My Flag, My Country by Mary Neal

(11 links, 34 paragraphs plus a signature block, and 10 photos - please count)  As we approach the 43rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, I decided to share my article called "My Flag, My Country." It was first published it in 2008 at NowPublic.com and continues to be a point of contention for some people. The idea of attacking "My Flag, My Country" is to present me falsely as being unpatriotic, as happened to Dr. King and other human rights advocates in America's history, including slavery abolitionists, suffragettes, union organizers, and civil rights activists of all races.  Patriotism does not mean acquiescence with corporate government control at the expense of middle class and indigent Americans and immigrants.  I feel that racism and classism are enemies of justice and will keep saying so.  People who propagate equal justice for all people without regard to race, ethnicity, socio-economic or health status are still viewed as being radical extremists, although that is the nation's creed and a Christian mandate.  When I published "My Flag, My Country" in this MaryLovesJustice blog, strange boarders immediately appeared at Comment No. 2 at paragraph 25, making the spaces between paragraphs appear uneven.  Sometimes boarders seen only in the edit field indicate the parts of Americans' blogs that are rendered invisible or ineligible for copying and pasting.  Cyberstalkers can also prevent parts of websites from printing. The contested article,"My Flag, My Country," is presented below:

MY FLAG, MY COUNTRY! by Mary Neal 

 

This is our flag and our country!  Too often the flag is used as a symbol of one political party rather than a symbol of the United States of America.  Many African Americans do not say with pride, "I am an American!" because of the ongoing racism and centuries of hatred we have endured and continue to battle.  But when you look around you wherever you happen to be in this country, you see the results of centuries of our contribution. 

We did not come here in the 1940's seeking a better life, although I congratulate those who did and hope they found good success for their families.  But African Americans have been here from the beginning working to make America the prosperous nation that it is ever since the earliest settlers!  That's black men's blood under the overpasses where you drive.  That's black men's sweat you see drying on the railroad tracks as you take long trips, sweat from leased slaves.  That's black men's blood on the battlefields from the Revolutionary War to Iraq's desert.  That's black children's echos you hear as you drive by the cotton fields throughout the South. 

This is MY COUNTRY, and I'm going to fight to hold America to the pledge I was instructed to say every morning of my young life:

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

America WILL keep her pledge to me, even though my hands are raw, calloused and swollen from yanking her promises away from those who would withhold the rights I am due, and I honor my pledge to America.  My great, great, great grandmother came from Africa, but for me, America is home!  I will join hands in unity with Americans of all races and ethnic groups and fight to make her better just as our fathers fought to carve her out of wilderness and died to keep her safe.  Let others give up on America, but I'm going to stand right here and claim my hard-won citizenship with pride and demand what is mine by birth and bloodshed.  GOD BLESS AMERICA!  Three striking videos below!  Watch:

James Brown's Living in America -  www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHqUipinDyw  

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPbIls0iOnI

Apr 2011 insert:  Cochran Firm Fraud, video 1 of 3 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ltCpy1uu0

It is important to keep in mind that patriotism also means developing and keeping a good relationship with other world citizens.  Ultimately, we ALL share a common home - earth.  And whether we acknowledge it or not, we all share the same loving Creator.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. ~ Romans.12:18

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly. ~ Proverbs.18:24

UPDATE 12-13-08 - An interesting thing happened this morning.  I opened my Yahoo email box and there were several groups I never joined - Pakistan, and others.  I wish everyone well all over the world, but I wondered why the groups showed up in my email box since I never joined them and do not wish to do so.  Perhaps, like with Martin Luther King and others, there is an attempt to make it appear that any Americans who stand up for freedom and justice for all must be of another political persuasion.  To clarify, I am a capitalist without any capital, and I believe more in democracy than those folks in Washington any old day.  Bless their hearts.  Stealing my emails and replacing my groups with foreign national groups will not work.  Try something else.  And stop substituting the last part of addresses in my contact list with different data after the @ so that my mail does not reach the folks I email!

At the end of the day, I will still stand and demand to know what you did with my mentally ill brother, Larry Neal, who died under Secret Arrest in Memphis/Shelby County Jail.  His family has asked for FIVE years what you did to him and why you did it.  Furthermore, I will continue to demand that you decriminalize mental illness and replace prisons with treatment for mental patients.  God said that we must treat others as we wish to be treated, and I don't think anyone in power around here would want a sick loved one treated as though his illness was a criminal offense punishable by solitary confinement in the "hole," tasered, gassed, or otherwise abused.  No official would have the least bit of trouble having the death of his loved one investigated, especially if that person dies in government custody.  So I don't appreciate it.  Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition government for a redress of grievances are my rights as a citizen, and I will not give up any of them.

To secretly arrest a handicapped citizen and return him dead without explanation, excuse, full autopsy report, and denied any investigation is very undemocratic of YOU, not me.

