"People who treat other people as less than human, must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned."
James Baldwin
On the other hand Jimmy, "People who treat people as equally human, must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, appreciated!" -- and McNair Elementary School bookkeeper, Antoinette Tuff deserves every bit of appreciation that comes her way after this harrowing experience:
Tears were streaming down my face as I listened to this woman. I cried because of her courage. I cried because of her empathy. I cried because of her humanity. I cried because that boy probably never had anyone in his life who cared enough to say, "It's okay, Baby," or "I love you." And I cried because it was Antoinette Tuff who did. She saved those babies, every single one of them -- and without the NRA's, "Teachers should have guns in every school" foolishness.
Such grace my Sister -- under pressure and after. Considering that, I am certain you are a much better woman than I.
Glenn Greenwald's been truth-telling ever since I found him at Salon years ago. He was one of few real journalists willing to "tell the truth and shame the devil" -- and he spared no one, from the MSM puppets to the politricksters themselves. It was refreshing as hell!
Since he's always been unafraid to speak truth to power, I fully expected his swift, succinct and no-nonsense response to the detention and questioning of his partner, David Miranda at London's Heathrow airport. And in his, Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation, he doesn't disappoint:
If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further. Beyond that, every time the US and UK governments show their true character to the world - when they prevent the Bolivian President's plane from flying safely home, when they threaten journalists with prosecution, when they engage in behavior like what they did today - all they do is helpfully underscore why it's so dangerous to allow them to exercise vast, unchecked spying power in the dark.
I also expected this:
You'd think the UK would know by now, that the US will always quickly and most certainly throw them under the bus, particularly when it comes toanything Snowden (gotta keep up the appearance of steady, clean hands, even as they franticly flail about trying to catch this guy with hands not even approaching anything resembling "clean"). It's not like there isn't recent precedent to remind them.
UK authorities reportedly raided the Guardian’s office in London to destroy hard drives in an effort to stop future publications of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden...
Mr. "Earnest," stop insulting our intelligence. Even Stevie Wonder can see Snowden's whistle blowing is the one constant in all of these criminal and jack-booted acts of intimidation. Earnestly guy, this is what I think of your press conference:
The Changeling will go to great lengths to serve white supremacy -- and himself (forget about all those folk, who thought "Change You Can Believe In" meant just that). Mr. "To know him, is to love him" over there, is more than okay with allowing Shrub & Co. to skate, totally free from prosecution for all the murderous atrocities and attacks on civil liberties they committed during their administration yet he's pulling out all the stops to not only capture Snowden, but to intimidate anyone else associated with him? How crazy is that?
Certainly his other motivation is the fact that anything leaked, will implicate him even more horribly since he chose to sell his soul to be the first Black deus ex machina. Now, the real powers-that-be can continue to perpetuate the aforementioned atrocities and attacks at an even higher level through him. And when the shit hits the fan, he'll be left holding the proverbial bag. It's already happening. He will suffer the repercussions of all these world-dominating actions for a lifetime -- and so will his daughters (but they'll be rich, that's all that matters I guess). There's just something really insecure or worse, megalomaniacal about that to me. He reminds me of the power-lusting, Martin Sheen character, Stilson, bent on creating "his destiny" by destroying the world in the movie "Dead Zone." It didn't end well for him.
Like the others before him, he raised his right hand and took the following oath and didn't mean one word of it:
Presidential Oath of Office I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
In stark contrast, Snowden, Poitras and Greenwald, like Bradley Manning and others before them, are doing way more preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution than those who routinely raise that right hand. Knowing this government's reach however, my prayers are with them.
New York Times reporter, Pete Maass recently published a comprehensive, day-late-and-dollar-short account of how it all got to this point. His, How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets reads like a spy thriller (he is, according to the piece, working on a book about surveillance and privacy, after all) -- you should check it out.
"Whatever you do in the dark, will come to light!"
My grandmother always used to say that when somebody had done something wrong and thought they'd gotten away with it. When I clicked over to Indian Country Today Media Network this morning, I knew she was right.
(Photo courtesy of Facebook/Standing Our Ground for Veronica Brown)
I don't know who contacted whom and it really doesn't matter. It's been two years since Jan Hunt wrote the requested letter and since she said it was all handled anonymously, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. She didn't have to say anything, ever. She couldv'e kept her mouth shut and kept on doing what she does in Oregon -- but she didn't, she told the whole, ugly truth:
“He was a loser and a terrible person to the birth mother, that's how she presented it. [Prowell] told me [Dusten Brown's] family was out of their minds and that this poor adoptive couple [the Capobiancos] were being treated terribly,” says Hunt. “But she wouldn't give me any of the names, or the name of the attorney she was working with or even the name of the baby. And as I was working on my letter [regarding attachment], whenever I asked about the father, she said that he 'was out of the picture,' and that the only reason he was contesting the adoption was because his tribe had put him up to it. She said that his mother would probably be the one raising the child because he didn't really want her.”...
...“Jo Prowell said it was about money,” says Hunt. “And everything she said about the tribe was very negative. She said that the only motivation [the Cherokee Nation] had toward the child was money—that 'they get money for every tribal member they have.'”...(all emphasis mine)
The usual pattern of degradation exercised by white supremacists toward us, "Others" is very apparent in those emphasized parts above. One can easily substitute Blacks or Latinos for the Native Americans about whom Prowell spoke and see that, not only do they use those exact same "conventional" beliefs that they've created about all of us, they continue to pass them down from generation to generation. I mean it's 2013 and they're still singing that "same old song" because it suits their purposes.
...“She kept asking me to reorganize my paragraphs in a very specific way and was very persistent and demanding,” says Hunt. “I've written lots of letters to judges, but I was just so motivated to help this baby. My son and I were on vacation scanning and faxing the letter and she just kept changing it to the point where I thought it was really strange. No one had ever done that before.”...
