Say No to Hate: Kevn Kinney

Singer/songwriter Kevn Kinney is the lead singer and driving force behind Drivin N Cryin, 2015 inductees into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and an Atlanta band with a 35-year history. In addition to releasing albums with DNC, Kinney is known for his many solo works.

Kevn Kinney:

I ramble therefore I ramble

I wander therefore I wonder

With the people

An answer to most of the questions in roam

By
Kevn Kinney
August 23
3:04 AM
MILWAUKEE, WI

First and Foremost
Observation number one
We are divided
Always have been
The civil rights fight is on going
The civil rights fight
Is ever growing
The color of America is constantly changing
There is color in America
Just because Sesame Street is color blind and integrated doesn’t mean Main Street is ...
We have made progress as a community but we have a million miles to go.

The great experimental melting pot is still in the boil ...
many countries are just now in search of the elusive harmony we have at times felt in the undertow of what sometimes seems an unnavigable sea.

However I believe a greater percentage of our community has very common ground.
We all want to work and enjoy our families. We want to live in peace and respect.
Atlanta is abundant with beautiful people from all nations ...
I am proud to be a part of it ...
But observation number two
Hate is real
Hate born of ignorance
But also born of fear twisting in disguised heritage.
Hate is all consuming and focused and directed
Peace can be as well
But the word has been compromised.
Peacenik hippie drifter
When in actuality peace looks like a man driving to work or a woman putting her kids in the car for morning school ... it looks like a laborer fixing a highway or a sanitation worker or a medical professional or a lawyer or dare I say a police officer !
What?!
They’re not all terrible people !
Sorry
They’re not
Who do you Hate?
I hate a lot of things
I try not to
But I think I do
Don’t you?
The difference in our hatred of things is it can never compete with the myopic ever consuming Hatred professional haters feel ...
The Skinheads in the eighties were scary .
We encountered them on many an occasion ...
But once we started separating them ... and started charging them ... and suing them they shriveled ... poor little rich boys in their 200 dollar doc martens going to court with daddy in a blue suit and oxfords ...
I understand ignoring things don’t make them go away but neither does amplifying them just for more fuel and fodder for the 24 minute news cycle ...

There will always be shitty people ... unfortunately these shitty people have a shitty president in there corner ...

I have no solution

But I live my life in a manner of respect for my fellow citizens and embrace those with different view points and opinions .. and I pray that those misguided will seek a higher calling someday and have the courage to turn themselves around ...

Keep the change

Think for Yourself

Vote Local
City Council Mayor etc.

Lobby your officials to change the property tax structure!!!
Create a pioneer program that doesn’t penalize citizens that have held peaceful homes in gentrified neighborhoods !!
NO FINANCIAL BLOCK BUSTING !!!

Support your independent coffee shop restaurant clothing store hardware store pharmacy Record store

Turn the Television off

Don’t play the numbers racket scratch offs are a chump move

DUI’s are 7000 dollars 7000 to you
7000 to millionaires
They can destroy your family economy
Take a LYFT
You’ve just profited $6987

Don’t help the loan sharks
Don’t use credit cards for stupid unnecessary things

Everybody join the PTA
If you let ambitious control freaks pick your child’s crappy lunch it’s your fault ...
Stop Making my children buy dry erase markers and anti bacterial soap for the classroom !!
Really ??
build that new school!
Build that new school!
Buy some chalk !
Buy some chalk!

Grass roots movements can be as simple as voting with your dollar ...

Speaking of which if you want to take away the power of the drug dealers
Quit
I know the power of drugs is nothing to take lightly and the Heroin culture can not just quit ... what I’m talking about is self indulgent recreational cocaine users. You know who I’m talking about because you probably just quit reading because I was bumming you out ... if one-more freaking dude asks me if I want to party my heads going to explode ... my answer is usually “no thank you ... I prefer not to snort any murder today”

I understand I have done a terrible job of answering these questions on hate and how to heal it ...
but in all honesty
I’m not qualified ...
But I had a thought last week staring at what looked like an insurmountable amount of brush and weeds four feet high ten feet deep 30 yards long ...
Just start
One swing of the swing blade at a time
An hour later stand back
Take a deep breath
And swing
Swing America

Take back YOUR flag
Take back YOUR dignity
Support your Troops and returning veterans
Remember these soldiers are from all neighborhoods
They follow orders
They serve
If you have a Global Warming is Real sticker on your bumper put a Support Your Troops sticker next to it
And vice versa by the way

... that was not a political statement
... that was a people statement

In prose
I close

America homogenized
SubwaySandwich
Truck stop
CVS post apocalyptic
Oasis
Halloween Heat index
Christmas twinkles
‘’Once they’ve sold the last
Werewolf plastic mask a dozen drunk people have tried on at 3AM...
Suntrust Parks
Bank of America’s hockey Experience
Mercedes Benz ...

Someday maybe Stay Free Maxi Pad Arena ...
America is for sale
America is on sale
America is having a fucking fire sale
Stay underground boys and girls this to shall pass ...

Our identities have been stripped and I’ve been categorized.
The people don’t want banks and ex Nazi conglomerate factories sponsoring our arenas ...
No one fucking asked us
Maybe only those companies that sponsor those mega stadiums should be the only ones allowed in ...
“ tonight final attendance tonight ... 368 !!!”

T shirt guns pop off as the Mass of people in the upper deck fight for a free Starbucks golf visor..
This is only an example of the disappoint I’ve seen in the horizon ...
I know it’s not linear thinking but I feel like
Once the corporations of America have boiled us down to a predictable mass of non confrontation and obedience the board rooms can piece by piece steer our ships where ever they feel the need to unload surpluses of overstock antiquated ideas and doctrines ..
Being different is what makes us great
It’s getting harder and harder to find that small town restaurant off the highway ...
And the interesting local characters that go with it ...

Marching in the streets

 
The leaders must fall behind to walk with the people.
I wrote that
I grew up in a era in Milwaukee where we had a great civic organizer and champion of the people
Father Groppi
Look him up
He lead people in the streets ... walked with Martin
Luther King
Stood for equal housing
And basic human rights ...
Later as I have moved through a million miles of American highway and see the changing of the landscapes of the broken hearted.
I think it best in the long run a better game plan is infiltration.
Don’t like the IRS
Educate and infiltrate
Don’t like the Police
Educate and infiltrate
Don’t like the housing commission
Educate and infiltrate
Don’t like the loan departments the water company the power company
That’s right educate and infiltrate
Embrace yourself
Get a job on the inside and change what you can

Hire the like minded
Change what you can
Camping out in front of Wall Street was I thought a marvelous display of civil disobedience and art exchange but now what?
Maybe ... Get a job inside that Goliath .

Live
The
Live
Beautiful

Say No to Hate: Kim Williams Article

Sunday August 26, 2018 03:18 PM EDT 08/26/2018 3:18 PM

One of the most important problems facing Americans today is our loss of focus on living together as one nation. Because we are more divided in many ways, we are losing ground in the global landscape and will not be able to compete on a global scale if we don’t figure out how to work in accordance with one another. | more...

Say No to Hate: Lisa Balser Article

Sunday August 26, 2018 03:30 PM EDT 08/26/2018 3:30 PM

There are so many problems we’re facing, it’s overwhelming: systemic racism, sexism, ageism, inequity, homelessness, marginalization, immigration policy, school shootings/gun violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, climate change … this is an incomplete list, and I feel sick to my stomach thinking about it. Much of it stems from hatred and fear of “the other.” It feels like we’ve lost a basic sense of human decency. | more...

