Open Discussion

Caterpillars, butterflies, moths, a certain roach, and all creatures great and small,

Good morning! 

Here’s a heartfelt welcome and thanks to all subscribers and visitors.  Your support and interest is greatly appreciated.  I do try to get around to visiting new subscribers who have blogs as soon as possible, but have fallen behind.  In the last month, we have picked up 50 new subscribers in which the majority are bloggers.  I’ll be around to visit as soon as I can.

I’m not on Twitter much, but when I am I tweet links to other blogs of posts that my Twitter followers might find interesting.   If you have a Twitter account, please consider following me on Twitter @XenaBb7.  I will follow back.

I was humbly blessed by blogger supabutterfly who honored me with a post of accomplishments.  He dug out things I did not know, such as having this blog cited in a footnote in a book published by the University of New Mexico Press.   Here’s a huge thanks to supabutterfly for his encouragement and support.

On November 3^rd, I started a post for following the murder trial of ex-cop Michael Slager for the killing of Walter Scott.  That trial now enters its third week and the prosecution has not yet rested.  It has averaged 5 videos each day of trial and we post the videos in the comment section.  That section has gotten long and it appears that the trial might proceed for another two weeks.  I am going to post another thread to summarize what has happened in the trial and so we can continue following.

Jury selection was scheduled in federal court in the trial of Dylann Roof.  Roof is charged with hate crimes, obstruction of religion and other counts in the fatal shooting of nine black parishioners at the Emanuel AME Church in June 2015.  The jury will consist of 12 and 6 alternates. Selection was halted however, with the filing of a motion by Roof’s defense lawyers.

CNN reports that the motion concerned Roof’s competency to stand trial.  Federal Judge Gergel said he would rule on the motion by November 18, and that jury selection will start on November 21, the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, letters supporting Roof and referencing racial violence were sent to Mother Emanuel church, James Island County Park and several hotels.  The letters were sent outside of the United States, and includes Canada and the United Kingdom.  The FBI and Charleston police are investigating.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve added “trials” to the top menu.  I’m still working to get all trials reported on since 2012 under that menu topic.  Remember you can always use the “search” box on the right-side border to search for topics.  It also allows for searching according to name.

Guest blogger Yahtzeebutterfly’s This Month In Black American History is scheduled for posting this evening.   She does excellent work providing accomplishments and events.  As the month goes on, she puts additional historical notes in the comment section.

With the presidential election still being of interest, along with protests across America and lots of other issues, participants might want to discuss and/or share whatever is on their mind.  Let’s not forget our Native American brothers and sisters in South Dakota who are fighting the good fight for clean water and respect for their sacred land.

Feel free to use this for open discussion.

Let’s keep our heads up and hold onto love, faith and hope.