That concludes the original "My Flag, My Country" article I published in 2008 at NowPublic.com.  I am not interested in going "back" to Africa, where I have never visited, but I do not appreciate anyone bombing her, either. I never changed my name to an African name, but I honor and understand other people's choice who do that.  With my luck, I might error and choose the very name of an African who led whites to my ancestors' village.  Whites didn't know the way through the Congo, you know, and with my nose, that may be my origin.  And it is only one of my origins.  My lineage includes whites and a Cherokee Native American within three generations of my birth.  America is not the melting pot that it should be when it comes to sharing wealth and power, but regarding DNA, it's a different story.  Many people would be surprised to know that the people they hate are their brothers. Even in the absence of intermixing, as a Christian I believe all wars are civil wars because all human beings are brothers and sisters who have a common loving Creator.  COINTELPRO wastes time trying to portray me as being anything but what I am - a black Southern woman who says to decision makers - PLEASE BE TRUE TO WHAT AMERICA SAID ON PAPER (MLK).  

I copied "My Flag, My Country" because the link changed at NowPublic - http://www.d1.ae.d2.nowpublic.com/world/my-flag-my-country-mary-neal (the "d1.ae.d2" are new and may have a technical explanation for being there, but I had several articles to disappear from NowPublic and decided to republish this one).  It was fortunate that I republished "Human Rights for Prisoners March," because it disappeared into the edit field at NowPublic and remains there.  My article called "Cochran Firm Fraud Continues Unchecked by the Courts" was not republished after it disappeared because I covered the subject so thoroughly in other articles.  (Google "Cochran Firm Fraud Mary Neal".)  Of course, I have the articles on disc, but cyberdogs who attack my home PC deactivate my CD rom because they fear I will make copies of my discs that feature real-time cyberstalking, and they are right.  Someone should tell them there are computers almost everyplace.

I also publish videos such as "Prison Labor Profits" to prove I am cyberstalked and to help other Americans recognize that their emails and websites are likely also monitored and controlled, especially if their subject matter is controversial and exposes government corruption like my handicapped brother's secret arrest and murder and the cover-up that continues.  Like Dorothea Dix (pictured), I believe mentally ill Americans' right to life deserves protection as much as pit bulls.  Please visit the online advocacy organization I founded and direct, Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI), which is also known as The Dorothea Dix Group - http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI -  I believe First Amendment violations are repulsive and evidence a definite lack of patriotism in decision makers who facilitate or allow it.  Censorship against advocacy to decriminalize mental illness (which would reduce prison profits) was proved beyond doubt when the media refused to make reports about H.R.619, a congressional bill introduced in January 2009 by Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX) to resume Medicaid for inpatient psychiatric care.  For two years, mainstream media refused to mention the health bill that was significant to millions of Americans although nearly every news broadcast focused on national health care.  

Unfortunately, America's middle class and indigent citizens and immigrants are victimized to enrich the elite, including mentally challenged people who are wrongly denied treatment in the expectation that they might become eligible for incarceration like 1.25 million other mentally ill inmates, at zero savings for taxpayers. Further evidence of illegal censorship was the surreptitious deletion of 11,000 of my tweets for human/civil rights in December 2010. I am grateful my @koffietime tweets were reinstated in February 2011 after many complaints. 

I also copied three (3) of my comments from "My Flag, My Country" at NowPublic, where I published 174 articles as "duo." The three comments are below, two of which include famous quotes by Dr. King.  Unfortunately, cyberstalkers attacked a quote from his famous "Mountaintop" address, which Dr. King delivered on April 3, 1968, in Memphis where he supported striking sanitation workers.


COMMENT NO. 1 -- Dec. 17, 2008 - 22:46 - Thanks, Politisite!  I believe in the Pledge and making it a reality for my family and for many other citizens.  I hold to the statement:  "In God we trust."  We should never abandon sound principles because there are some faults in the system and people in high positions who refuse to adhere to those principles.  I think it behooves all Americans to try to make the ideal of America a reality for all citizens across this great land.  


Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. 

~ Martin Luther King Jr. 


Regarding folks wanting to take "under God" away from the Pledge, I say yes.  He is sick of hypocrites anyway and has never appreciated empty accolades.  Folks saying one thing and living contrary to their own words make Him have upset stomach. Read:


I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked...Revelations 3:15-17

Many folks feel so smart and wealthy that they don't need to serve God in America and treat everyone with respect. So if people feel independent of God and refuse to live by His order, which is to love everybody, then they should indeed stop calling His name.  He is likely weary of hearing it.   Mary


COMMENT NO. 2 -- December 14, 2008 - 09:30 -- Thank you, Azzayindia.  It is time for people to focus on the ties that bind us instead of so much division.  Blood and body parts are interchangeable across races, nationalities, and economic classes, so what does that tell you?  We are all in the human family.  We should love one another.  But if folks find "love thy neighbor" is asking too much, we should at least respect each other.  Mary.