...“I was duped and lied to,” says Hunt. “And I am shocked and angry to have learned the truth about this case. [Dusten Brown] had been lied to and tried since the child was born to reclaim her—not two years afterward, which is what I was told. And he's not some terrible ogre or deadbeat, as I had been led to believe, but a father sincerely trying to be with his daughter.”
Several weeks after Hunt had sent the final version of the letter to Prowell, she received an odd phone call. “As soon as I picked up, she said, 'Don't say anything. You are not to talk to anybody but me. You cannot talk to anyone about this letter,'” says Hunt. “It was all very mysterious and very strange.”...
...“I literally felt ill when I realized who this letter was for,” says Hunt. “I never had any idea that Veronica was the child in the letter, I just knew it was a child in South Carolina. I have felt angry with myself for not pushing and asking more questions, but [Prowell] kept it from me for a reason. How could anybody think that taking this child from her biological father who obviously loves her very much is a good idea?”
Now this is -- or should be -- the most damning evidence against the Capobiancos, their lawyers, the adoption agency and the U.S. judicial system. They are all complicit. The "odd phone call" Ms. Hunt received was a veiled attempt at intimidation and I'm certain there are ways a good private investigator could track down its source. Pity she didn't have it on tape.
As I've said several times, I'm no lawyer, but it seems Ms. Hunt's recantation alone should be grounds enough to halt any and all attempts to take this man's child away and nullify any agreement he might have signed during that private mediation. The Capobiancos are not fit to be in this child's life -- at all. Additionally, it should pave the way for a Department of Justice investigation into the entire case for civil rights violations at the very least and at most, prosecution and jail time.
I know we're all living in Bizarro World here in this country, but this case is an opportunity for all of us, "Others" in particular (our combined numbers are staggering!), in alliance with those alabaster brethren who've stood for what was right from the beginning -- to force the DOJ to do their damned job. If we don't, it will continue, as it currently is, to yet another Native American child, taken from Oklahoma. And wonder of wonders! The Palmetto State, as well as the original adoption attorney for Matt and Melanie Capobianco are involved once again! Come on Family, these people cannot continue to operate with impunity -- this child trafficking has got to end.
When I read Michael Overall's, Baby Veronica's adoptive parents come to Oklahoma, I thought there might be some breathing room for Dusten Brown and his family. But as I read through the comments and again came across D. Hammond from Pheonix, AR -- I not only knew his chances were slim to none, I knew my initial ruminations about the assault on the ICWA was confirmed:
D. Hammond - Phoenix, AR
.... But many are also questioning what's really behind all this fuss. One blogger showed how conservative Christian lobby groups are propelling this issue. Their purpose is to get rid of ICWA. Here's what's posted: "Melanie (Duncan) Capobianco, Mark Fiddler, and their publicist Jessica Munday of Trio Solutions' "Save Veronica" campaign, are all founding members of The Coalition to Protect Indian Tribes and Families (CPIC). CPIC, whose mission is to "amend" ICWA, orchestrated guests Troy Dunn and Johnston Moore (both members of CPIC) on Dr. Phil in 2012 and has an online petition of some 23,700 signatures to reform or get rid of ICWA. CPIC works closely with the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare (CAICW) for Indian families "at risk" with ICWA along with the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) which, according to their website, declares Federal Indian policy racist and unconstitutional. Melanie (Duncan) Capobianco has also participated in CAICW events and panels. These organizations are all part of the "Tea Party Community" that meets regularly in Washington, D.C." (emphasis mine)
Yeah, their "Christian God" condones what they're doing. {smdh}
Family, this is how white supremacy worms its way into positions of complete control -- by pretending they're there to "help" or "protect" (can anyone say NAACP?). How in the world does the The Coalition to Protect Indian Tribes and Families (CPIC), have anything to do with protecting Veronica?! It doesn't. It, through the disrespect of the white gaze -- as Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville) writes here -- enables the same trafficking of Native American children that the ICWA was created to stop.
For a minute there, things were looking pretty good for the Browns once the balance shifted to Oklahoma. From the afore-linked piece:
Matt and Melanie Capobianco arrived in Tulsa late Tuesday and called a press conference for Wednesday morning. They had threatened earlier this week to come find the 3-year-old girl themselves if law enforcement didn't take physical custody away from her Cherokee family.
Meanwhile, Fallin and the Cherokee Nation expressed hope that a compromise could be reached to end the custody battle, which has been raging for nearly four years now.
Fallin urged the biological father, Dusten Brown, and the adoptive parents "to reconcile and to come to an agreement that best serves their child."
"To be clear, the legal system cannot deliver a happy ending in this case," Fallin said in a prepared statement. "Only Mr. Brown and the Capobianco family can do that."
She will not approve the warrant until Dusten Brown has a chance to fight extradition in court, starting with a hearing Sept. 12 in Sequoyah County, Fallin said.
South Carolina's governor, Nikki Haley, called Fallin personally this week to support the adoptive parents, the Capobiancos.
Fallin's office receives more than 100 extradition warrants a year and routinely approves them, officials said. But it's unusual for the legality of a warrant to be challenged in court, as Brown is doing.
Her office will have 90 days to review the warrant. And if it follows "the letter and spirit of the law," she will sign it, Fallin said.
"My hope, however," she said, "continues to be that sending Mr. Brown to face criminal charges in South Carolina is unnecessary." (emphasis mine)
That the governor and the Cherokee Nation hope for some compromise is troubling to me -- I can't say this enough, this child's mother sold her for money and a car because she didn't want her, but this man wants his flesh and blood! I don't know anything about Gov. Mary Fallin, but it seemed, based on the above, she was willing to follow the laws of her state. As I perused the comment section, though, it appears some Oklahomans are not nearly as confident in that observation as I. Here are a few comments:
Dana Asher - Bixby
Mary(no back bone)Fallin,will have to ask the tea party members,what to do.
Joe Doty - TULSA
When it comes to issues of morality, She is a very poor example.
Sean Campbell - Oklahoma City
Fallin taking care of Oklahomans....?
Putting pressure on Brown, Gov. Mary Fallin threatened to speed up the extradition process to South Carolina if he didn't compromise and allow the Capobiancos to visit Veronica.
Brown faces a South Carolina charge of "custodial interference," which can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison upon conviction.
"Mr. and Mrs. Capobianco deserve an opportunity to meet with their adopted daughter," the governor said Wednesday.
"They also deserve the chance to meet with Mr. Brown and put an end to this conflict."
A day earlier, the governor had promised not to send Brown to South Carolina until after a court hearing Sept. 12, when he plans to challenge the extradition request.
"If both parties are meeting in good faith," said Fallin's spokesman, Alex Weintz, "the governor has said she will wait until the September court date to review the extradition request."
Brown's defense attorney told the Tulsa World that the governor shouldn't mix the criminal case with the civil dispute over custody.
"They're two completely separate legal issues," said Clark Brewster, adding that he had been in contact with the Governor's Office. "One involves a criminal allegation, and one involves what is in the best interests of Veronica."
Brown has committed no crime and won't let the criminal case affect any decisions over his daughter's future, Brewster said.
But Brewster was waiting Wednesday night to hear back from the Capobianco camp after "a lengthy conversation" with one of their attorneys.
Earlier in the day, he had suggested that a possible compromise might involve having a "best interest" hearing in Oklahoma, where Veronica has lived with her biological family for nearly 20 months. "That's the real issue," Brewster said. "What's best for Veronica?"
Now I'm no lawyer, nor am I well-versed in the rules of extraordinary rendition extradition -- but can somebody explain to me how on the one hand, she said he has a right to a hearing to fight the warrant September 12, and she has 90 says to review it, then turn right around and threaten to speed up the process if he does not do what she says? Does she have that kind of gubernatorial discretion? I'm telling you, these folk are experts at talking out of both sides of their mouths!
After talking compromise in recent days, Veronica's adoptive parents filed a motion Thursday in Cherokee County District Court to have her brought to the courthouse Friday morning, officials said.
The child must appear before a judge in downtown Tahlequah at 9 a.m., according to the court order as officials described it.
The order names not only the biological father, Dusten Brown, but also his wife, Robin Brown, and his parents, Alice and Tommy Brown, who have guardianship of the little girl under Cherokee Nation court orders.
Citing an Oklahoma law that gives him until next Friday to challenge an out-of-state custody order, Brown's attorneys will fight any effort to force him to turn over the girl, officials told the Tulsa World.
The attorneys will also argue that pending motions in tribal court should prevent the girl from being taken away, the officials said.
A reality TV personality, traveling to Tulsa this week with the adoptive parents, discovered where the Brown family has been staying and tried earlier in the day to go there.
Cherokee marshals turned him away. And the order was filed a few hours later at roughly 5:30 p.m., officials said.
Really?? "A reality TV personality" -- and they want you to believe this is all about this child. {smdh} Troy "The Locator" Dunn has been on this case with the Capobiancos since they showed up on the Dr. Phil Show. This has never been about Veronica and according to the piece -- he's said as much:
In June, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered South Carolina to reconsider its earlier decision to take custody of Veronica away from the Capobiancos, Dunn posted "VICTORY!!!!!!!!" on his Facebook page.
"This is a victory for little Veronica, a victory for adoption and a great step forward for the REAL welfare of Indian children everywhere," the Facebook post said. (emphasis mine)
Uttered by a paternalistic opportunist, that last sentence is "White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy" writ large. I am so-o-o tired of white folk believing they always know what's better for non-white folk -- we don't need parenting, especiallyfrom those who've done nothing but oppress us all.
The biological and adoptive parents for Baby Veronica met in two Tahlequah courthouses today for more than five hours in their continuing custody battle.
After the first court hearing, the Cherokee County District Court filed a mediation agreement, although details are unavailable and a judge has ordered that files be sealed.
Both families then went a few blocks to the Cherokee Nation tribal court for a second closed hearing that ended about 2:50 p.m. and left some members of the 3-year-old girl's biological family subdued.
Veronica didn't attend either hearing, although the state court required her biological family to bring her. Her location has not been disclosed.
The Brown family -- which includes Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown -- left the tribal courthouse first and had no comment. Veronica's grandmother was in tears, and the child's grandfather shook his head no when asked if there was any good news.
Despite the gag order in place, the Capobianco's PR mouthpiece, Munday is still being her "Chatty Cathy" self, making statements all over the place -- another example of how white privilege still trumps all. If it didn't, Ms. Maldonado would be in jail by now for collusion, intent to defraud and/or obstruction with her attorney and the adoption agency about Mr. Brown's Cherokee Nation status (those FACTS are sitting right there on Page 4 of the S.C. Family Court's initial ruling!), and the head of The Christian Nightlight Adoption agency and the Capobiancos would be cooling their heels in cells on either side of her for at least: falsification of documents/obstruction of justice, perjury, child trafficking/abduction and malicious prosecution. But they're not, because white privilege + white supremacy = no accountability.
The rights of a child to be raised in her culture with her biological father, as well as the sovereignty of a Nation hang precariously in the balance as we wait. While I've got nothing for organized, Christian religions, I willoffer up a prayer to the spirits that I do believe guide our lives for this child, the Browns and yes, the Cherokee Nation. Because, IMHO, a ruling in favor of the child traffickers will cause irreparable harm to them all and go a very long way to realizing the aims of Glenn Beck's "Restoring America" event few years ago.
UPDATE: I serendipitously came across the following video -- American Holocaust: The Destruction of America's Native Peoples -- in a link provided by commenter "jefe" over on Abagond's, Was Hitler evil?post. It's long, but you can skip the introductions if you wish and go to the 7:40 click where the presentation begins. I'm posting it here because it gives great background for what "Restoring America" means to Native Americans in this country and is a perfect example of what the Capobiancos and their cadre of white supremacists are trying to achieve with this case. Be educated, Family:
This will be short. Russell Simmons may be rich (I'm not impressed), but he's a stupid, shabbos goy suffering from perpetual internalized self-hate -- as he collects your coins for his "music" and "I'm gonna get you sucka," Russ cards.
