.

One of the saddest parts of religiously-justified bigotry is the cherry-picking of religious text: a complete failure either to “look at it all” or an uncanny ability simply to ignore stuff you don’t like, choosing instead stuff that supports your own deeply embedded prejudices. Be grateful that the vast majority of Americans just feel bad about isolating a class of human beings whose very nature is simply a part of who they are… traits that truly do not impinge upon or hurt anyone else.

And if we are still mired in an unsustainable archaic muddle of bigotry, picture the anti-gay laws in Russia and elsewhere. “Uganda's president on [February 24^th] signed a controversial anti-gay bill that has harsh penalties for homosexual sex, saying the bill is necessary because ‘arrogant and careless Western groups’ had tried to ‘recruit’ Ugandan children into homosexuality… The new law calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It also sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for a category of offenses called ‘aggravated homosexuality,’ defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults as well as acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.” Huffington Post, February 24^th. I wonder if Arizona legislators are thinking they didn’t go far enough?

I’m Peter Dekom, and hatred blended with bigotry – however justified – is always ugly.