#ANGRY MARENGO

[marengogo]

LET IT BE KNOWN:

Unless it turns out that the Tannies are responsible for TW occurrences, there will be no anti, no solo, no deluded-shippers, no misguided-boycotter and no XXX-whatever (cause there still a long way to go to 2025…) who will stop me from being SAVAGE AS FUCK WITH MY LOVE FOR THE BOYS.

And I will be careful until the time they get to finally speak for themselves; 23 JUNE 2025. Until then, I will not speak for them on sensitive matters and do my part in appreciating and enjoying all they’ve worked hard on and left for us, because we were gonna be lonely because they could have just fucked off and said “I’m about to go through some though shit so please don’t expect shit” but they didn’t.

I’ve been around this life 3 times so far and the first 2 were enough to understand a thing or two. One of those things is that Karma never misses, even when it seems it does. So I’ll let Karma do their thing and I’ll do mine.

Until 23 JUNE 2025 I’ll be careful not to cause the boys any harm with my words while still being as supportive as ever. If there is one thing I can do while they are away, that’s the thing. What I won’t do in their absence is jump to conclusion, swim in assumption or take their decisions.

MAJOR MARENGO PET-PEEEVE that nobody asked: NO MATTER HOW WELL YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME DON’T SPEAK FOR ME. EVER.

That’s all.

Marengo.

PS - ARMY is a fandom, hence we all supposedly move following a common interest, which in this case is the love for a musical group. If there comes an instance in which we can’t all agree on a topic at hand, regardless of the topic, no single individual, or group within the fandom, can speak for the fandom. Unless we all agree for it to be so. This is basic common sense .

[josefavomjaaga]

Hortense about "Les Pestiférés de Jaffa"

This is an add-on to this post, in particular to the wonderful answer by @orsuliya about Gros being angry at Bessières and depicting him in this embarrassing way as a way of revenge. I wanted to reblog at first but this translation did get kind of long, so I thought I'd better put it in its own post. Here is what Hortense has to say in her memoirs about that very same painting, and in particular about her brother’s reaction to it. - However, I believe Hortense places this scene somewhat earlier, during the Consulate, even early in the Consulate, a rather short time after the battle of Marengo and after Gros had returned from Italy to Paris (which happened somewhen in 1801?).

As I had often heard [Napoleon] and those who had accompanied him talk about his visit to the plague-stricken people of Jaffa, I thought there would be a fine picture to paint on this subject. Gros, who had just arrived from Italy, was in the Tuileries one morning. I told him about my idea. He approved it and painted a picture that has remained one of his masterpieces. It was exhibited at the Salon.

At which point editor Hanoteau adds a footnote about the painting:

Gros, who had just completed a mission to Italy to select the works of art granted to us by the peace treaty, exhibited the Pestiférés de Jaffa at the Salon of 1804. This painting is now in the Louvre. The sketch is in the Château de Chantilly.

(I wish Hanoteau had also talked about the probability of Hortense - of all people - having given the idea to this painting. In my opinion, it's much more likely that the painting was officially commissioned, and that Hortense is only drawing all attention to herself, as usual.)

But here comes Eugène:

My brother arrived one morning, highly irritated with the painter who had depicted the general's aides-de-camp following him and holding their handkerchiefs to their mouths. "No one better than I," he told me, "can know how this visit went, since I was there, along with the general's other aides-de-camp. We were certainly not at our ease, but would we have had so little control over ourselves as to show any fear when the general, in order to reassure the army, showed such courage and exposed himself so much?" I had great difficulty in persuading my brother that painting was necessarily an imperfect language, that it could only express an idea in a certain way, and that, in order to convey the courageous action of the main character, it had been necessary to indicate a different feeling in the others and, consequently, to sacrifice them. All the First Consul's aides-de-camp shared my brother's indignation against the painter and I had great difficulty in bringing them back to the necessities of art.

Eugène: We didn't do that!

Hortense: [improvises a 15-minute speech about the goals and limitations of art and the artist's obligation to sometimes tell a small lie in order to convey a greater truth]

Eugène: Yeah, but we still didn't do it!

If Eugène really was that angry, my first thought would have been that the guy behind Napoleon was him - but that guy clearly does not look anything like him at all. But interestingly, Hortense claims that Napoleon's aides in Egypt (of which Bessières was not one) felt that they were shown in this offensive way.

So, if the person Gros had depicted really was supposed to be Bessières - did they not recognize him either without his powdered hair? Just like us? 😋

[gabriel-corona]

500 6.24.24

Crazy shit your dad/ Family did to you

that in hindsight is kind of comically abusive/ but also mortifying that i happened to a young person/ you really should have told someone at school/ and had CPS called on your family/ I don't know if been taken away from the system would have saved you/ but you could have gotten out sooner

One time you guys were driving to Mexico/ they got a hotel/ your family slept on beds and made you sleep on the floor

Your father did not attend your middle school graduation

Your father did not attend your high school graduation

( when I think about all this it still hurts/ i am trying not to linger on the past, and in it is an insane thing to say out loud/ but I ever see him again i want to kick him into the ground, foot to neck, having the heel of my shoe press the air from his throat)

When you were about 10 and you visited Mexico they all slept inside your early childhood home

And they made you sleep outside in the car/ no heat/ in winter in the cold arid Desert climate

In the house where you grew up during the summer/ there was an AC unit in the living room

-There was a large tree providing shade by your mother's room

-he installed A window unit in your older sister's bedroom

-And he slept in the cool basement

-You slept in a room/north facing windows/ Venetian blinds/ no AC unit/ no box fan a lot of the times

-your bedroom directly above your kitchen, in the summer Sundays your mother would cook stove top beans, and boil stew the heat would quickly migrate to your room / broiling in the only space

One time you called Laura an idiot she was around two or three because she spilled cereal all over the floor/ your father Heard you/ came quickly up the stairs/ slapped you/ and when you attempted to fight back/ he threw you on the floor

One time you were smart mouthing him in the kitchen/ he slapped you across the face/ your mother began crying silently/ and said I am tired of this/ she never left him// when you sister bought a new house

he decided not to come along with us//

your mother never worked up the courage to leave him/ she was never gonna leave him

she would have let him make a complete waste of your life, and not given it a second thought

we are lucky that by chance he grew bored of us

///

By all accounts/ all the information we have collected alludes to your paternal grandfather being much worse/ that man was violent and angry beyond means of explanation/ other notes from your aunts say that your father out of all 12 siblings was the quickest to anger

If I were to try to understand how my father's brain works/ I assume he thinks he was an improvement of a father compared to the one he had

This understanding has brought me no solace

As it is comparable to being struck by a mountain when someone else was struck by meteor

this complex Post traumatic stress disorder Will be chronic/ it will be something that you will have to grapple with for the rest of your life/ and it is likely to impact almost every facet of your day-to-day life

I could be nuanced and Bring in patriarchy/ even men suffer under the system yada yada… class dynamics/ your father grow up dirt poor/ intergenerational trauma/ on some level he is unable to connect with any member of his immediate family/ at each line of kinship there is an alienation/ we hypothesize that there is an untreated depression there/ possibly even some gender dysphoria/

But at the end of the day to me none of that cuts it/ none of it offers any resolve or alleviation to the problem/ at the end of the your father is worthless/

Ie. He cannot and has not brought you anything of value to your life/ he has only brought you pain and suffering/ he has only cut you down where other fathers might nurture their children to grow

Any perceived benefits you have received /moving to marengo/buying a house/ was a secondary outcome of himself attempting to better his own life

////

For a while now we have hypothesized that there is some kind of blood curse on the family/ and that might be so/

Some dark transgression made generations ago/ now bound to us/ your great grandfather killed by a member of his family/ your grand father tied to a chair as a child feet bound left there overnight/ your grandmother, mother giving birth to 12 children in the span of 15 years dying in childhood at the last child/ lying on the floor left to die as her body internally bleed/ her mother in law in one corner of the room her oldest daughter in the other// her two oldest sons their faces still round not any older than 10 running through the night/ racing in streets not yet lit up by light posts/ pacing hoping to reach your mother’s father before their mother dies

One aunt with polio/ one uncle dropped as an infant physically and psychologically maimed/ another aunt with a temper like a knife

one aunt by marriage mother of your three children now has a brain tumor her long straight black hair falling form her head/ one uncle by marriage father of six Dead at 52 from a new virus strapped to a respirator/ your sister statutory raped at 16/ his two front teeth kicked in by border patrol agents/ your 12 year-old son riding in the passenger seat daydreams about killing you

/////

You suffered

You have suffered

But you are not the only one who has dealt with strife

You are not Christ on a cross

You have to remember to take yourself outside yourself sometimes

What has been so illuminating about Rockford/ is that people here people wear their wounds on their sleeve/ their face tattoos/ Black teardrops on their cheeks/ bleeding crosses/ baby footprints/ and the names of miscarriages

Suffering is not quantitative, but i would be safe to assume that there are those who have suffered leagues beyond you, there is always someone who will understand you/ there will always be someone who could be in need of some help

This is a good place to remember your suffering is not universal/ it's hardly individual

How many Mexicans grow up with a stern authoritative father

How many queers grow up with the distant from their fathers

How many fat kids harassed incessantly in middle school playground for something as harmless as their belly

Remember compassion

If you feel anger/ take it as a call that you need to heal/ need to rest/ need to grieve

It is the work of days

[rainbowxocs]

Name: Johnathan Carter.

Special Titles: Vice President.

Username: theauthority

Nicknames: John, Johnny McChairboy.

Age: 48.

Pronouns: He/Him.

Sexuality: Gay.

Gender: Cis Guy.

Species: Human.

Disorders: PTSD, Autistic, Insomnia, Bipolar 1, BPD.

Active Addictions: Nicotine (Cigarettes.)

Recovering Addictions: Self Harm.

Religion: None.

Job: Vice President of New America.

Degrees: Has a A.I Engineering Degree.

Lives in: WV, New America, 3025.

Languages: French, English.

Height: 5’7”

Race: White.

Ethnicity: French.

Accent: Rural French.

Vehicle: Red Electric Car.

Weapons: Pistols.

Alignment: Chaotic Good.

Text Color: Red, All Caps.

Main Animal: Red Panda.

Main Hobbies: Video Games, Wood Carving, Computer Programming.

Favorite Drinks: Black Coffee, Strawberry Lemonade.

Favorite Meal: Pepperoni Pizza, Subway Sandwiches, Red Beans and Rice, Chicken Marengo, Mac and Cheese.

Favorite Dessert: Icecream Sundae, Red Velvet Cake, White Chocolate, Pound Cake.

Favorite Flower: Roses.

Scent: Old Spice Timber.

Handedness: Right Handedness.

Blood Color: Red.

Birthday: January 9th 2977 (Capricorn.)

Awareness: Not Aware (Effect: None.)

Theme:

Playlist:

Fun Facts: He actually DOES speak in all caps.

Special Interests: Virtual Reality Games

Stims: Lots of physical stims, Stress Toys, Tangles.

Stimboard: LINK

Moodboard: LINK

Fashionboard: LINK

Family:

Bradley Carter, Joanna Carter. (Parents)

Alexander Leverett (Adoptive Son)

Johnathan Jr. Carter (Son.)

Friends: Nova Star.

Romance: N/A.

Brief Personality: John is incredibly loud, it seems that he is always yelling, not in an angry way, he simply just has no volume control. He is incredibly passionate about things and genuinely cares a lot about his sons. He would die for you if you manage to get past his rough exterior. But he also has no time for anyone’s bullshit really.

Brief Backstory:

Johnathan had a very boring childhood. His parents left him to his own devices, which led him to have a very.. intense personality growing up. He’s always been very loud, wanting to be the center of attention always.

When he grew up, He began to dive headfirst into A.I, getting a degree in A.I engineering and eventually head starting the next generation of A.I, he wanted to be the very best in everything he did, perfect grades, perfect career, perfect inventions, perfect wife, perfect kid. And eventually this caught the attention of The President of New America.

She and Johnathan became… friends..? He wasn’t exactly sure what Maria’s true opinion was on him. But she loved his inventions. And eventually when The Incident happened she gave him leadership of “The Authority”, an organization solely created to stop the rise of A.I..

Johnathan did his job well, until he had to stop Alexander.. He genuinely did try to see Alex as nothing but a robot, but Alex was just a child, and he reminded him of his child. And eventually Johnathan was able to break free of Maria’s grasp and help Alex save the world.

He sometimes wishes he could have done his life differently. So that his sons could have a better life.

[blackkudos]

Ralph Abernathy

Ralph David Abernathy Sr. (March 11, 1926 – April 17, 1990) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. As a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, he was a close friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. He collaborated with King to create the Montgomery Improvement Association which led to the Montgomery bus boycott. He also co-founded and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He became president of the SCLC following the assassination of King in 1968, where he led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. among other marches and demonstrations for disenfranchised Americans. He also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE).

In 1971, Abernathy addressed the United Nations about world peace. He also assisted in brokering a deal between the FBI and Indian protestors during the Wounded Knee incident of 1973. He retired from his position as president of the SCLC in 1977 and became president emeritus. That year he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 5th district of Georgia. He later founded the Foundation for Economic Enterprises Development, and he testified before the U.S. Congress in support of extending of the Voting Rights Act in 1982.

In 1989, Abernathy wrote And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, a controversial autobiography about his and King's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. He was ridiculed for statements in the book about King's alleged marital infidelities. Abernathy eventually became less active in politics and returned to his work as a minister. He died of heart disease on April 17, 1990. His tombstone is engraved with the words "I tried".

Early life, family, and education

Abernathy, 10th of William and Louivery Abernathy's 12 children, was born on March 11, 1926, on their family 500-acre (200 ha) farm in Linden, Alabama. Abernathy's father was the first African-American to vote in Marengo County, Alabama, and the first to serve on a grand jury there. Abernathy attended Linden Academy (a Baptist school founded by the First Mt. Pleasant District Association). At Linden Academy, Abernathy led his first demonstrations to improve the livelihoods of his fellow students.

During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Army, and rose to the rank of Platoon Sergeant before being discharged. Afterwards, he enrolled at Alabama State University using the benefits from the G.I. Bill, which he earned with his service. As a sophomore, he was elected president of the student council, and led a successful hunger strike to raise the quality of the food served on the campus. While still a college student, Abernathy announced his call to the ministry, which he had envisioned since he was a small boy growing up in a devout Baptist family. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1948, and preached his first sermon on Mother's Day (in honor of his recently deceased mother). In 1950 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. During that summer Abernathy hosted a radio show and became the first black man on radio in Montgomery, Alabama. In the fall, he then went on to further his education at Atlanta University, earning his Master of Arts degree in sociology with High Honors in 1951.

He began his professional career in 1951, when he was appointed as the dean of men at Alabama State University. Later that year, he became the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church, the largest black church in Montgomery, where he served for ten years.

He married Juanita Odessa Jones of Uniontown, Alabama, on August 31, 1952. Together they had five children: Ralph David Abernathy Jr., Juandalynn Ralpheda, Donzaleigh Avis, Ralph David Abernathy III, and Kwame Luthuli Abernathy. Their first child, Ralph Abernathy Jr., died suddenly on August 18, 1953, less than 2 days after his birth on August 16, while their other children lived on to adulthood.

In 1954, Abernathy met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who — at the time — was just becoming a pastor himself at a nearby church. Abernathy mentored King and the two men eventually became close friends.

Civil rights activism

Montgomery bus boycott

After the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, Abernathy (then a member of the Montgomery NAACP) collaborated with King to create the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Along with fellow English professor Jo Ann Robinson, they called for and distributed flyers asking the black citizens of Montgomery to stay off the buses. The boycott attracted national attention, and a federal court case that ended on December 17, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Browder v. Gayle, upheld an earlier District Court decision that the bus segregation was unconstitutional. The 381-day transit boycott, challenging the "Jim Crow" segregation laws, had been successful. And on December 20, 1956, the boycott came to an end.

After the boycotts, Abernathy's home and church were bombed. His family were barely able to escape their home, but they were unharmed. Abernathy's church, Mt. Olive Church, Bell Street Church, and the home of Robert Graetz were also bombed on that evening, while King, Abernathy, and 58 other black leaders from the south were meeting at the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration, in Atlanta.

Civil Rights Movement

On January 11, 1957, after a two-day long meeting, the Southern Leaders Conference on Transportation and Non-violent Integration, was founded. On February 14, 1957, the Conference convened again in New Orleans. During that meeting, they changed the group's name to the Southern Leadership Conference and appointed the following executive board: King, president; Charles Kenzie Steele, vice president; Abernathy, Financial Secretary-Treasurer; T. J. Jemison, secretary; I. M. Augustine, general counsel. On August 8, 1957, the Southern Leadership Conference held its first convention, in Montgomery, Alabama. At that time, they changed the Conference's name for the final time to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and decided upon starting up voter registration drives for black people across the south.

On May 20, 1961, the Freedom Riders stopped in Montgomery, Alabama while on their way from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, Louisiana, to protest the still segregated buses across the south. Many of the Freedom Riders were beaten once they arrived at the Montgomery bus station, by a white mob, causing several of the riders to be hospitalized. The following night Abernathy and King set up an event in support of the Freedom Riders, where King would make an address, at Abernathy's church. More than 1,500 people came to the event that night. The church was soon surrounded by a mob of white segregationists who laid siege on the church. King, from inside the church, called the Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and pleaded for help from the federal government. There was a group of United States Marshals sent there to protect the event, but they were too few in number to protect the church from the angry mob, who had begun throwing rocks and bricks through the windows of the church. Reinforcements with riot experience, from the Marshals service, were sent in to help defend the perimeter. By the next morning, the Governor of Alabama, after being called by Kennedy, sent in the Alabama National Guard, and the mob was finally dispersed. After the success of the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville in 1961, King insisted that Abernathy assume the Pastorate of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, and Abernathy did so, moving his family from Montgomery, Alabama, in 1962.

The King/Abernathy partnership spearheaded successful nonviolent movements in Montgomery; Albany, Georgia; Birmingham; Mississippi; Washington D.C.; Selma, Alabama; St. Augustine; Chicago; and Memphis. King and Abernathy journeyed together, often sharing the same hotel rooms, and leisure times with their wives, children, family, and friends. And they were both jailed 17 times together, for their involvement in the movement.

During Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination

On April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple, Abernathy introduced King before he made his last public address; King said at the beginning of his now famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech:

As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you, and Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world.

The following day, April 4, 1968, Abernathy was with King in the room (Room 306) they shared at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. At 6:01 p.m. while Abernathy was inside the room getting cologne, King was shot while standing outside on the balcony. Once the shot was fired Abernathy ran out to the balcony and cradled King in his arms as he lay unconscious. Abernathy accompanied King to St. Joseph's Hospital within fifteen minutes of the shooting. The doctors performed an emergency surgery, but he never regained consciousness. King was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at age 39.

Leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Until King's assassination, Abernathy had served as Southern Christian Leadership Conference's first Financial Secretary/Treasurer and Vice President At-Large. After King's death, Abernathy assumed the presidency of the SCLC. One of his first roles was to take up the role of leading a march to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee which King and Abernathy had planned before King's assassination. In May 1968, Abernathy led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C.

Protest at NASA

On the eve of the Apollo 11 launch, July 15, 1969, Abernathy arrived at Cape Canaveral with several hundred members of the poor people campaign to protest spending of government space exploration, while many Americans remained poor. He was met by Thomas O. Paine, the administrator of NASA, whom he told that in the face of such suffering, space flight represented an inhuman priority and funds should be spent instead to "feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend the sick, and house the homeless". Paine told Abernathy that the advances in space exploration were "child's play" compared to the "tremendously difficult human problems" of society Abernathy was discussing. Later in 1969, Abernathy also took part in a labor struggle in Charleston, South Carolina, on behalf of the hospital workers of the local union 1199B, which led to a living wage increase and improved working conditions for thousands of hospital workers.

Wounded Knee

In 1973, Abernathy helped negotiate a peace settlement at the Wounded Knee uprising between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the leaders of the American Indian Movement, Russell Means and Dennis Banks.

Abernathy remained president of the SCLC for nine years following King's death in 1968. After King's death the organization lost the popularity it had under his leadership. By the time Abernathy left the organization the SCLC had become indebted, and critics stated that it wasn't as imaginative as the SCLC led by Dr. King. In 1977 Abernathy resigned from his leadership role at the SCLC, and was bestowed the title president emeritus.

Political career and later activism

Abernathy addressed the United Nations in 1971 on World Peace. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. In 1977, he ran unsuccessfully for Georgia's 5th Congressional District seat, losing to Congressman Wyche Fowler. He founded the nonprofit organization Foundation for Economic Enterprises Development (FEED), which offered managerial and technical training, creating jobs, income, business and trade opportunities for underemployed and unemployed workers for underprivileged blacks.

In 1979, Abernathy endorsed Senator Edward M. Kennedy's candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. However, he shocked critics a few weeks before the 1980 November election, when he endorsed the front-runner, Ronald Reagan, over the struggling presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter. Abernathy stated of his endorsement: "The Republican Party has too long ignored us and the Democratic Party has taken us for granted and so since all of my colleagues and the latter in various places across the country were supporting the Democratic Party, I felt that I should support Ronald Reagan." After the disappointing performance of the Reagan Administration on civil rights and other areas, Abernathy withdrew his endorsement of Reagan in 1984.

In 1982, Abernathy testified—along with his executive associate, James Peterson of Berkeley, California—before the Congressional Hearings calling for the Extension of the Voting Rights Act.

Documents declassified in 2017 show that Abernathy was on the National Security Agency watchlist because of FBI leadership's hatred of the civil rights movement.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

In late 1989, Harper Collins published Abernathy's autobiography, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. It was his final published accounting of his close partnership with King and their work in the Civil Rights Movement. In it he revealed King's marital infidelity, stating that King had sexual relations with two women on the night of April 3, 1968 (after his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech earlier that day). The book's revelations became the source of much controversy, as did Abernathy. Jesse Jackson and other civil rights activists made a statement in October 1989—after the book's release—that the book was "slander" and that "brain surgery" must have altered Abernathy's perception.

Unification Church

In the 1980s, the Unification Church hired Abernathy as a spokesperson to protest the news media's use of the term "Moonies", which they compared with the word "nigger". Abernathy also served as vice president of the Unification Church-affiliated group American Freedom Coalition, and served on two Unification Church boards of directors.

Death

Abernathy died at Emory Crawford Long Memorial Hospital on the morning of April 17, 1990, from two blood clots that traveled to his heart and lungs, five weeks after his 64th birthday. After his death, George H. W. Bush, then-President of the United States issued the following statement:

Barbara and I join with all Americans to mourn the passing of the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a great leader in the struggle for civil rights for all Americans and a tireless campaigner for justice.

He is entombed in the Lincoln Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia. At Abernathy's behest, his tomb has the simple inscription: "I TRIED."

Tributes and portrayals

During his lifetime, Abernathy was honored with more than 300 awards and citations, including five honorary doctorate degrees. He received a Doctor of Divinity from Morehouse College, a Doctor of Divinity from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, a Doctor of Laws from Allen University of South Carolina, a Doctor of Laws from Long Island University in New York, and a Doctor of Laws at Alabama State University.

Ralph D. Abernathy Hall at Alabama State Hall is dedicated to him, with a bust of his head in the foyer area.

Interstate 20 Ralph David Abernathy Freeway, Abernathy Road, and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard of Atlanta were named in his honor.

Abernathy is played by Ernie Lee Banks in the 1978 miniseries King, by Colman Domingo in the 2014 film Selma, a film about the Selma to Montgomery marches, Martin Luther King Jr., and SCLC, and by Dohn Norwood in the 2016 film All the Way.

Works

Abernathy, Ralph; And the Walls Came Tumbling Down (1989), ISBN 9781569762790

Abernathy, Ralph; The Natural History of A Social Movement: The Montgomery Improvement Association (thesis)

[starchildrenofdustand-ashes]

Falsetto’s Tour Review...

Sooo nobody caresss but I saw Toursetto’s Sunday June 2nd with Nick Adams as Whizzer, Max von Essen as Marvin, Eden Espinosa as Trina, Nick Blaemire as Mendel, Audrey Cardwell as Cordelia, Bryonha Marie Parham as Charlotte, Thatcher Jacobs as Jason an here are my thoughts ! 

♔ When I saw the block sitting in the middle of the stage I almost started crying ♔I couldn’t make out what they were saying at the beginning of Four Jews, but I’ve seen people say that Nick Adams says “Yeehaw” lol 

♔When Eden sings slavery-- she sings the OBC version instead of the higher notes Stephanie did ♔ I was sHOOK when Max opened his mouth to sing and sounded SO MUCH LIKE CHRISTIAN BORLE??? I was so WOW ♔ The Thrill of First Love gave me such a different vibe than the Revival version did. For starters, I did not hate Marvin in act one which is really unusual. In this song I usually view Marvin as mean and abusive, but I just felt myself feeling bad for him. This version of the song was more playful and less aggressive I think. ♔Whizzer doesn’t say “wash n’ wear” he says something like “what is this? A poly -blend?” ♔Marvin rips open Whizzers shirt and damn Nick Adams has some serious muscles lol ♔NICK BLAEMIRE??? Was soooo funny. He had me laughing to the point of tears. He was absolutely amazing. ♔ I didn’t realize in ‘Marvin at the Psychiatrist’ Whizzer was pissed when they called him ‘smarmy’ ♔Jason is so cute and his voice is so big ♔ When he says “just because you failed as parents” he says it through his teeth and his voice is really quiet ♔ I’m not sure what it was about Max portrayal, but he was literally just sad and decrepit. (Of course I didn’t like Marvin, but he just felt less mean) ♔ When they pull the chair away from him at the end of This Had Better Come to a Stop, Marvin turns and literally face plants ♔I’m breaking down was absolutely the highlight of Act I. Eden Espinosa was absolutely fucking amazing. In both productions, it was clear that Trina was having a breakdown, but here its less tears and more cackling and laughing. ♔ When she said “you ask is it fun to cry over nothing?” Her face was totally blank and sarcastic ♔ Of course we love a queen chopping a penis banana. ♔”Sure things’ll probably worsen but it’s not like I’m some happy person” she sits in the middle of the stage and laughs hysterically for a good ten seconds. ♔ “A freak who needs it maybe every other week” she stops and feels her boobs and sighs saying “ohhhhhhhh that feels reallllllly gooooooood” ♔ Every Trina belting with a banana in her mouth is a fucking icon. ♔ She fucking bolted off stage with the knife in her hand lol ♔ “YAH,, this is Mendel wisenbach-FÉLDDD” ♔ When Trina says “chicken marengo” she rolls the ‘r’ im gay dont @ me ♔ When Trina says “I’ll wait for you” she holds out the note really long as she runs of the stage with the chicken marengo and then theres a crash and offstage she shouts (SHIT) ♔ During a marriage proposal,, after he says biblical times— theres a long pause and Marvin leans in and was like “YOURE DOING GREAT” ♔ March of the Falsettos was amazing,, and somehow?? Nick Adams still sounded fucking amazing singing it lol. ♔ The chess game was heartbreaking as always. I just fricking love nick?? He did so well. Also Max??? seemed so much less aggressive than christian borle… and just more disappointed. Idk how to describe it. ♔ I don’t know how I just realized that they are making a home out of what’s left of the set after Marvin and whizzer break up ♔ THE GAMES THAT I PLAY?? ANOTHER HIGHLIGHT OF THIS ACT. Nick sounded sooo amazing and I either got chills from how cold the theater was or from his voice and I’m pretty sure it was the latter ♔ Marvin hit Trina. Yeah. This was completely heartbreaking. Honestly this Jason was shook to the core and you could see it (when Marvin hit her) and it was probably the saddest part of the scene. ♔ Also Whizzer is the one who made the slapping sound behind Marvin, ♔ Marvin tried to hug Trina and Mendel PUSHED him away ♔ Marvin put his hands on his head and let out this really pained wail.  Honestly I hate him, but I was like damn get help bc it was highkey sad. And poor Trina was trying to comfort Jason. It was a mess. ♔ Father to son was heartbreaking too bc Jason didn’t want to be anywhere near Marvin. Whenever he tried to touch him he would flinch away and Marvin was crying and hngggg. ♔ All I could say is that when he shined the light in our faces and called us homosexuals,,, it was blinding lol ♔ When he said a teeny tiny band and pointed to the orchestra the crowd cheered like crazy which is honestly what they deserved ♔ THE LESBIANS. THE LESBIANS!! Everyone was great in the show, but Dr. Charlotte. wow. She was so fucking amazing. I got excited every time she had a line because I knew she was about to slay. They were really cute together ♔ When Whizzer asks Marvin if he was still ‘queer’ in the baseball game Marvin’s voice got all old and he made his hands shake when he said “It’s been so long since I could tell” ♔ Good news, Nick Adams didn’t have a boner during a day in falsetto land LMFAO ♔ Something bad is happening. I was excited bc as I said. Bryonha is fucking amazing. She. Not only was her singing stellar, her acting was amazing. She was so angry and had so much passion despite her obvious confusion. Also Audrey Cardwell was the cutest Cordelia. ♔ During holding to the ground, three white sheets fall from the ceiling making the hospital room that Whizzer stays in. ♔ Not sure if it means anything, but I realize that the items at the hospital are the only things not made from the cube. Just an observation lol. ♔ I think Nick Adams Whizzer is my favorite (I think acting wise, I like Andrew better, but singing Nick takes the cake.) You gotta die sometime was beautiful and I started crying when he belted the last note. ♔ Jason’s Bar Mitzvah. Yeah. I was crying. They were all smiling but it looked so painful. ♔ Whizzer covered his mouth like he was about to cry and then reached out to touch Jason. He thanked him and left. Jason tried to follow him but Marvin stopped him and ugh. ♔ Before what would I do started playing (in the transition) the white curtains fell to the ground and pulled towards the edge of the stage. And when everything is gone marivin started singing. I like this— it made everything feel officially over. ♔ what would I do. This is my favorite song in the entire show and they were both so amazing I was crying uncontrollably (Even though was orchestra and pretty close to the stage, I was using my opera glasses ((yes I’m that bitch)) and god I could see Max was crying and FUCK I WAS RUINED. ♔ For falsetto land, they bring the block back on stage, and there is a piece sticking out. In the revival, they brought the block together from two pieces on either side of the stage, but in the tour they pushed it from stage left. ♔ Marvins sobs were really LOUD and heartbreaking. ♔ They put a spotlight on the chest piece until the blackout and I. UGH THANK GOD FOR WATERPROOF MASCARA.

♔I have seen so many Broadway In Chicago shows, and WOW this is definitely in my top three. The acting the singing, the orchestra and JESUS IT WAS JUST AMAZING

[lady-plantagenet]

A Bygone Era- Chapter 5

A fictional account of Isabel Neville’s told through her point of view and those who knew her.

Points of view written so far include Anne Beauchamp 16th Countess of Warwick, Anne Neville, George Duke of Clarence, Richard Neville 16th Earl of Warwick and Isabel Neville herself.

7th July 1469 - Richard Neville the 16th Earl of Warwick

It was in their dingiest castle at St Omer some leagues from Richard’s own Calais residence that the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy chose to hold their repast. The southern summer gleamed duller and heavier here than at Middleham and even at high none, the angry sun would only but greet the earth feebly in orange tawny blazes. The heavy sea clouds that passed swiftly, cast the maroon room in either rich shade or splendid light whenever it seemed to catch their fancies. The interchangeability marked the intervals of time which, here in the presence of the Duke seemed to Richard to grow longer with every uneasy glance exchanged between them.

His recollection of Margaret from one year past were that of a girl curious, impatient and anxious all in equal measure. It was rather Anthony Woodville with whom she passed most of the days leading up to her marriage to the Duke. The kinship he felt with Cecily’s girls always lacked in comparison with that towards her sons. For the better part of the journey he played the nursemaid watching as the queen’s insufferable brother was humouring the impressionable girl with fanciful recitals of Burgundian poetry, what this new generation dubbed humanist.

As much as she without a doubt enjoyed playing at cards with the Woodville boy and picking her trousseau with the witch, she is George’s sister in more than blood and when the hour comes, she will not be spared from partisanship. God knows I had to endure the ugly ordeal, though George appears to have never felt any qualms in this regard.

Margaret of York was presently with his daughters in the grand hall, no doubt dazzling them with her collection of hangings, among which was the latest unicorn tapestry. The needlework pronounced him finally killed and brought to the castle, though Richard doubted it would be the last in this seemingly never ending series, so beloved by Anne and his two girls.

She herself appeared a unicorn when he finally caught sight of her. She bowed under the square doorway when entering as to make space for her headdress, a gesture that his two daughters repeated despite their far slighter heights.

Charles chuckled and added ‘Our Carolingan ancestors doubtless never foresaw such fashions when they built those fortresses. I apologise to my wife for their shortsightedness on their behalf.

His accented English made it difficult for Richard to know if he was being sardonic or if his words were solely meant in jest. If the former, even he himself had to agree, the heights those deformed hats have begun to reach beggared all belief.

Taking her seat beside him she gaily retorted, ‘Now now husband, we need only be glad to be cleansed of the barbarism of that bygone age. Warfare does not advance as much as it regresses’, now turning to face all, she proudly added, ‘That is what my brother Edward and I were always ad idem. He avenged father where necessary, but now am I glad to see our two countries peaceably leading the northern continents into a true prosperous age of beauty and art’.

Anne, wide-eyed, appeared bewitched by the Duchess’ imaginings but Richard saw that Isabel shrunk in her chair, directing him an awkward stare undesiring in subtlety. Thank the Lord she had the good sense not to talk. He glanced at her bare white finger where George’s ring was placed these few days past and was once more reassured that at least one of his blood had inherited more than just nobility.

‘Your grace seems to have taken easily to your new land’ said Isabel politely

‘Why yes indeed! Flemish has proved a challenge, however, I am pleased to report that I have noticed a remarkable sharing of spirit between the English and the Burgundians. For this I find loving my husband’s people an easy task’

‘How so Duchess?’ asked Anne with the customary curiosity of her voice

‘For one, they are not tempestuous like the hot-blooded spaniards and the proud french. There is a determined industriousness in them. They are masters in art as they are in trade’. Richard noticed a twinkle break in the wide-set grey eyes of her father. From the hairline visible beneath the wimple and marengo headdress, he was reminded of her father’s pale yellow hair too. Her height she shared with Edward, but now gregarious as he had never seen her, he saw George plain and clear. A Plantagenet if there ever was one , he had to begrudgingly admit.

‘Dear wife, surely you do not speak so kindly of the bourgeoisie?’, Charles finally spoke. It was unclear whether he meant to ask her or tell her. ‘It is they, that seek to undo all that I and father had fought for and devolve the power back unto their petty provinces’

‘Ah the tis only the inevitable, I admire them but I never said I do not secretly ill-wish them. For you, wise as you are do too. Brother Edward was as much spurred by his desire to placate the English traders as he did to protect England from the French and allegedly now-‘ Margaret suddenly stopped and beneath the composure Richard could see her dig her thumbnail into her palm in self-chastisement. If only her face had matched her gesture. To protect England from the Kingmaker you meant .

‘Forgive me my Lord of Warwick, I meant no-‘ Yes you did. Your brothers did tell me how clever you were.

‘...no offence was given by your grace’ Richard said gingerly and a little too loudly. ‘I pray only that the king find’s his new mercenary alliances fruitful come warfare’.

Silence tumbled through the room, its gusts robbing the room of its rich hotness leaving it bony and stale with the passing of a stormcloud. Isabel attempted to relieve the room of its tautness by pointing out the intricacy of the wood-panelling to Anne, the floral brocades on her primrose sleeve straightening with each movement. Richard simply repositioned his legs in silence before pinching another morsel of munster from the trencher.

‘Something can indeed be said against a man who purchases a product at one price and sells it at another at greater cost but no greater value’ Charles once again mercifully interjected ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’, he quoted with a flourish.

‘If bare wealth be a sin than all our souls are damned’ retorted Richard ‘At least the old kind follows the commandments and treats their tenants fairly and cares for them as God would. Greed is as unnatural to descendants of Gaunt as selflessness is to the likes of the traders and the Woodvilles though they fancy themselves gentry.

‘If you say so my lord’ huffed Margaret disaffected by the course her well-meaning remarks did take.

Sensing the room grow darker with the sun’s ending journey Isabel asked ‘your grace was exceedingly kind to have recieved us here. Despite passing much of my girlhood in Calais, a tinge of saudade never eludes me when England is out of sight. Do you never miss home?’

Isabel’s roses and honey did much to sweeten Margaret in her dour humour. ‘Home is felt with the company one keeps, not the place and insofar as I have been fortunate in this regard...’ Margaret confided as she gazed at the Duke with gentle kindness ‘... I reminisce and when my lord husband was away quelling the revolts in Liége I felt my brother George’s absence keenly. When we were children Edward, Edmund and Richard would band together and play at war in the hills of Fortheringhay, while George and I would visit the markets and put on plays for our mother with the trinkets we had bought. Mine and mother’s darling but now I shall never know when I may see him again. Our agents in Rome do tell us a dispensation has been granted for him to wed though sadly not to our Petite Marie ’

Richard arched an eyebrow in retiscence at that. ‘Then to whom Duchess?’

‘Oh but wouldn’t you know, my lord of Warwick?’ flatly retorted Margaret.

11th July 1469 - Isabel Neville Duchess of Clarence

Damp air was rising from the sea, obscuring the lines of the Calais city streets to a mosaic-like delirium. The bride’s verdigris silk clung to her like moss to castle-stone casting off her jasmine scent even more strongly, the blue of purity and green of young love mingling with each movement but constrained under a wide golden belt. The heavy train trailing behind the svelte figure made many an onlooker recollect the legends of Mélusine risen from the Lusignan waters, pure and phantasmagoric in equal measure.

‘Oh Izzy, how beautiful you are!’ cooed Anne as she matched her granular steps to her sister’s long-strides. The Nevilles did not expect their prized flower to be lead to her wedding in a sorry procession made up of minor retainers and servants up a cobbled church street. They would have her carried in a gilded litter, surrounded by praises sung in English of queenly grace, not French silence and murmurs. Her father promised her grandeur but she felt like a village darling off to marry a apple-cheeked lad with two cows as her dowry more than anything else. ‘George will be besotted with you’

‘Of course he will Anne. He already is’ she wryly boasted as the modest journeyers came into the presence of L’Église Notre-Dame. A need for prayer precipitated over her, but she knew not for what. For father or for George perhaps? For them to not return defeated and spiteful at each other? Or for myself, and for George, for his destiny not to fail us? For this wedding night and pleasures not got with pain?

Yesterday, her mother’s natural prejudice led her to believe that Margaret bastardly-born, as she was, had already exposed her virtuous daughter to the salacious facts of what passed between man and wife. Availed of the unpleasant duty, she instead set on instructing her on childbearing matters, about which, (because, as life’s poetic ironic would have it) she was exceedingly knowledgeable in. Little did she know that Margaret was innocent entirely and the real transgressor was none but George. Isabel felt a shameful blush creeping over her cheeks for allowing such thoughts to permeate her attempt of prayer, but before she could communicate her penitence to god, she caught side of the two Georges, Plotting as ever.

‘Why Isabel, to think to find you already in prayer’, George gested at her clasped hands.

‘Why with only god to sanctify our marriage, how else?’ She smiled, drawing closer to the great door. ‘Why, how drôle that our wedding bans be posted in French’, her fingers traced the haggard letters of the parchment. ‘Have they been changed thrice?’

‘What difference would it make, niece?’ asked her bearded uncle the Archbishop of York ‘Here in Calais, your father’s just as a king, and as for those dissenting in England, well why trouble oneself?’

George nodded, ‘Why indeed?’. He offered Isabel his hand as a King would assist a queen in ascending the perilous stairs of a throne and the fabrics of their dress, so alike, mingled in one pluvious river. She now stood at his left as the rib that made Eve placed in Adam.

Five knights of the garter, among them John Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, assembled. French and English nobility united and her uncle George rattled off the customary inquiries - Were they of age? Did their parents consent? Is this union consanguineous? The latter to which her father had to respond by presenting the papal dispensation.

George presented her with a gold purse, pressing its weight confidently in her palm before the sermon was performed. Isabel deflected her gaze to the pleasant greenery of the tufts of grass. For such an old proud church, there were mounds of soil where burrowing rabbits tread, the brightest coloured pigments she had ever seen flashed beneath her eyes as the spiced breeze from the herber whisked the butterflies up in perfect frenzy. Every part of the tableaux that moved, even the clouds, appeared to conjure a whistful tune that more than made up for the absence of song. Many, her mother among them, would declare such a moment of beauty as a revelation of god in nature. But this day it seemed that the beauty of such providence took root in her heart before her perception admitted it in the surrounding nature, for she knew that such joy would never again be felt nor seen. Mayhaps George was right and god elevates such a marriage as this that would seek to establish his natural order. No love in any romance may rival this.

When it turned to her to make the vow, she freely expressed much of what she had just thought and to both her relief and anxious expectation, she saw George gold-tinged and affected.

Following a quick sermon and the perfunctionary exchanging of rings, Isabel knelt distributing the coins to the poor folk who accepted them graciously with whispery french prayers said behind wind-blown linen whimples. A particularly brave girl presented her a dozen poppies plucked off the opal coasts. With that they forsook the romantic for the angular confinement of the chapel.

The mass that ensued presented the giddy Isabel with another opportunity to beseech god to guide her through all the concerns, which earlier clouded her thoughts. Having all come apart like the seams of an unkept book, she chose to give thanks instead. The canopy George and her were under, obscured what little coloured strained light there was such that they could recognise none but one other as if in a catacomb. They were now Duke and Duchess of Clarence.

Far more eagerly than when receiving the kiss of peace from her uncle, George it his upon his bride. Cheers could be heard from all around her, they bent off curved walls in echoes so fierce that they resonated as strongly as if the guests numbered in the hundreds. Anne’s unusually trebled voice could be singled out and before the party hastened back to her father’s castle, Isabel slid off her ruby studded gold bangle from her wrist and showed it to her sister.

She held it in her small hands, confusion showing in her large brown eyes. ‘I would that you have it Annie. I know we have not been the closest of sisters at late, do forgive me’.

‘There is nothing to forgive Issy, you and father were occupied, I have learned to know my place’ replied a voice tinged a little too sadly for Isabel’s comfort.

‘Your place will be with me for the coming weeks’ Isabel smiled gently offering a hand. The girls’ arms were now linked and they were once again the bestest of friends, ‘So you see, I am not stolen from you just yet!’ joked Isabel. She saw questions taking root as Anne’s thin lips began to tremble and laughed ‘Oh yes’ I heard what you uttered to Richard when George came to Middleham that year. Oh Annie, your have a voice like father, no matter how quiet, it is always heard’

At their castle, news reached her father th at his dear friend King Louis and his brother Le Duc de Berry, were detained at court and would offer them their well-wishes tommorow. This was clearly to be what father planned would bring the requisite grandeur to this royal celebration. She fingered the strands of the braided gold belt and held up an opal rose pendant set in tiny sapphires, delighting in it like a satisfied magpie. I see George and Father shall revel with kings, hunt, make merry to their heart’s content to carry them through the fortnights of inescapable blood stench and I shall play at being Queen once the spider king arrives.

Nonetheless, lilies and white roses in their hundreds were strewn across the floor obscuring the rushes below, their fragrances filling the air as they were trod on by guests.

Fifty Anjou pigeons, 4 boar heads and five hundred manchet loaves were arranged on the longtable with a large cockentrice as the centrepiece. Astride it, a helmeted dwarf-like rooster bore the bear and the ragged staff spliced with the sunne in splendour.

When sliced into by her father, the whiff of saffron, powdered ginger and garlic mingled with that of the rushes in such an assault of the senses that Isabel brushed her veil over her shoulder as if to guard it from the smell. The white silk was so fine that while not concealing, it obfuscated the raven strands making her hair take on the form of a thin dark tower shrouded in fog.

By the time the minstrels had arrived, the night had itself become a murky pot of emotions, senses and wine. Isabel herself revelled in the Carola, where she joined hands with her father and husband and led the merry-makers in song jubilantly fancying herself Enide, and George the knightly Eric in the tale of sir Percival. More Enide the queen crowned at Nantes than Enide the pauper, of course.

Love within marriage, tests not conjured by it but borne through its strength, woman’s forbidden word offering salvation not peril. This shall be my life’s verse.

The night was advancing and Isabel shot a pleading glance towards her father, but to no avail. Her mother, in spite of her own experiences stared down at her goblet averting her eyes from the suppliant. It became clear to Isabel that the bedding ceremony was to happen.

A string of the minstrel’s lute was plucked, its twinge heralding a change in tune and bawdier lyrics. The wine loosened its grip over her senses and Isabel determined to retain her composure throughout. Her veil was clawed off by a ruddy laughing girl and her companions, freeing her hair from its confines, which to her dismay had developed kinks and irregular curls throughout the day. George was far more pliable and when his cape was snagged off his back he feigned falling back, which elicited a roses of laughter. By the time the party made it to the stairs, none placed as much interest in George’s blue garter as much as in claiming her matching one. After enough displays of modesty she surrendered it to a young gentleman who appeared to be the beau of the girl who snatched her veil. After much hullabaloo, tousled hairs and slipping clothes they were placed in bed. It was a mercy that after the sanctification of the marriage bed, all departed.

George’s cheeks were flushed and when he kissed her she found that wine dwelled in him still and let out a shiver. ‘Now Isabel, as good Christian people we may not have enacted tonight but I do know you do not come here a tight-lipped cold-blooded maiden’, to her relief there was focus in his large eyes and exactitude in his enunciation. ‘I do know you are eager, you have shown me as much’

‘Now husband’ she said in an imitating tone ‘I am not seasoned as you in this deed, I do not feign shyness as I do hide my anxiousness’. Not that I know of any women, not that he would tell me. But with a brother like Edward one could only infer.

He did not confirm nor refute and after she pulled her chemise over her head, he remarked the tightness of her waist and smoothness of her skin, for complements were never accepted as gladly by any as she. Feeling her curious and eager nature take over she wrapped her hand around his member and easily aroused as customary of a maiden and a young boy, it took not time before she willingly found herself ready and beneath him. Romantic notions, stolen kisses or caresses of times passed, however, did not prepare her for the unusual pain that followed. She whimpered holding her tears within for as long as she could. An odd assortment of thoughts on the prospective pains of childbirth clashed with what were forming to be unprecedented pleasant sensations. To her relief, she soon abandoned all notions of thought and pushing back against him, he willingly lau back enjoying her as she straddled him.

After they were both spent, Isabel headed her mother’s advice and slid a cushion under her hips. She then took to incessantly dabbing wet linen on the stains of the sheet, it was a futile task for hands that have never known greater strained than turning the pages of an illuminated manuscript.

George’s hands stopped hers, ‘Your prudishness will not bode well with queenship I dare say’ laughing at her dismayed face, ‘Edward’s wife gives birth surrounded by an audience of women’

‘Then it is a blessing that our son shall be born at one of my father’s castles in dignified privacy’ she said relieved and letting go of the cloth, letting him hold her in an embrace and indulge her in kisses. As the hours passed she let him pour her a goblet of the malmsey wine left for them and they joked and told stories of future kings with the naïve certainty that could only afflict thus, young newly-weds on their wedding night.

You may find the rest of the chapters on here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22268239/chapters/53175664

[marengogo]

Anon, you LITERALLY sounded like those white people who say they are not racist because they have a POC as a friend. And that is unfortunate.

But hey listen up! It is never too late (for most things in life).

In order to avoid making an ass out of yourself and getting your ass handed over, I’d suggest 2 things:

1. Don’t write while you are angry about things you don’t fully understand.

2. Take the time to FULLY and TRULY understand what you are trying to argue about. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and truuuust me, that saying ain’t no bullshit.

Research, study, get informed! Whatever you need to do. Because for example in this case, assuming that you are straight, People that are part of the lgbtqia+ community (such as Goldy or myself) will have an upper hand in this conversation you know why?

1. We are part of the community.

2. We’ve had to spend a big part of our life pretending to be straight. Whereas, that I’m aware of, straight people do not go chunks of their lives pretending to be part of the community. So no, you don’t know what you are saying.

So yeah … get educated ❤️

Much Love,

Marengo.

okay but did bts say they are gay?? no. normalise being straight. you talk about being gay. no one said i was faints it. i’m against you acting like they are gay when they have not said so. don’t presume their sexuality. they could be gay but that doesn’t eliminate the fact that they also could be straight. girls are always kissing their friends and they are straight and ppl say ‘it’s just a little bit of fun’ but ‘oh look this male is being touchy with his male friend, i guess he is gay then’. the double standards are crazy. stop acting like you know them as well. acting like you personally know they are gay is toxic behaviour. in korea, they are more touchy. males are more comfortable with their male friends compared to the western society. they can hug, slap each other’s butts whatever, it means they are comfortable with each other. it doesn’t mean that they are showcasing what they do to each other behind the scenes. just because your views are different doesn’t mean your views are the same as theirs. it’s about societal construct. your society is different to theirs. have you slapped your female friend’s ass before? or kissed each other? does that make you gay? it’s all about intention. we don’t know them. we don’t know their intentions. that is why i say normalise platonic touch. they haven’t told us they are gay or that they are dating (whether it is each other or someone else) so it is safer to assume they are friends. people like you are the reason straight people are always questioned. you can be straight and support gay rights. but why can gay people never support straight ppl? always making everything about sexuality - it’s ridiculous. no one cares as much as they do except for the ppl they should be targeting. people like you probably go up to straight people and tell them that they cannot be 100% straight because you want your beliefs to be shelved in everyone’s lives. just stop. everyone should be comfortable in their sexuality without hurting one another. but clearly because of toxic fans, the boys can’t do that.

GIRLS ARE ALWAYS KISSING THEIR FRIENDS AND THEY ARE STRAIGHT- this is good my girlfriend needs to hear this🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This you?

I'm starting to wonder what you think gay is🤣🤣🤣🤣

You've been so inundated with performative bisexuality and queer baiting for the male gaze for years you are actually desensitized to gayness I see.

If same sex kissing is straight, then I'm the straightest person on earth and James Charles is straight too. Lil Nas X you did. You finally straight 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

And people wonder why merely holding hands in public or coming out is such a big deal to some of us.

You sound very ignorant to me.

I will tell you as a queer woman- no. I don't find kissing my female friends platonic at all. THE ACTUAL FUCK!

My girlfriend certainly don't find that platonic either💀 But sure, I'll kiss a straight man for laughs and gaslight him afterwards telling him it's just a friendly platonic kiss cos I'm gay😚

You sound stupid to me. Straight men keep arguing they can't be friends with women and yet you expect gay people to find nothing wrong with kissing each other and touching each other's bum.

Gay intimacy is a social construct? sure. Gay is all an illusion. It's not real. It's all in our heads sure Freud.

Have I slapped my female friend's bum before? Or kissed a girl??? Did that make me gay?

Geez, I dunno🥴

But the thought of it does make my pussy wet tho. In a straight way of course😏

Can't be gay. This pussy straight as an arrow🤣

"That is why I say normalize platonic touch."

I know you think you helping, you not sis.

Just really think deep about what you are saying for as long as possible- but go do it on your own blog in your own space somewhere else just not here.

There is a clear distinction between heterosexual relationships and homosexual relationships and the fact straight people like yourself think that line is blurred is telling of just how much gay culture is appropriated and normalized as part of heterosexual behaviors especially in mainstream media cos that shit don't fly in real life.

The fact you think gay behaviors corrupt straight relationships or the perception of straight relationships is telling of everything that is wrong with straight men and straight women.

Don't conflate online culture with real life culture because those two are in conflict with each other. The performances people put up online in the media for commercial gains does not reflect their values or the complexities of the social structures they live within.

They are so any celebrities who come online and do gay shit and pretend they are down with the gays but go home and live a very homophobic life- you know who I'm talking about. No. Normal straight girls in real life are not walking around kissing eachother. They only do that when the cameras are rolling and for clicks. So about you not normalize that behavior with rhetorics like the ones you spew in here unintelligently and unwelcomed.

It's not our fault that straight men compartmentalize their feelings and can feel emotionally attracted to other men but reserve their sexual attraction only for women, treating women as sexual objects they cannot befriend while reserving their love and admiration and respect only for their male counterparts under the disguise of bromance and friendship. The jig is up. Pack it up.

That sort of compartmentalization is what a real construct is. All men are gay in that regard and straight is the societal construct. Deal.

Love is love. It's just measured by degrees and intensity but it's the SAME LOVE. I can have platonic feelings for a friend and still fuck her if I'm horny. I don't even need to be attracted physically to her. You know friends with benefit exist in our vocabulary for a reason right?

Platonic love is just romantic love in a seed form. It may never mature into blossoming romance but the love is the same.

And gay people can have platonic feelings as well. Gay people can have platonic friendships too. So calling your bias's relationship to another man as platonic is not a conclusive statement on his sexuality. Where did you get this idea that platonic means straight???? Don't answer that.

That's like saying gay people cannot have degrees of love and emotional attraction and attachments. And the only love we feel is sexual love. Can you at least drop the ignorance? Your homophobia here is enough.

And what makes you think your interpretation and description of someone's relationship as platonic overrides my interpretation and description of their relationship as romantic?? What makes your opinion superior to mine? We are both opining aren't we?

Your opinion is not more valid than my opinion. just because my opinion makes you uncomfortable don't mean it's wrong or that I am not entitled to it. You are so full of yourself.

We don't know them, you are right. If they are straight there's nothing wrong with that- IF THEY ARE GAY THEY IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT EITHER.

STOP ASSUMING THEY ARE STRAIGHT. ASSUMING THEY ARE STRAIGHT IS EQUALLY ASSUMING THEIR SEXUALITY DUMBASS.

Oh- You mean because of toxic fans they can't queer bait in peace? 🤔

GOOD. WE GON PUT OUR FOOT ON THEIR NECKS TILL THEY STOP GAY FISHING IF THEY ARE NOT GAY. IF YOU ARE NOT GAY DON'T ACT GAY. ITS AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

I think you are all over the place and don't know what you are about with this one- if you hate shippers, you do know not everyone who ships them ships them romantically right? And you do know we shipping them romantically NOT because of shit like this-

And I love how actual gay people within their culture and industry have said time and time again they are attacked for holding hands down the street, kissing or displaying the least public affection on a daily but somehow bimbos like you still want to call this homoeroticism "their culture" as if gay people don't exist in South Korea. Don't you ever get tired of acting the fool?

And you are gonna sit here and tell me straight men are uncomfortable with being shipped while pointing out simultaneously, in the same breath how skinship is a normal part of Korean culture. Cool.

Know what else is a normal part of korean kpop culture? SHIPPING. SHIPPING IS A NORMAL PART OF KPOP. THEY INVENTED THE DAMN THING SO LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE AND LET US SHIP OUT SHIP IN PEACE.

THEY CAN'T BE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH US SHIPPING THEM IF THEY THEMSELVES CURATE, PROMOTE AND PARTICIPATE IN THEIR OWN SHIP AND SHIPPING CULTURE ESPECIALLY FOR COMMERCIAL GAINS. FREE US.

If you are worried we can't tell platonic relationships, skinship culture etc from romantic relationships rest assured we can. Drop the sanctimonious bull crap.It's why we ship all ships but only support one. You can rest now.

THAT SAID, SUPPORT JIKOOK. THEY REAL🤭

GOLDY

[alejandrofrancelitblog]

Week 10 Blog

The Stranger

Albert Camus

Pages read : 1-52

Word Count : 409 words

Summary:

At the beginning of the book, Mearsault receives a telegram from the old peoples home in Marengo about 80 kilometers from Algiers informing him that his mother has died and that the funeral is the next day. The next day he asks his boss for the day off so he could go to his moms funeral and theres no way his boss would refuse him with an excuse like that. His boss wasn’t too happy about him asking for the day off but Mearsault also said its not his fault that his mom passed away. Mearsault feels like he has nothing to apologize for it should be his boss who should be offering his condolences since his mother passed away. He feels that the next day his boss will offer his condolences the day after tomorrow when he sees his mourning. Mearsault just doesn’t feel that his mother is dead he just still can’t believe she died. 

Critical Thinking: 

During this weeks reading I found the quote “ The caretaker took me to his room and I was able to clean up a little.” (12) Mearsault was very tired this day since it was the day of his mothers funeral. The caretaker told Mearsault that the director was looking for him. Mearsault goes to the director and the Director asks him if he would like to see his mother one last time before they seal the casket and Mearsault said no which was surprising to me because why wouldn’t you want to see your mother one last time. Maybe it was because he was tired or something but if that was me I would’ve liked to see my mother one last time. 

Personal Response:

In the book, Mearsault was asking if he would like to see his mother one last time and he said no. I feel like since he was very tired he didn’t mean to say no and would’ve loved to see his mother one last time because who wouldn’t want to see someone they loved one last time. I also feel like his boss was very rude because he asked for a day off since his mother passed away and was going to attend her funeral and his boss was angry which is messed up. You can’t be angry with someone for something that’s out of his control as if he wanted his mom to have sadly passed away and have to call out of work.

[cochranlahti]

10 Most Famous Horses In History

Figure The Morgan Horse

Figure was a small bay stallion who had remarkable attributes of being strong, fast and having a beautiful way of moving. He gained fame for having the abilities of a workhorse and the speed of a racehorse. This fame was heightened due to his offspring carrying these talents also. Thus, the Morgan Horse lineage was born.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen was a thoroughbred and Arabian stock and gained fame for carrying the Duke of Wellington for 17 hours in the Battle of Waterloo. When Copenhagen died one of his hooves was cut off as a souvenir, the Duke was extremely angry and the stolen hoof was found later and returned to him. The Duke’s son turned the hoof into an ink stand.

Marengo

In the same battle except on the other side, Marengo carried Napoleon Bonaparte on his back. Marengo was a small grey Arabian horse, he was captured and taken to Britain until his death. His skeleton is preserved in the Imperial War Magazine in London.

Comanche

Comanche was a brave war horse and is known as the only survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn. Due to being wounded 12 times in different battles but persevering through all of them he was named ‘Comanche’ as a way to honor his bravery and steadfastness.

Godolphon Arabian

Godolphon is first heard of in history when he was given to King Louis XV of France as a diplomatic gift. However the stallion did not find favour in the King’s eyes and was given away. He was the sire of several outstanding race horses, and his genetic impression on thoroughbred horses lives on even today.

Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit is the most popular film about a horse ever, telling the story about the stallion with little potential for racing despite his great ancestors. He finally found his stride due to persistent trainers and won huge races.

Bucephalus

Bucephalus is known to be a huge black stallion that was untamed until Alexander the Great took him in his hands. The skittish horse was finally quietened when Alexander turned him towards the sun, thus hiding his shadow which was the reason for his fears. Bucephalus was Alexander’s favourite horse throughout his kingship.

Sargent Reckless

Sargent Reckless was a brave mare during the Korean war who was undeterred by enemy fire and dangerous conditions, would carry ammunition and wounded soldiers by herself. She was given a collection of war medals including 2 purple hearts and was retired with full military honours.

Beautiful Jim Key

Beautiful Jim Key was a horse performer and was known to be the smartest horse in the world. He could count and do math and spell words by selecting letters from an alphabet.

Trigger

One of the most famous tv horses was Trigger, a palomino stallion appeared in 81 of Roy Roger’s staring movies and all 100 of his TV episodes. He was taxidermied after his death and sold in 2010 for $266,000.

The post 10 Most Famous Horses In History appeared first on Central Steel Build.

[marengogo]

If you are one of those people who …

keeps wanting to be stupid about the powerful uniqueness of his voice,

who is unable to appreciate the mesmerising elegance of his dance,

who is unequipped to comprehend his not-so-subtle genius,

who refuses to be touched by the kindness of his world, and words,

... You do you I don't give a fuck, neither does the universe I can guarantee you that, but I hope you do understand this one thing:

In the end, PARK JIMIN WILL ALWAYS GET WHAT PARK JIMIN WANTS, NEEDS & DESERVES.

And none of the aforementioned will ever matter, at least, that's what I keep reading in the pages of the history that he is making and writing.

Oh, and by the way, if you turn the book to chapter 10, paragraph 13, it says in big and bold that:

PARK JIMIN IS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, RESPECTED IN THE WAYS THAT TRULY MATTERS.

... So, just thought I'd share, for those who cannot read, you know?

That's all 🤡.

Marengo.

[josefavomjaaga]

Laure Junot about Jérôme

While looking for more information on Jérôme's duel I came across what I presume to be the original source of the "nécessaire" anecdote. Turns out it's from the Memoires of the Duchess d'Abrantès, Volume 3. Which does not reassure me about it. Especially as Laure claims that the story was told to them by Napoleon himself. That's two dubious sources in one.

That being said, here it is because it's such a nice story 😁.

That same evening, when the conversation turned to Jérôme for quite some time, the First Consul told us that he had incurred one of the funniest debts imaginable at the age of fifteen. The First Consul was at Marengo, and his brother was already serving; but still too young to go to the cannon, or for whatever reason, Jérôme had stayed in Paris. On the return of the First Consul, Bourrienne was presented with a large number of memorandums for which payment was urgently required, and for quite large sums; Biennais figured prominently among them, for a total of eight or ten thousand francs. Huge investigation, huge buzz; how could such a huge debt have been incurred? Finally, after much searching, it was found that Monsieur Jérôme Bonaparte had bought from Monsieur Biennais, in the Rue Saint-Honoré, at the Violet Monkey ["Le Singe violet"], a magnificent travel set, with everything that can be invented for luxury and elegance, in gold, mother-of-pearl, silver and ivory; the finest porcelain, the best painted enamels, in short, a real gem: but one very essential thing was missing, and that was a beard so that it could be used; for everything it contained had no other purpose. Razors, beard dishes of all sizes in gilt, silver and porcelain, a moustache comb - in short, it was a marvel; but the beard was lacking, and unfortunately the young man was only fifteen: there were still many years to wait. The First Consul told us this little story in a very pleasant way.

That implies that Jérôme had already joined the army before the Marengo campaign. And it makes his anger at not being allowed to follow the army at least understandable.

It also seems as if Napoleon in this case was not particularly angry at Jérôme, treating it as a boy's foolishness.

[gabriel-corona]

500 5/18/2023

you feel your life is directionless pick a direction and start walking

what do you want to be i want to be a writer and an artist usless moneyless things, but i want to be them i dont want to be rich i just want enought to live on

i want to move save money

i want an apartment save money i want a north facing well lit apartment one bedroom over a studio but im willing to budge i want either a red or grey tabby i want there to be place to make art

honest if i could have a cat here and had a boyfriend here i would not have to move

but im not going to find that here how much longer till i move out again another year maybe two

why is my sister angry at me all the time why is she angry period

what is she sad about

i want to finish school go back to school i could use money from my 401k to finish school take online classes at niu

where do you wanna go california la san diego chicago milwaukee new york madison michigan

i want to go to grad school finish school i can take it slow one class one semester and two classes next semester i will be done by may 2024

i want to get an mfa in writing and i want to get an mfa in visual arts finish school

where do you wanna go for writing somehwere where i can focus on the writing somewhere like evanston but not evanston maybe evanston

what do you like from evanston affluent beautiful the lake the campus is beautiful/ i did not see it but it was

what do you like from marengo the quite the corn the charm

what do you like from belvidere i like that theres mexican people i like that it has a version of everything i need its like marengo but different

what do you like from rockford/ loves park i like that in ways it feels like a version of chicago only rougher and less expensive and further apart

im ok here and i am stable

but i also want more maybe wanting more maybe i should want less

my friends have more but my friends are white and some come from afluent back ground

i am mexican and working class the rules are different

i am disabled or atleast neuro divergent

how long will i be sane? i feel like i have it figured out nothing is coming to hurt me

im not happy but i am happier

[newstfionline]

Anti-Trump fervor fuels a new movement aimed squarely at winning elections

By Michael Scherer and David Weigel, NY Times, October 15, 2018

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio--President Trump’s political nightmare, a mother of two in a custom campaign polo, bounded down the driveway like a sweepstakes winner. She had just chatted up a shirtless Republican out to mow his lawn, and he liked what she said.

“He’s with me on the cost of health care and preexisting conditions,�� Lorraine Wilburn, a first-time Democratic candidate for the Ohio statehouse, told her 11-year-old son, Finn. “He said he would take a look at me.”

Finn was used to this sort of enthusiasm, ever since his mother started attending liberal activist meetings after the 2016 election. He had learned not to be surprised if Mom started sounding like a comic book heroine akin to Wonder Woman, whose image she keeps on her phone.

“We are fighting for the mortal soul of our country,” Wilburn continued, beaming, as though such struggles can be won in quiet cul-de-sacs outside Canton on a sleepy Saturday morning.

If the Nov. 6 midterm elections turn into what many Democrats hope will be a “blue wave,” swamping Republican majorities from Congress to state legislatures nationwide, it will have been powered in part by a new and sprawling network of activists on the left who, like Wilburn, have leaped into action over the past two years--energized by their deep desire to thwart the rise of Trump and his agenda.

Like the conservative tea party groups that rose up after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and that helped Republicans retake the House and gain power in state legislatures in 2010, this new liberal movement has emerged largely outside the traditional party structure.

It is led by hundreds of thousands of mostly white, college-educated, middle-aged women who trace their inspiration to the inaugural women’s marches in January 2017 and whose ambitions have only grown amid a succession of disagreements with Trump, including over the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

What began with meetings at diners and public libraries has matured into a sprawling array of overlapping groups, some intensely local and operating on shoestring budgets and others well-financed and professional.

National networks with names such as Indivisible, Action Together and Together We Will serve as organizing umbrellas for thousands of far-flung, self-directed activists. New national organizations including Swing Left, Sister District and Flippable have more-centralized operations targeting specific races. Still other efforts, such as Mobilize, are little more than new technology platforms that allow activists to connect to campaigns online. All told, this loosely woven framework has added up to a potentially potent force, new on the political left, with a singular goal of winning elections.