Say No to Hate: Robert Franklin Article

Monday August 27, 2018 04:37 PM EDT 08/27/2018 4:37 PM

I want very badly to name the issues of poverty, wealth inequality, and class oppression, but all of these are intertwined with, and compounded by, the problem of race, difference, and grappling honestly with America’s history and identity. I have a metaphor for this process, it is a cracked egg with the yoke running long. | more...

Say No to Hate: Ryan M. Roemerman Article

Monday August 27, 2018 05:43 PM EDT 08/27/2018 5:43 PM

Healthcare is a human right.  That means ensuring that every person doesn’t just have access to health care, but has the ability to afford health care. | more...

Say No To Hate: Ryan Vizzions Article

Monday August 27, 2018 06:10 PM EDT 08/27/2018 6:10 PM

Apathy towards injustice is toxic. We have become so entangled in conversational clouds on social media that we honestly feel that ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ are making a direct impact. This helps to a certain degree, but it does not solve the problems plaguing our nation today. | more...

Say No to Hate: Jerry Gonzalez Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 08:27 AM EDT 08/28/2018 8:27 AM

The biggest problem facing Americans today is the stark difference between where we have made progress in this country under the Obama Administration and where the Trump Administration is going. With regards to the Trump Administration right now on immigration and voting rights, we believe they are moving in a direction against the values of most Americans. | more...

Say No to Hate: Richard Rose Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 08:38 AM EDT 08/28/2018 8:38 AM

I believe that racial discord remains the most divisive issue facing Americans. It continues to suppress wages for all and promotes anger that leads to violence within the oppressed communities. Remove racist symbolism and implement long-term remedies to counter the long-term legacies of discrimination. | more...

Say No to Hate: Rutu Chaudhari Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 08:54 AM EDT 08/28/2018 8:54 AM

Of all the global issues facing us, including biggies like climate change and nuclear war, what troubles me currently is the rise of fascism in governments around the world. This is what also troubles me about America. People are emboldened to openly discriminate and hate because our elected officials represent values of hate. | more...

Say No to Hate: Gerald A. Griggs Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 02:38 PM EDT 08/28/2018 2:38 PM

The most important problem facing Americans today is partisan politics that removes empathy from the conversation toward compromise on the real issues that are affecting everyday Americans. Everything is viewed through the lens of tribal political division, when the solutions to most problems facing the nation can be solved through bipartisan collaboration. | more...

Say No to Hate: Kristie Cain Raymer Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 02:50 PM EDT 08/28/2018 2:50 PM

There are so many things that need to be fixed but somehow we need to stop the OTHER mentality. Trying to embrace difference — and understanding that our differences are what make us stronger — will lead to a better unity within our populations. We spend so much time hating and singling out those that are different. If we used that energy to come together we could make a better life for all of us. | more...

Say No to Hate: Alexa Lima Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 03:53 PM EDT 08/28/2018 3:53 PM

The continued oppression of marginalized people. | more...

Say No to Hate: Christopher Hollis Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 04:50 PM EDT 08/28/2018 4:50 PM

Atlanta and America have never participated in reparations for its genocide, land theft, and displacement of indigenous peoples, its kidnapping and enslavement of African peoples, or its destabilization, colonization and assassinations in other nations. So, in 2018, what we are still faced with is the displacement, incarceration, and murder of black and brown people in this city, this country, and this globe. | more...

Say No to Hate: Glenn Phillips Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 05:06 PM EDT 08/28/2018 5:06 PM

The most important problem facing all of us is our increasing inability to work with and get along with those who don’t share our views. I know it’s a cliché, but “United we stand, divided we fall.” | more...

Say No to Hate: Ray Dafrico Article

Tuesday August 28, 2018 05:24 PM EDT 08/28/2018 5:24 PM

The most serious issue for all Americans is the very real risk of our democracy being taken away, which is happening on a daily basis. There are so many issues: racism, human rights, climate change denial, guns, income equality, lack of a universal heathcare system, police brutality, tearing refugee families apart and putting them in interment camps, our status in the world and how we interact with other nations, and a government party in charge that refuses to act in the best interest of the American people. | more...

