Sorry Folks: It's Just not the Same

Jan 20, 2009 "Reflecting Pool Freezes Over"

After some "forced fed" research last week, it has become evident that "equating the move of 16th century slave-chattel to 19th century 'emancipation' to 20th century negro 'freedom' marches and the subsequent advances; with current marriage activism as the same or similar; is not consistent with the facts of the 'then' and the 'now'.

"Now" with a downplayed event to occur in Jackson, Ms., & Lambert, Ms., spearheaded by Antoinette Harrell & 20th Century Slavery, as a fact is brought to bare in Harrell's Poverty Tour.

Her "movement" is long overdue. However, on one specific episode, what was seen in "the evolution of Dr. King's 'Poor People's Campaign' is juxtaposed" against current conditions.

The idea of 20th Century Slavery is appalling. But, the fear placed on individuals cannot be equated with the "voluntary acceptance of a lifestyle" which devolves to "teen & adolescent" bondage.

"Many of the countless missing boys & girls are in bondage in America in 2009, by the purveyors of images of youth in explicit depictions of bondage."

It should be noted, we are in the 21st Century! "Some years ago, at one of her many speaking engagements on the importance of tracking family history (even the painful parts), Antoinette Harrell was approached by Mae Louise Wall Miller, who told her that she was raised in what amounted to slavery and only escaped in 1963. That's right. Not 1863, but 1963.
Miller's family lived in a remote setting in Mississippi, far from cities or even roads, not being able to read or write and completely cut off from outsiders. The story Miller tells is harrowing and, as she told it at the premiere, you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium.
Miller talked about how they were treated worse than dogs. How they all spent their every waking moment "picking cotton, pulling corn, picking peas, picking butter beans, picking string beans, digging potatoes; whatever it was, that's what you did for no money at all." How the "Boss's" table scraps were tossed into a tub for days and then set out under a tree for them to eat out of like hogs." It is evident a great amount of effort was employed to subject folks in that time, "then".

But right at this prevalent time, this enigma approaches us from the woodworks of yesterday, to give us the incompleteness of efforts to distance ourselves from the past. Plagued with Latina & Black issues of Justice & Economics, subprime schemes & Bankrupt automakers plus who can or cannot marry.

"Now" some want to equate "today's" watershed issue with "then".

"So, Pettus Bridge was about really exposing a system of southern mistreatment of negroes at the hands of others. All along the Delta's plantations, poor blacks were "forcibly" held in a neuvo captivity."

The political means of Hamer, Evers & countless others in Mississippi, the Congress of Racial Equality in Baton Rouge in 1961, the Montgomery Bus Boycott & the many unsung-ed "rights" events; still kept the depraved conditions forced upon negroes, hid.

Still, in Selma the backlash of deprivation is evident when you take a closer look. All along "freedom's trail", the stench of backlash from Detroit to Denham Springs remains. The change then was to end "enslavement". The issues of inequality are starkly different. No one is attempting to keep any "so-called consenting adults" trapped in poverty, beginning with forced slavery and continued to this day through institutionalized mechanisms of devaluation.

When I now see, the well known of the "consented lifestyle", the culminating finality of insobriety the defiant deviance brings about is self-inflicted. No slave, thought upon himself to become one.
This defiant deviance further emboldens others, to deeper depths. Thusly, our children are trapped in a "new-age slavery", a slavery of its own making. This is not the slavery, forced upon others by the Code Noir.
Recently, photos were released of Rihanna. Proportedly nude. We were already aware of the leather. It is a consented lifestyle.

But, there are others, who are forcibly held captive in this lifestyle. Their faces are on milkboxes. Their parents are told they are runaways. Adults pay to see them on the internet.

Sorry Folks, It's Just not the Same!!

Prevailing Justice?!

Jan 20 2009 "Reflecting Pool Freezes Over"



Legislation speaks to persistent racial and ethnic disparities within the federal criminal justice system.

originally published 2-26-09 Brennan Center for Justice


Washington, D.C. – Today, Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Arlen Spector (R-PA) introduced critical legislation that speaks to persistent racial and ethnic disparities within the federal criminal justice system. Inspired in part by a 2007 Brennan Center and the National Institute for Law and Equity report, the Justice Integrity Act (JIA) of 2008 seeks to ensure equal treatment for all citizens involved in the criminal process.

