Uncle Ben’s rice.  Aunt Jemima pancakes.  Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup.  Confederate officers’ statues.  Fort Bragg.  Fort Hood.  Andrew Jackson on a $10 bill.

Like the target for Target, I wonder how many of us actually see the branding any more?  But the minute it is gone, we would notice.  And that’s the point.

The continuing murders of people of color – beautiful shades of brown, honey, caramel, mahogany, and black – never should have begun, much less never stopped.  The protests around the world are hugely peaceful and relentless.  The violent rioting that erupts is minimal and always makes the news.  The point is, changes have to be made.  Reforms have to be enacted.  The world has come together to demand it, and we won’t stop until black lives matter, are kept safe, respected and honored.

It’s incredible that in 2020, this has to be said – again.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted another Bill of Rights for all people, not just for pasty-arsed whites.  Lyndon Baines Johnson enacted civil rights legislation that the southern – confederate – states, are still fighting today through the current Republican Party.  Really, people!?!  Really!?!

But then I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.  With Richard Milhouse Nixon denying us universal healthcare through creation of a for-profit parasitic environment, denying healthcare to and bankrupting our citizens…Ronald Prescott Reagan favoring the wealthy with his lying “trickle down” theory, robbing the Middle Class; his denial of aids and subsequent deaths to a disease that could have been researched early and treated…George Walker Bush faking an excuse to put our sons and daughters in a lifelong, brutal war, taking the economy and tearing it to shreds for yet again, the Middle Class, while keeping the wealthy rich…to the inexperienced reality show male currently squatting in the Oval House…we shouldn’t be surprised that our fellow citizens are being murdered to maintain the elite, white supremacy so convenient and desired by the current Republican Party office holders.

I am an Independent voter, with a record of choosing good people in both the Republican and Democratic parties.  The Republican Party was not always like this, and Republicans weren’t always like that.  This is the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, two of the most admired presidents in history.  The year the Republican Party started turning its back on these types of greatness and focused on greed and power can probably never be confirmed.  But the Vietnam War and Watergate in the 1960s and 1970s showcased the direction it had gone.  With the public advent of Phyllis Schlafly writing of and organizing the extreme conservative ideals of suppression and intolerance under the appalling guise of “faith”, the Republican Party has only gotten worse for all but the 1%.

Now as a country, we face daily humiliation for the unethical, bullying and most likely illegal, behavior of a childish, insane male and his cohorts in ethical, moral and legal crimes.  Our nation’s lack of affordable and effective healthcare is 3^rd world level.  Our refusal to separate church and state is denying civil and reproductive rights to targeted groups.  The Supreme Court is no longer divided on its legal opinions, it is defined by who is politically liberal, and who is politically conservative.  It isn’t just the branding of products that needs to go to reflect true humanity.  It’s the entire branding of the Republican Party.

Uncle Ben.  Aunt Jemima.  Mrs. Butterworth.  Confederate officers’ statues.  Confederate names of forts.  Jackson’s face on currency.  Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  The Republican Party in the Houses of Congress.   They all need to go.

The  Democratic Party needs to review its own legacy as well and take a lesson from Thomas Jefferson:  Combine the efforts in opposition to the current Republican Party, and create a two-pronged approach.  This country would do well to muster its human values and common sense and come together.  As a united force through a Democratic-Independent Party, humanity and tolerance can overshadow the elite and discriminatory Republican Party.   That is, if the current good, humane Republicans cannot get their Lincoln Party back.