Margaret Kimberley in her piece over at Freedom Rider says all I care to say, appropriately ending her piece with:
I have so many questions. Who thought of this? What was the pitch meeting like? Did anyone think it might not be a good idea? What went through the minds of the actors and the crew? WTF is wrong with people?
With the backing and support from a host of supporters, Mr. Brown dug in his heels, trying to fight off the jackboots trying to take his daughter away from him. Together with the Native American Fund, he immediatelyfiled a request to the U.S. Supreme Court for a postponement of the S.C. Supreme Court ruling -- at least until a "best interests of the child" hearing, covering the time Veronica has lived with him, could be held.
But after learning two disturbing pieces of information from Suzette Brewer's afore-linked piece (Suzette, thanks so much for your in-depth reporting on his case -- without your tenacity, the "other side of this story" would have never seen the light of day!), I could see the under-belly of power and privilege beginning to rear its corruptible head. I learned that:
1) Chief Justice John Roberts, an adoptive parent himself who sided with the majority against Brown, oversees emergency petitions for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes South Carolina.
2) Sources in Washington have pointed out that Alvino McGill's role in Adoptive Couple is more than that of a spokesperson for Christy Maldonado. As it turns out, Chief Justice Roberts and former solicitor general Ted Olson, both of whom sided with the Capobiancos, attended Ms. Alvino McGill's 2006 wedding to Matthew McGill who, coincidentally, was a clerk for John Roberts in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Therefore, given the cozy nature and small world influence in the Capitol's legal circles, observers say it was no surprise when Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl was granted petition of certiorari in January. (emphasis mine)
“Dusten Brown never had a chance,” said the source. “His biggest sin was that he got on the wrong side of the billion dollar U.S. adoption industry and he was winning. [The Supreme Court] knew this when they took cert on this case, otherwise, why would they bother with a custody dispute that should have been nipped in the bud four years ago?... But it is a system that was stacked against him from the beginning.
Come on people, there are obviously no coincidences here. And while the first is not a good sign for Mr. Brown (Roberts wouldn't be the only "Supreme" making the final decision) -- the second is quite simply foreboding. I don't know about you, but it's clear as day to me -- that plenty in this milk ain't clean (pun intended)! If you don't see it, it's because you don't want to. But let me help you. No sooner had the Capobiancos filed their answer to Mr. Brown's request, did this happen: Challenge to child’s adoption fails. Yep, in no time flat, the Roberts-led court, in their hubris, issued this 3-sentence decision:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2013
ORDER IN PENDING CASE
13A115 BIRTH FATHER, ET AL. V. ADOPTIVE COUPLE, ET AL.
The application for stay of judgment presented to The Chief
Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied. The motion of the Guardian ad Litem for leave to file a response with exhibits under seal with redacted copies for the public record is granted.
Justice Ginsburg and Justice Sotomayor would grant the application for stay.
As I told you in Pt. 1b, Mr. Brown is again deployed for 30 days of National Guard training as of July 23. However, on Sunday, August 4, the Capobiancos were supposed to have had a court-ordered visit with Mr. Brown and his child (apparently scheduled before the final ruling came down). Understandably, because he was working out of town in Iowa, he didn't show up.
In preparation for his training duty, Mr. Brown had signed over his rights to his wife and parents, anticipating, I'm certain, either the Oklahoma courts would block the physical transfer of the child to South Carolina (he and his family have until August 23 to request a hearing which is two days after his training is over) or, that their already scheduled hearing in tribal court on September 3 would result in a successful challenge to South Carolina's jurisdiction over a case involving a Cherokee child.
Well, according to this piece in the Charleston CityPaper -- by Monday morning, the "mob" had begun circling their wagons in earnest around theirwhite woman's tears:
A Charleston judge on Monday ordered the immediate transfer of 3-year-old Veronica to her adoptive parents and called for action from state and federal authorities after the girl’s birth father failed to appear for a court-ordered visit the day before.
The decree by Family Court Judge Daniel Martin suspended a transition plan intended to gradually re-introduce the toddler to Matt and Melanie Capobianco of James Island. It also requests assistance from Dusten Brown’s commanding officer as he finishes a 30-day training mission with the Army National Guard ... (emphasis mine)
Though I'm hearing faint strains of "urging for calm" in his last sentence below, on the first, I wholeheartedly agree:
As much as we here in Charleston fail to recognize it, for the Cherokee Nation this is a racial issue and the recent court orders bring up memories of decades upon decades of mistreatment at the hands of the white man. Here's hoping that outrage doesn't manifest in some truly horrible manner. (emphasis mine)
Before a South Carolina judge demanded that she be returned "immediately," Baby Veronica's biological father, Dusten Brown, offered to share custody with her adoptive parents...Brown said the offer would have let Veronica spend summers and holidays in Charleston, where she lived with Matt and Melanie Capobianco for the first two years of her life. The rest of the time, she would have stayed with her biological family in Nowata, an hour north of Tulsa. (emphasis mine)
Smelling blood in the water, the sharks Capobiancos bare their very well-funded, politically connected teeth and declined, saying:
"After all this time, the begging and the pleading we did, we never got to see her," Melanie Capobianco said Wednesday in an interview with Charleston's Post and Courier.
"Now that we were at the point where they knew the adoption would go through, they offered this as if they've been thoughtful and considerate to us all along."
"Pssst, Hey Melanie -- they had no reason,whatsoever to be "thoughtful and considerate to you all along." First, you conspired with the birth mother and The Christian NightLife Adoption agency to BUY his child; then, you hired a PR firm, to make him look like an unfit parent when you couldn't keep her, even though he's been fighting for her since she was four months-old; then, you called inyour white-privileged favors to doggedly pursue him in the courts (and either arranged for, if not paid for, Ms. Maldonado to do the same)-- all over a child that carries his DNA, not yours! Do you see where I'm going here?
No? Well let me help you. That you are barren is most regrettable -- but that does not give you a right to this man's flesh and blood, particularly since he wants, and is taking care of his child. Your fight is with Ms. Maldonado. Sue her for lying misrepresentation! Oh, I forgot. Aside from the fact you've spent all this money to facilitate this "sale" -- you were in on the lie too! Kinda bars you from any recovery on that end, I would think. But who knows? You do, after all, have quite the cadre of judicial and legislative henchmen in your pocket on your side! Stranger things have happened!"
So, in order to not look unreasonable (though they've been nothing but unreasonable over this man's child from day one) here's their counter-offer:
"But the Capobiancos said they' re still committed to allowing the Browns to play a role in the girl's life - if they honor the adoption order."
The Browns are skeptical, saying the adoptive parents have never offered joint custody or visitation rights in a way that would be legally binding, the Browns said.
The arrogance of these people just "makes me wanna holler, throw up both my hands!" Interesting to watch the flexing though, now that the ball's mainly in their court, no? If I were the Browns, I'd be skeptical too.
Below, Mr. Brown's parents and wife explain their skepticism with emotions that run the gamut (and no, before anybody throws up the "she's white too" strawman -- she is not counted as one of "their" white women because first of all, she's a "race traitor" who stooped to marry "one of them." Secondly, she's speaking up against them, for "the enemy" (You can pretend these dynamics aren't in play here, but I won't):
"Civility, in the face of such intellectual dishonesty, is counterproductive in the defense of liberty ... for it grants the dishonesty the false appearance of legitimacy"
I cannot, for the life of me, remember to whom that quote should be attributed, but I've never forgotten it. But t's so apropos for this situation though, because I am just undone, and so tired of the way this society talks out of both sides of its mouth, with both conversations painting the "hunter" as some, "White Knight," riding in to save the day -- theyarenot. They are opportunists -- always coveting what is not theirs and alwaysmisappropriating what they cannot create (and yes, Mrs. Capobianco, I'm talking about you there).
On the one hand, in 1978, the ubiquitous "they," in a weak defense of their barbaric inhumanity said:
We know that your children have been disproportionately taken from you (with the willing assistance of Christian, church folk) -- not only because, as Bill Means of AIM stated, "because there was a very, shall we say, stereotypical image that Indian children were neither black nor white, therefore, they were most desirable," but because the Missus couldn't create an heir for the Mister" -- but it got out of hand. So, after all we've taken from you, and all you've given us, theleast we can do, is leave you your children."
Now, post-1978, they say:
"Yeah, we know we initially said you have a right to your children (as if they, according to the laws of the universe, have a right to grant such a thing in the first place. Oops! Forgot their made-up, white supremacist, "Manifest Destiny" madness!) -- but what we meant was -- only when and how we say so.
"And since you chose not to follow those parameters, Mr. Brown, we intend to put the full weight and force of our state and federal, politically connected, well-funded power on your neck to make you remember who's actually running things -- even though you're a member of a "sovereign" Nation. I'm tellin' you folks, you just can't make this stuff up! -- Baby Veronica's biological father faces arrest after failing to return her to South Carolina 'immediately':
Nearly 500 miles from his daughter, Baby Veronica's biological father could be arrested Sunday morning when he reports back to duty at a military base in Johnston, Iowa.
The warrant came from even farther away - 1,100 miles east in Charleston, S.C., where a Family Court judge is trying to force Veronica's return to her adoptive parents.
Officials issued an arrest warrant Friday after Dusten Brown failed to meet the judge's order to bring his 3-year-old daughter to South Carolina "immediately."
He lives in Nowata, an hour north of Tulsa, but was in Johnston, Iowa, for a month of training with his Oklahoma National Guard unit.
He was off duty Saturday, spending the day at a hotel with his wife, Robin Brown. But commanders told him they can't prevent local authorities from taking him into custody when he returns to the base, she said.
A South Carolina official described the warrant as "checkmate," likely to end an epic custody battle that started when Veronica was 4 months old.
And wasting no time at all -- the jackboots landed. Now, they knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. So aside from flexing, their obvious intent is to not only humiliate him (even as he's serving this damned country on duty!), but to put his income in jeopardy. It appears too, that Judge Martin's request for "assistance from Dusten Brown’s commanding officer"was heard loud and clear and, given the snide "checkmate" comment, I think we can all agree with Robin Brown -- for the Capobiancos, it's all about winning." I don't know about you, but I sure feel that heel grinding deeper into his neck.
~#~#~#~
A brief aside:
Commenter D. Hammond - Phoenix, AR posted this comment on the above-linked piece:
The presiding SC judge who issued this order is Daniel Martin. He is a reputable higher court judge who specializes in family law. If you remember, the Native American Rights Fund filed a civil suit last week naming Judge Martin as defendant. The suit says that Martin denied Veronica a "best interest" hearing. I wonder if Martin is strong arming because he is angry with NARF and the Cherokee Nation for challenging his power.
And Sandy Macauley - Tahlequah responded:
He should remove himself from this case since he is a named defendant in the NARF case
A weekend of high tension surrounding the custody fight over Baby Veronica culminated in a Monday press conference called by Matt and Melanie Capobianco, vowing that without action from state and federal law enforcement, Matt would board a plane and pick up the three-year old that a Charleston County court has said belongs with his family...
...In front of a neighborhood gazebo near the Capobiancos house this morning, Matt and Melanie issued a plea to law enforcement involved in the case, asking "Where are you?" wiping away tears as they explained their anxiety over the girl's safety, saying their daughter "has been kidnapped." In an interview with the South Carolina Radio Network, Melanie said, "We've tried to work so hard to make this a smooth transition," saying that she thought the Browns were "using our kindness against us." Via an emailed statement this morning, the Capobiancos' spokesperson Jessica Munday called it "outrageous that nothing is being done to bring this child home to her legal parents" after two and a half days, "Where's the Amber Alert?" she said. Though the Capobiancos say they are reluctant to take matters into their own hands, Matt Capobianco said today that he would fly to Oklahoma himself, lamenting efforts to abide by legal channels throughout the process over the past two years, telling his daughter, "Veronica, little stinker, daddy's coming."
