"You Belong to Me" Ruby McCollum and Live Oak

It is funny how reviewing music, movies or theatre how a show can connect with you. My latest movie review was set in Live Oak, Florida. I've past through Live Oak several times when I visit my parents in Jacksonville. It is a long and boring drive across all of Northern Florida. I also spent a few days there when I covered the 2011 Wanee Festival. A typical Southern small town. Not much to it. The town appeared old to me and certainly it had some history.

A picture I took of the river which is featured in the film...

I reviewed an excellent documentary about a famous murder that happened in the 1950's in Live Oak called You Belong to Me: Sex, Race and Murder in the South. You can read my review here.

Here is a trailer for the film:

Like I said I imagined the town had history but I never imagined this. However, I did think it was thought provoking considering recent race issues.

Well I will be back soon with another post.

Thanksgiving!

I wish all my readers the best for Thanksgiving! I hope everyone was able to find something to be thankful for as I know sometimes in a world full of troubles that can be hard to find.

The news before thanksgiving was not pleasant. Children getting shot by police, granted the children were playing with toy guns that looked like the real things. The riots in the aftermath of the decision in Ferguson. I wanted to blog about it. However, nothing I could write could change the situation.
I almost fell through the trap door and started blogging about it.

I pray for healing in those communities. I pray for the riots to end and peace to prevail. I hope it wasn't a racial issue. I know the incident has widened the division between races in this melting pot we call America.

I truly hope those racial divides end. I am not a fan of dividing people up in politics the left and the right either. Then there is the religious divide. We are all different. We should celebrate these differences and enjoy living together in harmony.

I am thankful I have friends of different religions, races, and.backgrounds. I am thankful for the ones who have shared their traditions, their food, their culture and truly enriched my life.

That is why my thoughts are on peace and love! No, I am not trying to sound like an old hippy. However peace, love and together is a much greater alternative than what I see in the news. No more riots, no more injustice, no more big divides, lets come together and become something greater.

Maybe give the homeless shelter, maybe feed the hungry without being arrested, maybe lifting up instead of tearing down. If we all work towards that wouldn't we all be more thankful?

Glenn Ford 30 years lost

Glenn Ford was released from prison after serving 30 years for a murder he did not commit. Ford is 64 so 30 years is nearly half his life. He can't get those 30 years back. I suppose it is better than alternative since he was on death row.

Two big flaws in Louisiana's system come to mind. The first one is how can you have an innocent man serve 30 years without finding out he is not guilty? The second would be the efficiency of death row and capital punishment. If you are going to have inmates waiting on death row for 30 years you might as well just give them life is prison.

I'm glad Glen Ford is free if he did not commit the crime. I feel for him losing 30 years of his life. I feel for Isadore Rozeman's family. Rozeman was the victim of the crime. The family may have felt closure with Ford serving time for the crime. Now the question is who really murdered Isadore? Just like Ford can't regain the 30 years he lost, we can't bring Rozeman back from the dead, and somehow justice was not found.

 

 

Was race an issue? It could be. He had an all white jury. A jury also flawed with supposed inexperience. It wasn't exactly a jury of his peers. In an ideal world justice should be color blind. It is a case with a bunch of flaws and a case were justice was lost.