But its task is not easy. New polls show that Trump’s base also has grown increasingly energized, particularly in the wake of the Kavanaugh battle. The president’s approval rating has ticked upward, and he has taken to predicting a “red wave” that will turn back any rising Democratic tide while mocking liberal activists as an “angry, left-wing mob.”

Republican Senate candidates have gained ground in conservative states such as North Dakota, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, where Democrats had hoped their energized supporters could deliver victories but where losses would all but ensure continued GOP control of that chamber.

The energized left could prove more decisive in the fight for control of the House and state legislatures, where the battle is being waged in several dozen Republican-held suburban districts in which highly educated female voters have considerable sway. But even those contests are tight. Although national polls show that Democrats hold a double-digit advantage when voters are asked which party they intend to back in their local House race, a Washington Post-Schar School survey this month of 69 battleground districts showed Democrats with a relatively narrow edge of 50 percent to 46 percent.

Thin margins of error have not discouraged the new foot soldiers of the Democratic resistance. They don’t cover their faces with bandannas, speak of socialist revolution or get lost in debates about the best model for Medicare expansion.

Instead, many of them juggle campaign events with school commutes and soccer practice. They leave the kids with their husbands to march, come out of retirement to register voters and form close bonds with neighbors who were strangers when Hillary Clinton was the presumptive president. An aspiring blue wave with a decidedly pink hue, they are women defined by a desire to atone for their relative inaction in 2016.

“People are making social connections that they really, really like,” said Abby Karp, an organizer for Swing Left in North Carolina, who works days as a dean at a private school in Greensboro. “I don’t even have a Facebook page anymore. I have a political page. I don’t know what my cousin is doing. I know what canvass is coming up.”

Like the tea party rebellion, this resistance was sparked by a new, culturally transformative president who promised change backed by his party’s control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Conservative activists then and liberal activists now testify to many of the same symptoms that drove them to house parties and protests: sleepless nights, a fear for their children’s future, and an existential anxiety about the country they love and the values they hold dear.

Crystal Sousa, a Democratic teacher in Denair, in California’s Central Valley, who was moved by Trump’s victory to run for a seat on the local school board that had long been Republican-held until she won, remembers walking upstairs on election night to find her 15-year-old daughter. She was in her bedroom Googling houses and teaching jobs in Canada, because she thought the family would have to move because she had a preexisting medical condition.

Sousa now coordinates with 12 grass-roots groups in the area and hundreds of volunteers who drive out two hours from the coast to the valley every weekend to knock on doors to unseat Rep. Jeff Denham, the local Republican in a district Clinton won.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be life-changing,” she said of the first house party she hosted in 2017.

The nation’s self-sorting has left blue urban areas surrounded by seas of red, and that has prompted a resistance on the move as well. Brooklyn liberals, lacking competitive races nearby, travel Saturdays to rural Pennsylvania to walk neighborhoods.

In 2017, Skocpol, the Harvard researcher, sent surveys to the memberships of all the resistance groups she had identified in eight counties that Trump had won in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The 337 activists who replied fit a remarkably narrow demographic: 90 percent were women, 90 percent were white, and 83 percent had either bachelor’s or graduate degrees. The median age was 55.

On a recent Friday night, the McHenry County Democratic Party gathered at Cathy Johnson’s home in Marengo, Ill.--almost all of them women. When they entered, the first thing they saw was a table covered in all the necessary tools: postcards, stamps and labels with the names of voters organized by district.

“There’s something new to be angry about every day,” said Kathryn Potter, 34, a stay-at-home mother who lives in the 6th Congressional District.

[deniscollins]

Killing of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa Inflames Immigration Debate

If you were the owner of Yarrabee farms, and one of your employees, who has worked hard for years tending dairy cows, commits murder and is found out to be an illegal/undocumented immigrant, how would you address your employees, particularly your Mexican employees, the next day at work?

Television cameras had for weeks swarmed this small town in Iowa farm country as the police looked for Mollie Tibbetts, the college student who went for a jog last month and never returned home.

After hundreds of tips and interviews, and after countless prayer vigils and donations to a reward fund, investigators got a tragic break in their case on Tuesday. A body believed to be Ms. Tibbetts’s was found buried beneath cornstalks on a farm outside town. The authorities charged Cristhian Rivera, who they said is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, with first-degree murder in her death.

President Trump and other conservatives quickly cited the arrest of Mr. Rivera, who worked on a farm owned by a prominent Republican family, as proof of the flawed immigration system and lax border security the president has long warned about.

Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, released a statement saying she was “angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community.” And the White House Twitter account posted a video with the emotional accounts of people whose family members had been killed by immigrants who entered the country illegally.

“Mollie Tibbetts, an incredible young woman, is now permanently separated from her family,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday evening in a Twitter message, a clear reference to his much criticized policy that tried to deter illegal border crossings by separating migrant families.

“A person came in from Mexico illegally and killed her. We need the wall, we need our immigration laws changed, we need our border laws changed, we need Republicans to do it because the Democrats aren’t going to do it,” he said.

Mr. Rivera’s lawyer, Allan M. Richards, disputed the government’s claims that his client was in the country illegally and said Mr. Trump’s comments highlighting his immigration status could prejudice future jurors. Mr. Richards said his client, who was ordered held on $5 million cash bond during a brief court appearance on Wednesday, came to the United States at age 17, had the equivalent of a middle school education and had worked for years tending to dairy cows.

“For sad and sorry Trump to say that they’re illegal without even giving them a hearing is totally wrong,” Mr. Richards said in an interview after the court hearing.

Mr. Rivera’s arrest was a lead story for much of Tuesday evening and Wednesday on several conservative-leaning news websites, and was touted as a boost to the Trump administration’s argument for a more hard-line stance on immigration. The arrest came in the same week that an undocumented immigrant from Mexico was charged with second-degree murder in a Minnesota case.

Mr. Trump is expected to continue to push immigration as a signature issue in courting voters ahead of November’s midterm elections. In Iowa, Republicans are defending two congressional seats that Democrats have high hopes of winning, and Governor Reynolds is seeking a full term in her post.

The discovery of Ms. Tibbetts’s body devastated her hometown, Brooklyn, where she had returned for the summer after studying psychology at the University of Iowa. After weeks of anxiously awaiting news, some residents said Wednesday that they were frustrated to learn that the suspect in her death was in the country illegally.

“Mollie would still be alive today if we would just enforce the laws we already have in place,” said Kerry Traver, 73, who lives in nearby Marengo. “Here illegally and nobody’s doing anything about it.”

Rusty Clayton, owner of True Value Hardware in Brooklyn, said customers in the small town — where doors are seldom locked — have been coming in to have house keys made ever since news broke that Ms. Tibbetts was missing. But he said the town views its Hispanic residents not as outsiders, but as members of the community.

“Their kids go to our school,” Mr. Clayton said. “One was homecoming king, and another of the students has been valedictorian of the class. The kids here well respect them and interact with them.”

Immigration has long been a divisive issue in Iowa, where farmers depend on foreign-born laborers to tend their crops and livestock, but where an influx of Hispanic residents has exposed tensions in some cities. While Iowa politicians from both major parties offered condolences to the Tibbetts family, Republicans were more likely to note Mr. Rivera’s immigration status in their statements.

Outside the state, advocates for immigrants lamented that Ms. Tibbetts’s death was being used for political gains.

“It is unfortunate that lawmakers are politicizing this absolutely awful tragedy,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy organization. “One would wish that cooler heads would prevail and that we could have a rational, humane conversation about immigration policy.”

Though statistics show that native-born Americans commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants, Mr. Trump has long pushed a narrative that suggests otherwise.

The White House regularly sends out emails reporting the latest crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. “Ethiopian human rights abuser arrested for fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship,” one such missive announced last week.

In June, Mr. Trump gathered at the White House a group of so-called “angel families” who had lost loved ones in crimes committed by “criminal illegal aliens” — victims of Salvadoran gangs, heroin overdoses, robbers, convicts released from prison but not deported.

“These are the stories that Democrats and people that are weak on immigration, they don’t want to discuss, they don’t want to hear, they don’t want to see, they don’t want to talk about,” Mr. Trump said in greeting the families.

In recent campaign rallies, like one Tuesday night in which he alluded to Ms. Tibbetts, Mr. Trump has riled up crowds by disparaging immigrants and stoking fear about them, saying that he would send them “the hell back” to their countries of origin. And he has constantly reiterated his belief that a vote for a Democratic candidate in the midterms would be a vote for open borders. (Legislation shows that Democrats support border security measures, but not the wall that Mr. Trump has promised his supporters.)

Mr. Rivera’s arrest also raised questions about the process companies use to check whether job applicants are allowed to work in the United States. Mr. Rivera’s employer, Yarrabee Farms, said initially that the federal government had cleared Mr. Rivera for work through its well-known E-Verify system. But on Wednesday evening, Yarrabee corrected itself and said he had been checked through a different Social Security Administration database.

Both systems are vulnerable to fraud when applicants present valid documents that belong to someone else, experts said.

“If I’m using your number and your name, that’s going to get through,” said Julie Myers Wood, who led Immigration and Customs Enforcement during George W. Bush’s presidency. She said unauthorized job seekers were using stolen documents to thwart E-Verify even during her tenure.

But Ms. Myers Wood said the Social Security database was not intended to check employment eligibility, and that the farm was “not in as strong as a position” as it would have been had it used E-Verify.

Federal officials appeared to have reviewed Mr. Rivera’s immigration status and said they had placed an immigration hold on him, requiring him to be turned over to immigration authorities should he clear state criminal proceedings. He is “an illegal alien from Mexico,” said Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE.

A senior homeland security official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the case, said Mr. Rivera appears to have used stolen documentation in order to pass the federal government identity check at the farm where he had worked for the past several years.

Dane Lang, a spokesman for Yarrabee Farms, said Mr. Rivera provided a state-issued photo identification card and a social security card. “Our practice is to take a second, enhanced step to verify the identification,” he said in a statement, screening employees through the Social Security Administration.

“We ran that information through the verification service, and it came back ‘verified,’” he said. “That means that the exact name, birthdate and exact social security number were all cross referenced and corroborated.”

Over the last 24 hours, Mr. Lang added, company officials learned that their verification had not been adequate. “Our employee was not who he said he was.”

[sophisticatedmichelle-blog1]

The Popularity of the Emoji           -Is it a new language in the widespread social communication?

Introduction With the soaring development of the Internet and the popularity of smartphone, an increasing number of the forms of social networking communication have drawn ever-bigger individuals. In the era of evolving computer networks, a new type of message exchange - Emoji, has arisen spontaneously and it has gained a growing popularity among the public. Comparing the text message, the adhibition of Emoji is a "covenant-lite" of the means of communication and the expression of individual's ideas. In 2015, one emoji "Face with tears of joy" has selected as the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year, which this is a word or expression chosen to reflect the passing year in language. Gradually changing from the applying of the text communicating to the extensively using of picture expression, the application of Emoji has been changing people's communication habits. It has played a valid role in social networking communication platforms. However, a coin has two sides.  The high vitality of Emoji this is accompanied by a series of social problems: Some people have pointed out the Emoji would make a dent in complexity and dominance of language and literacy, while others suggest the mushroom growth of emoji are becoming a new trend of communication to point to mark. This essay aims at elaborating the emoticon has a potential and ability to grow a new language in general social interaction.

The history of Emoji In internet dictionary, the definition of “Emoji” is a small icon or image to represent people’s emotion in some ways. In the original Internet communicating, the communicating rely on the text message. In 19th. Sept.1989, Computer Scientist Scott E. Fahlman create the first adorable emoji, which is ': - )'(smiley face) and published on the Carnegie Mellon University's BBS, while he did not realize how this simple image would change the way of communicating (Wong, 2016). This simple smile icon has to be the first stage of the emoticon development.

The second stage of emoticon development is the Emoji. The pronunciation of Emoji is based on the pronunciation of one Japanese word “えもじ.” It is used to represent the visual, emotional symbols which the Japanese people used in wireless communication, for instance, the smiling face represents happy, and the cake represents food. In the next few years, a linguistician who called Gavin Lucas had written a book which called The Story of Emoji. In this paper, Gavin had described the emoji history clearly sand he stated that the emoji is the most rapidly advancing language in the world (Wong, 2016). Take another example, in 2011. Apple Company formally added the Emoji as one of the input methods in iOS5. In fist, only 10% Instagram would use Emoji in comments, but there are more than half of Instagrammer would use Emoji on their statements and comments.

The above two stages are included in the initial phase of emoticon advancement. Following by the popularization of the Internet and the various SNS communication tools came out, the individuals not only satisfy on only small yellow icons, but the folk was also starting at operating another emoticon - custom avatars. Custom avatars are separated by static photos (JPG) and live photo(GIF). The individuals could select their materials from images, animation, movie and TV series screenshots, etc.. The SNS app custom avatars provide the users only the emoji of the platform, but also they give the high chances to the drawer or other professional producers. They could design a variety of original cartoon characters to become the new emoticons. Those custom avatars icons define a multitude of folk’s emotions, and in some ways, they enrich the emoticons communicating area and impose the emoticons develop promptly. This is the third progress of emoticons’ growth, which is also called social media development stage. In the next progress, the development of emoticons has reached perfection and stabilization. The promulgation of the small phone has injected new vitalities to the development of the emoticons. Various mobile social networking platforms have focused on design official expression emoticons. A few years ago, an outstanding instant messaging service “Line” had launched an Emoji series which called “Line Friends,” which are lapped up by the youth individuals. At present, emoji coalesces various cartoon characters, network catchwords, celebrities, etc. as the developing elements rather than before. It is stated that tapping Emojis during the conversion are the essential tapping input habits of the humanity. Female individuals would use 2.84 times average per day, while the males would use 0.75 times per day (Wong, 2016). Interesting, the emoji "Face with tears of joy” would be used 750 million times per day in the world, which is the TOP 1 favorite emoji.

Based on the growth history of the emoticons and the statistical analysis of Emoji, it is not difficult to conclude that Emojis have become an integral new social language among the vast amount of folks. To some extent, those people could be seen as the audiences of this modern style - Emoji.

The expression way of Emoji Emoji and the emoticons have been a new language to represent the modern era and the teenagers. A coin has two sides: some people state that this is a positive attitude and the existence of the emoticons enrich the narrative function. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Oxford University Press Secretary Casper Grathwohl has claimed that classical words communicating are requiring the changing to cater the fast and visual demanding communication in 21 century. Single icons, like Emoji face, could fill with the holes of the flat messages and make it look beautiful (Gasper, 2015).

However, the other people indicate that people would rely on the Emoji communication so that it would cause the decline of the literacy. Due to the depending on the emoticons, all the human emotion - happy, excited, angry, sad, upset.. could be replaced by the Emoji, as a consequence, the emoticons enhance the sluggishness of the communicating, while it would weaken the human’s verbal expression ability. (Marengo,2017) Compared with the enormous expression of the natural language, the appearance of the emoticons is limited. Even worse, all our speech would become the formula and lose the beauty of the word.

In short conclude, the Emoji is using online communication, which provides a convenient and efficient way. Both sides consideration is thoughtful, which remain us the expression of the Emoji, this is a fragmentization expression. First, the characteristic of the Internet and new media decide the way of Emoji is expressing. The traits of the Internet is also debris. All information is showed by a piece by piece, which there is no logical connection among those messages. Even the Emoji is saved as one by one isolated image and data on the Internet. Secondly, it fits better for the present society. A Japanese footballer Hiroki Azuma has described the current organization meaning reading mode called as database schema(Alshenqeeti,2016). In database schema, the message is separated by one by one private data, which it would not provide any complexity narrative. In another word, the emoticons are like data schema, it could insert various scene, but it could not afford further complex meaning or description (Alshenqeeti,2016). Consequently, the Emoji is popular but it still has some weakness and needs to improve.

However, the Internet communicating require the convenience way instead of complex narrative structure. The Emoji plays like a new communicating language; it just needs to satisfy the people’s communicating demand. However, the public need to separate the emoji and the traditional literacy to consider: they stay in different progress on the society, one is on the Internet which provides a simple way to express emotion, while the scholarship is connected to human cognition and recognition. It should not accuse the conscious error of the feelings. In fact, they are two different languages in perception, which it would be explained on below.

The visual analysis on Emoji Similar to the phonetic symbol(period, comma, exclamation mark…), the emoji also plays as the paralanguage, both are existing as the symbol form during the communication progress. By reading the textbook Visual Methodologies( Rose. G, 2013), it demonstrates seven main methodologies about how to analyze visual materials. The 6th method which called Semiotics would benefit helping research the value of emoticon in humanity’s daily life. In page147, Rose has mentioned that Williamson’s binary system(1978) could be used to analyze the visual materials. In the emoticons, the jpg, gif, and text are the Emoji’s signifier. For example, the icon “cry loudly” is the signifier, which corresponding with the sad emotion, which is signified; the icon “smile happily” is a signifier, which the happy emotion is signified correspondingly.  However, similar to the phonetic symbols, the relationship between the signifier and the signified of the emoticons is not the static logic relation. For example, the “smile” icons, connects to the pleasure emotion at first. Following the evolution of semantics, the “smile” icons may stand for “annoying” or “this is boring.” By the arbitrary development of symbols, the emoticons can evolve and develop freely.

On the other hands, a social psychologist called George Herbert Mead believed that semiotics play as the significant affection elements when people participate in social interaction. Individuals express themselves by the symbols, while understand or evaluate the others’ understanding of themselves (p124, Rose, 2013). Another example could be connected on this analysis: Lacan provides a Mirror Stage theory for analyzing the human recognition growth progress. On Internet, especially social media, there are two mirrors stages when they communicate with each other using the Emoji: First is the “other mirror stage,” while the others are “self-mirror stage”(p125, Rose, 2013). This method is combined little with the psychologies. The “self-mirror stage” is meant that the individuals would use the Emoji as the symbolized self-presentation. In reality, the users may know the others, but they will still use a symbolized form to secondary build up the self-image of themselves. The reason “self-mirror stage” is the connection between the symbolic interaction and the media built by Mirror stage.

This two analysis of the emoticons express clearly how the users think of the Emoji and provide some reasons how they become famous.

The fundamental component of the new Language In 2015, a linguistician called Neil Cohn published a paper named “Will emoji become a new language?” on BBC website to indicate a point that Emoji cannot become a language and provide some reasons to explain. In Neil’s point of view, emoticon does not have the hard core of a language which is called “grammar.” In the paper, he demonstrated that a grammatical system is an integrated and rigorous system which contains a complete restricted condition for judging a language, which they would have some traits to distinguish them:

1. The syntax has the individual autonomy, which is incomplete linked up with semantic. 2.Grammar is creative that it can create numerous new sentences based on limited rules(such as adding adjective words, prepositional phrase, and attributive clause, etc..) 3. A verdict has the syntactic category, as each element are organized by hierarchical organization instead of linear permutation. (Neil Cohn, 2015)

In short conclusion, Neil stated several shreds of evidence to suggest that Emoji is not a language: 1. Emoji does not have complexity grammar rules. 2. The sequence or order of emoji is not grammar. 3. Emoji does not have modularity and grammar hierarchy, which these are the stable characteristics of the language’s syntax. In summary, Neil pointed out that it is difficult to use emoji to create a complicated sentence, even though emoji could express a story based on the primary narrative structure. (Neil Cohn, 2015)

Neil Cohn explained explicitly enough in his paper why Emoji is not a language. However, the language system which Neil Cohn is used is the natural language, which is a narrow scope of the definition of the word. Since massive expressions are harboring in the earth, gesture language, the natural language(French, Chinese, English, etc..), Esperanto, computer language(C++, Java, etc..) and paralanguage, etc... Neil Cohn should not just restrict the thinking circle.

William Ford Gibson has said that “The future is already here - it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Apparently, the popularity of Emoji could be considered as one of the new future of the global language. The internet is changing the world, accomplished by the new media. When the world is being closed, the various styles are being the most significant barriers to realizing the global village(Kaye,2017). In the 70s, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, a Polish Jew, who created a new language as the universal language which called Esperanto. It was aimed at eliminating the communication barriers between countries. However, this is difficult to learn and generalize. Thinking of the future, humanity may demand a language which does not require learning, and it is based on the human sensibility perceptual(Kaye,2017).

From the observation of present situation, the Emoji do have this unique potential to be this type of language. Based on (Kaye,2017), the human would have natural cognitive abilities for a particular image sequence (gif) or a specific emotional icon(emoji). In Neil Cohn’s analysis, he suggested that people are hard to find a particular symbol to state the emotion quickly. But imagine, in the future, the humanity want to express one meaning to others who speak the different language, he could just pick up the icons or gifs from a cloud material drive immediately (if the technology evolves quickly), and these images would replace himself to express or to communicate with someone. Besides, while the others could receive and understand this man’s meaning. Therefore, they complete a communicating progress and without any translator or other difficult language learning.

The expression of Emoji is just a simple communication language. But it would be like our ancestors used the knots, dancing and hieroglyphic to express. The phrase is the human instinct, even though so far the Emoji is an immature language tool. In the future, the Internet, the whole society is remaining rapidly evolving, the emoticons also would change accomplished by the evolvement of the new media and global culture. Perhaps some anthropologist would study the history of Internet communication language in the future, and they would state that Emoji could be the first generation of systematic Esperanto.

Conclusion:

The Emoji is a new language existed in the global culture. It could be considered as a word combined with human’s emotion, but the meaning what the emoticon express is omnibus, in other words, the understanding of Emoji requires both words and images. Emoticons are beneficial for enhancing and enriching humanity written communication, but compared with the natural languages’ richness and complicacy, emoji remains enormous potential for developing. The existing of Emoji is standing for a new future language which could bread the communication barriers between the individuals who speak different languages. Besides, the Emoji also could be treated as the new language that accompanies the Internet and new media, which its existence is the replenish for the words and sentence. Nevertheless, the present form of the emoticon still stays in a primordial developing stage, which is still not mutual as like the early human hieroglyphics. But following the progress of the new media’s growth, the emoticon would rapidly evolve a mature new language system eventually.