COMMENT NO. 3 -- December 22, 2008 - 19:40 -- . . . Speaking of Dr. King, I listen to his speeches almost daily.  He and many other great spokesmen and writers who advocated for freedom and justice for all are sources of inspiration for many people.  Here is a speech wherein he said,


"All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.' If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they haven't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights.  And so just as I say, we aren't going to let any dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren't going to let  any injunction turn us around.  We're going on."  (This ends the three (3) comments from NowPublic.com)

When I wrote the final comment above back in December 2008 and included Rev. King's famous quote from his last speech, the "Mountaintop" address, I discovered the quote was falsely presented in 90% of the online text versions (I hope people corrected those now since the "error" were caught over two years ago).  I remembered Rev. King's quote by heart but looked for it online to make sure I had it right.  It was shocking to find that in nearly all the online text presentations, publishers had omitted "illegal injunctions" and "we aren't going to let any dogs or water hoses turn us around."  A YouTube two-part videotape of Rev. King giving that speech actually skipped the quote altogether.  The idea of people ignoring illegal injunctions and resisting oppression in the face of danger concerns elitists, so Rev. King's speech was trimmed.  Moreover, the man was assassinated.  (See my video about that discovery among the censorship videos running in the YouTube widget at the top of the screen at my MaryLoveJustice blog, or see it among my real-time cyberstalking videos at my YouTube channel - jkempp703.)  

Cyberstalkers also attacked my article about the sabotage against Rev. King's "Mountaintop" address.  I finally got the article published at NowPublic and my FreeSpeakblog despite interference.  Determination brings victories often.  "Winners never quit, and quitters never win."  I like sayings like the ones I learned as a child.  I believed them then and still do. That is why I advise elitists who seem determined to have a "slave class" in America comprised of middle class and poor people of all races that they should eliminate Civics classes and stop having schoolchildren say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.  Otherwise, children will continue to develop a Philosophy of Liberty like many Americans and immigrants did who are protesting injustices now.  

Rev. King had and still has trouble with COINTELPRO over four decades after his murder.  Truthout.org and I are in good company.  On March 31, 2011, I received an email from Truthout.org saying that all of its articles for the last ten (10) days were deleted by cyberattack.  There is a war against freedom of press and speech - an infowar.  These people . . . I pray for them all the time.  That helps me, if not them.  We must forgive to be forgiven, as I advise capital punishment supporters often.  But Pharisees (unjust lawyers, such as some of those entrusted with government powers) never liked hearing what Jesus said, not centuries ago or now. I am happy to report that next time He comes, He will not be a helpless infant and grow up to be a mortal man who can be executed.  He will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, a highly coveted position that will never belong to earthly overlords.  

I am not convinced that people who propagate equal justice and compassion for the nation's most vulnerable citizens are unpatriotic and deserve to be on watchlists like Dr. King was.  Neither should black, Native American, Asian, Latino, or a white persons who lack wealth and privilege be unfairly strained to benefit corporate interests that elect to outsource jobs overseas and to prisons to avoid worker unions, minimum wage and worker safety laws.  Elitists waste their efforts trying to convince me that patriotism requires acquiescence regarding wars in the absence of preemptive force, bailouts to big business, and ignoring missing and murdered prisoners like my harmless schizophrenic brother who was a middle aged heart patient or 37 Georgia inmates who reportedly "disappeared" in December 2010.  Maybe you cannot be a New American if you have a Philosophy of Liberty, but you can be a real one.  All it takes is a commitment to freedom and equal justice for yourself and for others, also.  This is OUR country.  Let's take it back.  BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE: No Shopping on April 9 or the 9th of Any Month in 2011.  Join the people's 9/11 response to corporate greed and government misdeeds.  See several articles about the Boycott 4 Justice in my FreeSpeakBlog.  April's announcement for the 24-hour shopping moratorium is at this link: http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/boycott-4-justice-no-shopping-april-9.html

Please also see the Boycott 4 Justice announcement for March 9, 2011 and an announcement for "Human Rights for Prisoners Boycott" at my FreeSpeakBlog.  The announcements are planned for each month throughout 2011 to invite everyone who has a sense of justice and the resilience to resist oppression to participate in the people's peaceful, powerful protest against corporate greed and government misdeeds.  Nearly every wrong decision benefits corporate interests.  We the People must answer unjust business decisions financially, just as boycotts were used during the civil rights era when Dr. King and other humanitarians wounded Jim Crow.


If racist elitists protest my claiming this as MY FLAG, MY COUNTRY, and continue refusing my right to protest the secret arrest and wrongful death of my mentally, physically disabled brother and abuses of power against other Americans and immigrants, then it is time to release black military people and refund a century of taxes we paid plus pay reparations for slavery and discrimination just as Johnnie Cochran planned before he partnered with certain Pharisees, took sick and suddenly died, leaving them with his name.  Visit "Mary Neal's Black History Month 2011" for more information about The Cochran Firm's new agenda and the development of my Philosophy of Liberty at this link:  http://hubpages.com/hub/Mary-Neals-Black-History-Month-2011   


Blessings,
Mary Neal

Website:  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Blogs:  FreeSpeakBlog http://FreeSpeakBlog.blogspot.com

MaryLovesJustice http://MaryLovesJustice.blogspot.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

Visit online:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI