Civil Rights – Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman – Murders – Tom Paxton Lyrics.

Posted on by Opher

Civil Rights – Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman – Murders – Tom Paxton Lyrics.

 

Goodman Chaney Schwerner

Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were two young white men who went down to Mississippi in 1964 to help the Civil Rights cause and help sign up black registration for voting.

They were joined by James Chaney who was a young black man. They were pulled over by the cops for supposedly speeding and taken back to the police station.

Their bodies were later discovered buried in a damn. They were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan for daring to fight for justice, freedom, equality and an end to racism.

It is great that we have people as brave as these three heroes who are prepared to put their lives on the line, non-violently, for freedom and equality, but it is sad that such actions were ever necessary. Social justice is always paid for in blood.

The 1960s was not that long ago. It is hard to believe how bad things were.

Things are much better now but there’s still a lot to do. People of all colours need to come together to demand social justice.

Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney

Words and Music by Tom Paxton

The night air is heavy, no cool breezes blow.
The sounds of the voices are worried and low.
Desperately wondering and desperate to know,
About Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.

Calm desperation and flickering hope,
Reality grapples like a hand on the throat.
For you live in the shadow of ten feet of rope,
If you’re Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

The Pearl River was dragged and two bodies were found,
But it was a blind alley for both men were brown.
So they all shrugged their shoulders and the search it went on,
For Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

Pull out the dead bodies from the ooze of the dam.
Take the bodies to Jackson all accordin’ to plan.
With the one broken body do the best that you can,
It’s the body of young James Chaney.

The nation was outraged and shocked through and through.
Call J. Edgar Hoover. He’ll know what to do.
For they’ve murdered two white men, and a colored boy too
Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

James Chaney your body exploded in pain,
And the beating they gave you is pounding my brain.
And they murdered much more with their dark bloody chains
And the body of pity lies bleeding.

The pot-bellied copper shook hands all around,
And joked with the rednecks who came into town
And they swore that the murderer soon would be found
And they laughed as they spat their tobacco.

Five major ‘Design’ faults with the human body!

Posted on by Opher

IMG_6503

Because the human body is the result of billions of years of evolution through chance mutation and selection it is far from perfect. Given the opportunity to design a human from scratch there are glaring problems that need addressing. As a biologist these are blindingly obvious. The human being is far from perfect.

Here are five major problems that could be addressed with simple design:

  1. The single opening to the lungs and its opening into the mouth/digestive tract.

Many people choke to death because of a simple ‘design’ fault. Because the lungs developed out of a sac/swimbladder of a fish as a part of the digestive tract we are saddled with one single opening into the mouth which opens right next to our oesophagus. Consequently we can easily choke and often do.

Answer: – two or more separate openings into the lungs that are completely separate to the digestive system. If one becomes blocked it would not be fatal. There would be less likelihood of food or drink going down the wrong tube.

2. The opening of the reproductive system, excretory system and egestory systems in one place.

Because the whole egestory, excretory and excretory systems are designed to open into a common cloaca of a fish living in water, where there would not have been a hygiene problem, they still open in the same area now. Except that we have evolved to live on land and this close association of the three openings together creates hygiene problems. The vagina and uterus, with its adaptations for life on land, facilitates internal fertilisation and development of the embryo. Thus allows entry of bacteria and a fertile area for them to breed. The contamination of faecal bacteria causes infections of the urinary tract and reproductive system. The genitals are contaminated with both urine and faeces. A recipe for infection. Also not brilliant for sex!

Answer: separate the three opening so that urine is not voided through the vulva and faeces are not ejected right next to the vagina.

3. the neck and brain.

Because of cephalisation the brain and senses organs are grouped at the front. With the increased size of the brain it has become more delicate and we now find it encased in protective bone on the end of a flexible neck. As we lead with our head our brain is vulnerable and the neck is extremely open to damage. We suffer concussion, brain injuries, broken necks and paraplegia.

Answer: house the brain in the centre of the chest where it would be better protected and also closer to the heart to ensure a great blood supply (oxygen and nutrients). There would be no need for a protective skull and no neck to break. The senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell, could still be congregated at the front.

4. The testes on the outside of the body.

As any man knows the most painful experience a man can have (85.6X childbirth) is to have a severely blow to the testes. It is mind-blowingly, paralysingly, agony. Yet there they are – an easy target and major weakness when fighting, hunting or participating in a domestic. They invite a good kick. The reason they are there is because sperm production is better at a temperature below body temperature.

Answer: make sperm production best at body temperature and put them where women keep there’s – inside the abdominal cavity!

5. The vertebral column

The vertebral column is the wrong shape. It has evolved for walking on all fours (as with chimps and gorillas) and has not yet evolved to suit bipedal ambulation. Consequently people are plagued with back ache and major problems caused by curvature of the spine. It cripples millions of people.

Answer: adapted the shape of the spine so that the weight bearing problems associated with bipedal locomotion do not cause the pressures, strains and structural decay we currently find.

I could go on through a list of other problems associated with our imperfect bodies – biochemically, with tissues and organs and structurally (feet, hip joints, knees, appendices, placques, deleterious genes…….). If we were made in god’s image or created then there has been a major cock-up somewhere down the line.

The human body functions but is far from perfect. A day spent in a design centre could come up with a far superior model that would not suffer with this range of problems.

Food for thought.

9 out of 10 cells in your body are bacterial.

Posted on by Opher

It is estimated that there are 37,200,000,000 cells in the average human body. That means that each one of us when we are healthy house 372,000,000,000 bacteria. Most of these are benign – either commensal or actually symbiotic. Only a small proportion are pathogens and they are constantly being mopped p by our immune system. There is war going on.
When we drove out of Chunking on our tour bus we headed out over this great flat plain. There were hundreds of huge skyscraper structures. Our guide explained that the area used to be paddy fields but these buildings had been erected to house the huge population increase. Each one was home to hundreds of thousands of people. They were autonomous and functioned as a town with their own schools, hospitals, police, fire, shops and facilities. There was no need for anyone to venture out of the complex he boasted.
What if human beings are biological cities constructed by bacteria for bacteria?
What if our consciousness is actually bacterial consciousness? Our history and evolution directed by bacteria?
What if we are really being farmed by bacteria as their cattle?
I feel a Sci-fi novel coming on!!