People, please go to that link and watch that video -- it is quite the performance. It turned my stomach so badly, I just couldn't post it.
I won't editorialize on it too much, but I just have to point to a few things that stick out for me. Replete with the obligatory crocodile tears, and melodramatic flourish, they turn this latest development into a "kidnapping" (classic, "paint the Other" as dangerous brute behavior -- the child's with her family!); then they start with finger-shaking at the "authorities" for waiting so long to bring the child back (it'd been two days); then, rolling out the, "we fear for her safety" apparition again, they throw out the veiled threat that, "if anything happens to her there will be enough responsibility to go around"; then they trot out their PR person who keeps the false, "he abandoned her" meme going strong while she calls for, of all things, an Amber Alert! Family, this absolutely reeks of white privilege run amok.
The father of a Cherokee Indian girl at the center of an adoption dispute turned
Mugshot from Sequoyah Sheriff's Office
himself in to authorities Monday but refused extradition to South Carolina, further complicating a case that raises questions about jurisdictions and a federal law meant to keep members of Native American tribes together.
Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation, was charged over the weekend with custodial interference after failing to appear at a court-ordered meeting in South Carolina, where the adoptive parents live. He turned himself in about 10 a.m. Monday in Sequoyah County in far eastern Oklahoma and paid bond, Sheriff Ron Lockhart said.
But Brown refused extradition without a governor's warrant from South Carolina.
This is "in the best interests of the child?" This is the country for which Mr. Brown dons that uniform he's wearing. {smdh}. Check out the video below and see these two families side-by-side. Listen to the very Deep South narrative floating on the surface of it all ("a little-known Federal law??" -- Please).
Mr. Brown, hold fast young man. I salute you for your fight and I stand in solidarity with you and your family. That little "mirror" named Veronica that you hold in your arms is yours, no matter the "things" they can give her. When all is said and done and your daughter revisits her life, laid bare on the internet -- she'll swell with pride knowing her Daddy did everything he knew how to do to keep her in his life. And the Capobiancos won't be able to dispute any of it. And since he refused extradition without a governor's warrant, according to this, Governor Nikki Haley (she, the child of Sikh immigrants born in Bamberg, SC) immediately drew one up and overnighted it to Oklahoma!
This man is battling so many of their "friends in high places" -- I don't know how he's not buckled under the pressure. {smdh} Stay tuned folks -- the wheels are spinning fast and furiously on this case and I want to make sure as many "voices" as possible are heard as it develops.
Veronica Brown, 3, sees father off to mandatory National Guard training from Tulsa International Airport on July 22, 2013. (Courtesy Cherokee Nation)
"We must remember that the purpose of an adoption is to provide a home for a child, not a child for a home."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
This case has been going on now for a little over four years with little to no coverage from the mainstream media (though local South Carolina media has wasted no time in fashioning their own "single stories"). But, since they play such an important role in oiling the wheels of institutionalized white supremacy by, more often than not, only telling the stories of the "hunters" -- I'm not surprised.
As I look at that photo, I can't help but get a creepy, "Groundhog Day" feeling (but with the child-trafficking, Capobiancos and birth mother needing to learn Phil's lessons). Because yes, it was Dusten Brown's last deployment (to Iraq that time) -- in service to a country which continues to fail him miserably -- that set this spiteful, baby-selling case into motion. Here, in his own words, he explains himself most eloquently:
"In December 2008, I got down on one knee and proposed to the love of my life. She accepted with joy. It seemed like one week we were planning a big, outside wedding and celebrating ecstatically the news of our pregnancy, and the next I was receiving a phone call from Christy saying she didn't know how she was going to pay her bills and she was stressed. I told her I had money saved and not to worry and asked her what she needed. I remember specifically that it shocked me when she told me no, that she had "a plan." Still, I knew that my military benefits would provide the medical and financial support she needed, so I did everything I could to push the wedding date up.
Always in the back of my mind I was concerned about going to Iraq. I knew there was a possibility that I might not come home. I pushed for marriage because I needed to know they would be OK if something happened to me. She said no. She told me to stop calling her and stop texting her.
When I did finally hear from her, she started texting me, asking me to sign my parental rights over to her. Every day for a month and a half I got a text asking me that same question. It was a horrible feeling, watching myself being shut off from the woman and daughter I loved so much. I knew I didn't have a chance to fight her for custody because I was about to leave for Iraq for a year. So after weeks of texts, I said I would sign my rights over, thinking I was agreeing for her to have full custody and she would let me see my daughter." (all emphasis mine)
And as he reported for his annual training this July,preparations were already in motion to rip his, biologicaldaughter out of his arms and his life, in order to give her -- not to her birth mother, but to a society identified, white South Carolina couple who, for all intents and purposes, have paid somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 for her.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse for this man and his child, I read this and knew I was wrong:
Reinforcing the court's order last week for Charleston County Family Court to expedite the adoption of Veronica, the justices, split 3-2 as they were last week, praised James Island adoptive parents Matt and Melanie Capobianco for their "commendable" consideration of the child's best interests over the course of the case.
Sombody please tell me, how this same S.C. Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Toal, writing for the majority said...
"This case involves a contest over the private adoption of a child born in Oklahoma to unwed parents, one of whom is a member of the Cherokee Nation. After a four day hearing in September 2011, the family court issued a final order on November 25, 2011, denying the adoption and requiring the adoptive parents to transfer the child to her biological father. The transfer of custody took place in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 31, 2011, and the child now resides with her biological father and his parents in Oklahoma. We affirm the decision of the family court denying the adoption and awarding custody to the biological father. (emphasis mine)
As determined by the USSC, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) has no applications to Birth Father. Our erroneous decision was premised on the applicability of ICWA to the Birth Father. As a result, the Birth Father’s right, if any, are determine by the law of the state of South Carolina. While this Court was in error concerning the applicability of the ICWA, we have consistently held that under state law, the Birth Father’s parental rights (because of his irrefutable lack of support, interest and involvement in the life of Baby Girl) would be terminated."