Originally introduced by then-Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), the JIA is intended to restore public confidence in the fair and equitable application of justice. The proposed legislation grew, in part, out of a report released by the Brennan Center and the National Institute for Law and Equity, Prosecutorial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing: Some Views of Former U.S. Attorneys, which identified ways for U.S. Attorneys' to address racial disparities in sentencing and to mitigate the effects on communities that are disproportionately impacted by high rates of incarceration.

"The Justice Integrity Act provides a non-partisan, objective mechanism through which law enforcement officials can take a close look at whether we are achieving the goal of ensuring fair and equal treatment for all citizens that find themselves involved with our criminal justice system—which is the promise of our democracy," says Nicole Austin-Hillery, Director and Counsel of the Brennan Center's Washington, D.C. office.

The JIA would create a pilot program that would be implemented by United States Attorneys in ten federal districts, who with the assistance of "advisory committees" comprised of prosecutors and defenders, judges and correctional officers, among others, would be charged with the responsibility to collect and examine data illuminating racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice policies within the selected districts. The advisory committees would also study ways to reduce unwarranted disparities and make recommendations as to how to ensure fairness in the criminal justice system.

Recognizing that African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated across a range of offenses, Melanca Clark, counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program, stated: "We've become desensitized to the over-involvement of black and brown men in the criminal justice system, and the related human cost to individuals, families and communities. The JIA is a critical step towards real, color-blind, Justice."

The advisory committees will offer recommendations to inform the creation of plans that will help ensure that law enforcement priorities and initiatives, charging and plea bargaining decisions, and sentencing recommendations are not influenced by racial or ethnic stereotyping, and that facially neutral laws or policies are applied without actual or unconscious bias.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Nicole Austin-Hillery or Melanca Clark, please contact Jeanine Plant-Chirlin at 212-998-6289 or at Jeanine.plant-chirlin@nyu.edu.

Critical legislation introduced!

Prosecutorial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing.

.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law | 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor | New York, NY 10013
212.998.6730 phone | 212.995.4550 fax | brennancenter@nyu.edu

Washington, D.C. office | 1730 M Street, NW, Suite 413 | Washington, D.C. 20036
202.785.4747 phone | 202.785.4744 fax | brennancenter@nyu.edu

America: In the Final Throes - Legacy's future holt!

New Rules of Engagement. World wide! The individual signifies the shift in the rules of engagement. The Zeitgeist. Ready or Not!

Disembarking from the painful past of yesterday, will not be an easy task. As so many are basking in the signal of a "new day". The struggle of yesterday implodes in our midst.

Attempts will be made to deploy old tactics of a now defunct time. Too force the hand of today, back in to yesterday. Tensions come and go. How it is handled is what counts.

Like it or not, we're here now! And there's no turning back! hlr

Rode it Out!!!

minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation's first black president. A defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.

Obama's victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.

Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who was virtually unknown on the national stage four years ago, defeated Clinton, the former first lady and one-time campaign front-runner, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination.

His victory had been widely assumed for weeks. But Clinton's declaration of interest in becoming his ticketmate was wholly unexpected.

She expressed it in a conference call with her state's congressional delegation after Rep. Nydia Velazquez, predicted Obama would have great difficulty winning the support of Hispanics and other voting blocs unless the former first lady was on the ticket.

"I am open to it" if it would help the party's prospects in November, Clinton replied, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private.

Obama's campaign had no reaction to Clinton's comments, which raised anew the prospect of what many Democrats have called a "Dream Ticket" that would put a black man and a woman on the same ballot.

The fast-paced developments unfolded as the long Democratic nominating struggle ended with primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

Only 31 delegates were at stake, the final few among the thousands that once drew Obama, Clinton and six other Democratic candidates into the campaign to replace President Bush and become the nation's 44th president.