Say No to Hate: Rev. Fahed AbuAkel Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 08:05 AM EDT 08/29/2018 8:05 AM

The greatest problem facing USA citizens today, is how to become a global citizen without having an imperialist or colonial mentality. The greatest problem facing Atlanta today is how to move from the white and black mentality to become a multicultural city in action and not in words only. | more...

Say No to Hate: Priscilla Smith Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 08:25 AM EDT 08/29/2018 8:25 AM

Greed. The only consistent measure of success is wealth. If you’re so good, so smart, so talented, why aren’t you rich? Why should anybody listen to you? You’re accomplished, but if you’re poor, you haven’t “succeeded.” Rich, therefore smart. Rich, therefore good. There’s a paucity of everything, so you’d better have dough. If you’re needy, it’s because that’s what you deserve. Loss of wealth is loss of power, loss of status. | more...

Say No to Hate: Randy Blazak Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 08:40 AM EDT 08/29/2018 8:40 AM

The most important problem is the denial of the problem. Most white people have been lulled into the myth of a “post-racial” America. Research on implicit bias and the persistence of numerous forms of institutional racism, including in the criminal justice system, demonstrate the reality of racism in 2018. A much greater threat than hate crimes and organized white supremacists is our inability to address core issues like white privilege and internalized white supremacy. We cannot progress until we have that honest reckoning. Atlanta paints itself as the city “too busy to hate,” but it’s been too busy to do the real work to begin to heal the very old wounds of its racist history. | more...

Say No to Hate: Elizabeth Corrie Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 08:53 AM EDT 08/29/2018 8:53 AM

The most important problem facing Americans today is the pervasive ideology of white settler colonialism. By this I mean that we live with a way of thinking brought over to America that goes back as far as the English Reformation in the 16th century — the belief that God has ordained a select group of white people to claim land — regardless of who might already have been on it — as a God-given right. | more...

Say No to Hate: Frank Glass Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 09:21 AM EDT 08/29/2018 9:21 AM

“The most important problem facing Americans today” is that we have so many problems that rotate in and out of first place that we cannot choose and therefore cannot answer the question. The second part of the question is easier (for me). Atlanta’s most important problem is a subset of a national problem.  | more...

Say No to Hate: Josh McLaurin Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 02:45 PM EDT 08/29/2018 2:45 PM

A decline in trust. We’re losing opportunities to get to know each other. We spend all kinds of time and money creating our own private, secluded spaces, both in the physical world and online, where we don’t have to encounter people who look or think differently than we do. | more...

Say No to Hate: Jack Turner Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 03:12 PM EDT 08/29/2018 3:12 PM

The most urgent problem facing not just Atlanta, but all of humanity, is the fact the U.S. is now ruled by a fascist regime (Trump/Pence) set on reshaping society in a way that will be catastrophic for humanity and the planet. | more...

Say No to Hate: Sara Webb Phillips Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 03:23 PM EDT 08/29/2018 3:23 PM

The rise of white supremacy. | more...

Say No to Hate: Donna J. Trump Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 03:52 PM EDT 08/29/2018 3:52 PM

How to get people to follow The Real Donna J. Trump instead of Donald J. Trump. This is true throughout the world. | more...

Say No to Hate: Nathaniel Smith Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 04:14 PM EDT 08/29/2018 4:14 PM

One of the most important problems facing America is the widening income inequality/economic mobility gap. For many, the “American Dream” is just that, a dream they will never realize. Many of the social and political challenges we are dealing with today stem from this problem. | more...

Say No to Hate: Saira Raza Article

Wednesday August 29, 2018 04:40 PM EDT 08/29/2018 4:40 PM

The list is long and it’s all really important. But most of the things on that list have a root cause, and I think it’s greed. People’s desire for power and wealth outweighs their humanity and their ability to see humanity in others. | more...

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