That unsubstantiated statement in the parenthesis at the end, flies in the face of the facts -- not only did Mr. Brown try to marry this woman and was deploying to Iraq, he began fighting for his daughter four months after she was born. I think they think it justifies their having been bullied into reversing their original ruling. There was a time when white folk at least tried to disguise their hypocrisy. They just don't even care to anymore. {smdh}
After having followed this case and reading whatever I could about it (to include the many twisted comments from white folk who feel entitled to other people's children for money), a chilling realization washed over me -- while Dusten Brown is the very public target of these baby-selling machinations in general, the specific target is the Indian Child Welfare Act.
On Thursday, the day after the South Carolina Supreme Court denied an appeal filed by Dusten Brown and the Cherokee Nation to consider a “best interest determination” hearing, Veronica's birth mother filed yetanother suit in South Carolina federal court claiming that placement preferences for Indian families violates equal protection provisions because the law uses “race” as a factor in custodial placement. (all emphasis mine)
What?! Here's a brief snapshot of who Ms. Madonado and her attorney are. When you're done reading, tell me who you think is really behind this frivolous lawsuit.
Before the top of my head blows off -- here's an interview with Bill Means, co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Maybe it'll again make clear, why this lawsuit from Ms. Maldonado and her "attorney" is seven ways from stupid (do read this insightful piece in its entirety):
This has been a long struggle since the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed back, I believe, in 1978. And since that time it has … the original intent was that, before an Indian child could be adopted to non-Indian community, that the relatives, on or off the reservation, would be contacted in order to give a priority of raising the child, and keeping the child in the culture of his origin, in the culture of his family, of his people. The reason they passed this was that we had a tremendous trafficking of Indian children, which, in a way, still goes on today. It’s … very much needed to expose that the Christian Church is probably most responsible for adoption of Indian children off the reservation. And this [law] set up a process where the tribe had to be involved...
...But, to give you an example, back in the early history of A.I.M. in the Seventies,the Christian churches, here in the state of Minnesota and South Dakota, were averaging 30 Indian children a month being adopted out to non-Indian families. And after a lot of research was done in a book called My Brother’s Keeper: The Indian in White America … a lot of studies that were done by other Indian organizations throughout the country showed these horrendous statistics that brought about the Indian Child Welfare Act where churches were engaged almost every single day in adopting Indian children because there was a very, shall we say, stereotypical image that Indian children were neither black nor white, therefore, they were most desirable. As well as getting the Indian child off the reservation, as if that automatically meant that they would have a better life. And so it took years of protests, of statistics, of studies to get the Indian Child Welfare Act passed in 1978. So this is a very, very, shall I say, heavy set back. (emphasis mine)
As I said earlier, Mr. Means -- the ICWA, not Dusten Brown was always the target. In this case, as in the recent Voting Rights Act Case -- the "Supremes" have spoken saying -- "Times have changed." I say, tell that foolishness to all the folk who will be on the short end of these rulings.
Why do I care so much about this case? I mean it's not like the Cherokee Nation "had nothin' but love" for us Black folk. Do I know that they had Black slaves? Yes. Do I realize that only two years ago, they expelled the descendants of those same Black slaves from The Nation, despite the fact that Article 9, of the Treaty of 1866 with the Cherokee Nation bestowed upon them the rights of native Cherokees. That would be another Yes. And we can talk about that anytime you wish.
I care about this case, this child, because what's happening here is sick, and patently wrong. For me, it's not an either I stand up for my people, or I stand up for this child -- it's a stand up for both, and recognize that, from the founding of this country up until today, the boot on both our necks, has been and continues to be worn, by those of a decidedly alabaster hue.
White folk's constructed idea of race and its accordant hierarchy of human life, made both the Voting Rights Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act necessary in the first damned place. And let's be clear, the decisions this year, gutting important provisions of both, represent a concerted, institutionalized assault by the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy on "Others" in this country to whom they have been most inhumane.
And their inhumanity will continue unabated for two reasons -- because they think they still have a right to use said inhumanity as they see fit and, because we, "Others" won't band together in any way to stop them. I bet if we'd all change our stance to Malcolm's, "By Any Means Necessary," the politricksters would be out all over the country urging for calm and, despite the fact that the mainstream media all but turned a blind eye to the "taking" going on in South Carolina -- they'd be scrambling to report what we "savages" were up to.
I watched this incredibly classy, beautiful young woman on PBS last night while trying to get away from the show-all-your-naked-ass, patriarchal and sex-driven, superficial "entertainment" (and I use that word lightly) usually offered up by network TV today -- and exhaled.
I'm absolutely in love with this daughter of a Zambian father and British mother -- born and raised in Scotland!
I watched her earlier this year on Tavis Smiley's show and thought to myself, "This is how that whole integration thing shouldhave played itself out -- that the progeny of such a union would see, hear and feel -- "the truth." Then, I bought everything of hers on iTunes that I could. Please do enjoy the profound beauty of this young Sister why don't you...
I think Labrinth will definitely be giving John Legend a run for his money, literally -- no?
How many of us have Best Friends "who keep our head above the water?"
"If you're too big to follow rivers, how you ever gonna find the sea?"Lawd ha' mercy, this child is such an old soul (I hear Nina whispering)!!
'Tis not that bullshit"Hope," dribbling from the Changeling's lips on the regular that's for damned sure! She makes me proud.
68 years ago, at 11:02 am on August 9th, 1945, an all-Christian bomber crew dropped a plutonium bomb, on Nagasaki, Japan. That bomb was the second and last atomic weapon that had as its target a civilian city. Somewhat ironically, as will be elaborated upon later in this essay, Nagasaki was the most Christian city in Japan and ground zero was the largest cathedral in the Orient.
These baptized and confirmed airmen did their job efficiently, and they accomplished the mission with military pride. There was no way that the crew could not have known that what they were participating in met the definition of an international war crime (according to the Nuremberg Principles that were very soon to be used to justify the execution of many German Nazis).
It had been only 3 days since the August 6th bomb, a uranium bomb, had decimated Hiroshima. The Nagasaki bomb was dropped amidst considerable chaos and confusion in Tokyo, where the fascist military government had been searching for months for a way to honorably end the war. The only obstacle to surrender had been the Roosevelt/Truman administration’s insistence on unconditional surrender, which meant that the Emperor Hirohito, whom the Japanese regarded as a deity, would be removed from his figurehead position in Japan – an intolerable demand for the Japanese that prolonged the war and kept Japan from surrendering months earlier.
The Russian army had declared war against Japan on August 8, hoping to regain territories lost to Japan in the disastrous Russo-Japanese war 40 years earlier, and Stalin’s army was advancing across Manchuria. Russia’s entry into the war represented a powerful incentive for Japan to end the war quickly and they much preferred surrendering to the US rather than to Russia. A quick end to the war was important to the US as well. It did not want to divide any of the spoils of war with Russia.
The Target Committee in Washington, D.C. had made a list of relatively un-damaged Japanese cities that were to be excluded from the conventional fire-bombing (using napalm) campaigns that had burned to the ground 60+ major Japanese cities during the first half of 1945. That list of protected cities included, at one time or another Hiroshima, Niigata, Kokura, Kyoto and Nagasaki. These relatively undamaged cities were off-limits from incendiary terror bombings but were to be preserved as possible targets for the new “gimmick” weapons of mass destruction.
Scientific curiosity was a motivation in choosing the targeted cities. The military and the scientists needed to know what would happen to intact buildings – and their living inhabitants – when atomic weapons were exploded overhead. Ironically, prior to August 6 and 9, the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki considered themselves lucky for not having been bombed as much as other cities. Little did they know.
Early in the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress that had been christened Bock’s Car, took off from Tinian Island in the South Pacific, with the prayers and blessings of its Lutheran and Catholic chaplains, and headed for Kokura, the primary target. Bock’s Car’s plutonium bomb was in the bomb bay, code-named “Fat Man,” after Winston Churchill.
The only field test (blasphemously code-named “Trinity”) of a nuclear weapon had occurred just three weeks earlier (July 16, 1945) at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The molten lava rock that resulted from the heat of that blast (twice the temperature of the sun) can still found at the site today. It is called trinitite.
The reality of what had happened at Hiroshima was only slowly becoming apparent to the fascist military leaders in Tokyo. It took 2 – 3 days after Hiroshima was incinerated before Japan’s Supreme War Council was able to even partially comprehend what had happened there, to make rational decisions and to discuss again the possibility of surrender.
But it was already too late, because by the time the War Council was meeting that morning in Tokyo, Bock’s Car and the rest of the armada of B-29s was already approaching Japan – under radio silence. The dropping of the second bomb had initially been planned for August 11, but bad weather had been forecast, and the mission was moved up to August 9.
With instructions to drop the bomb only on visual sighting, Bock’s Car arrived at the primary target, but Kokura was clouded over. So after futilely circling over the city three times, there was no break in the clouds, and, running seriously low on fuel in the process, the plane headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki.
The history of Nagasaki Christianity
Nagasaki is famous in the history of Japanese Christianity. Not only was it the site of the largest catholic church in the Orient, St. Mary’s Cathedral (completed in 1917), but it also had the largest concentration of baptized Christians in all of Japan. It was the megachurch of its time, with 12,000 baptized members.
Nagasaki was the location where the legendary Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, established a mission church in 1549. The Christian community survived and prospered for several generations. However, soon after Xavier’s planting of the church in Japan, it became obvious to the Japanese rulers that Portuguese and Spanish commercial interests were exploiting Japan, and it didn’t take too long for all Europeans to be expelled from the country – as well as their foreign religion. All aspects of Christianity, including the new Japanese converts, became the target of brutal persecutions.
By 1600, being a Christian was a capital crime in Japan. The Japanese Christians who refused to recant of their new religion suffered torture and even crucifixions similar to the Roman persecutions in the first three centuries of Christianity. After the reign of terror was over, it appeared to all observers that Japanese Christianity was extinct.
However, 250 years later, in the 1850s, after the coercive gunboat diplomacy of Commodore Perry forced open an offshore island for American trade purposes, it was discovered that there were thousands of baptized Christians in Nagasaki, living their faith in a catacomb existence, completely unknown to the government – which immediately started another purge. But because of international pressure, the persecutions were soon stopped, and Nagasaki Christianity came up from the underground. And by 1917, with no help from the government, the growing Japanese Christian community had built the massive Urakami Cathedral, in the Urakami River district of Nagasaki.
Now it turned out, in the mystery of good and evil, that the massive Cathedral was one of two Nagasaki landmarks that the Bock’s Car bombardier had been briefed on, and looking through his bomb site 31,000 feet overhead, he identified the cathedral through a break in the clouds and ordered the drop.
At 11:02 am, during morning mass, Nagasaki Christianity was boiled, evaporated and carbonized in a scorching radioactive fireball that exploded 500 meters above the cathedral. Ground Zero was the persecuted, vibrant, surviving center of Japanese Christianity.
The Nagasaki Christian death count
Since the Cathedral was the epicenter of the blast, most Nagasaki Christians did not survive. 6000 of them died instantly, including all who were at confession that morning. Of the 12,000 church members, 8,500 died as a direct result of the bomb. Three orders of nuns and a Christian girl’s school disappeared into black smoke or chunks of charred remains Tens of thousands of innocent Shinto and Buddhist Japanese also died instantly and hundreds of thousands were mortally wounded, some of whose progeny are still in the process of slowly dying from the trans-generational malignancies and immune deficiencies caused by the deadly plutonium.
What the Japanese Imperial government could not do in over 200 years of persecution, destroy Japanese Christianity, American Christians did in 9 seconds. Even today those who are members of Christian churches in Japan represent a fraction of 1% of the population, and the average attendance at Christian worship services is 30. Surely the decimation of Nagasaki at the end of the war crippled what at one time was a thriving church.