Obama arranged an evening appearance in St. Paul, Minn., sending McCain an unmistakable message by claiming his victory in the very hall where the Arizonan will accept his party's nomination in early September.

Clinton was in New York for an appearance before home-state supporters. Officials said she would concede Obama had the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

McCain, who wrapped up the Republican nomination months ago, campaigned in Memphis.

Obama sealed his nomination based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and delegates' public declarations as well as support from 22 delegates and "superdelegates" who privately confirmed their intentions to The Associated Press. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer.

The young senator's success amounted to a victory of hope over experience, earned across an enervating 56 primaries and caucuses that tested the political skills and human endurance of all involved.

Obama stood for hope, and change. Clinton was the candidate of experience, ready, she said, to serve in the Oval Office from Day One.

Together, they drew record turnouts in primary after primary — more than 34 million voters in all, independents and Republicans as well as Democrats.

Yet the race between a black man and a woman exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

Obama drew strength from blacks, and from the younger, more liberal and wealthier voters in many states. Clinton was preferred by older, more downscale voters, and women, of course.

Obama's triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy — all harnessed to his own gifts as an inspirational speaker.

With her husband's two White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready to be commander in chief.

But after a year on the campaign trail, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and the freshman senator became a political phenomenon.

"We came together as Democrats, as Republicans and independents, to stand up and say we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come," he said that night of victory in Des Moines.

As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama's were bigger. One audience, in Dallas, famously cheered when he blew his nose on stage; a crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland, Ore., the weekend before the state's May 20 primary.

The former first lady countered Obama's Iowa victory with an upset five days later in New Hampshire that set the stage for a campaign marathon as competitive as any in the past generation.

"Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice," she told supporters who had saved her candidacy from an early demise.

In defeat, Obama's aides concluded they had committed a cardinal sin of New Hampshire politics, forsaking small, intimate events in favor of speeches to large audiences inviting them to ratify Iowa's choice.

It was not a mistake they made again — which helped explain Obama's later outings to bowling alleys, backyard basketball courts and American Legion halls in the heartland.

Clinton conceded nothing, memorably knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey at a bar in Indiana, recalling that her grandfather had taught her to use a shotgun, and driving in a pickup to a gas station in South Bend, Ind., to emphasize her support for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

As other rivals fell away in winter, Obama and Clinton traded victories on Super Tuesday, the Feb. 5 series of primaries and caucuses across 21 states and American Samoa that once seemed likely to settle the nomination.

But Clinton had a problem that Obama exploited, and he scored a coup she could not answer.

Pressed for cash, the former first lady ran noncompetitive campaigns in several Super Tuesday caucus states, allowing her rival to run up his delegate totals.

At the same time, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., endorsed the young senator in terms that summoned memories of his slain brothers while seeking to turn the page on the Clinton era.

Merely by surviving Super Tuesday, Obama exceeded expectations. But he did more than survive, emerging with a lead in delegates that he never relinquished, and he proceeded to run off a string of 11 straight victories.

Clinton saved her candidacy once more with primary victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, beginning a stretch in which she won in six of the next nine states on the calendar, as well as in Puerto Rico.

It was a strong run, providing glimpses of what might have been for the one-time front-runner.

Personality issues rose and receded through the campaign:

Clinton's husband, the former president, campaigned tirelessly for her but sometimes became an issue himself, to her detriment.

And Obama struggled to minimize the damage caused by the incendiary rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an issue likely to be raised anew by Republicans in the fall campaign.

Ride it Out!!

Obama Riding IT out!!

2 April 2008
- Bryant Purvis prelim May 6, 2008, Theodore McCoy & Marcus Jones forced to pay child support for "incarcerated sons." Melissa Bell in Judge J P Mauffray's
Court May 5, to be forced to pay child support.

Obama ridicules notion of VP slot

3/10/2008, 2:37 p.m. CDTBy CHARLES BABINGTON The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama ridiculed the idea of being Hillary Rodham Clinton's running mate Monday, saying voters must choose between the two for the top spot on the fall ticket.

The Illinois senator used his first public appearance of the week to knock down the notion that he might accept the party's vice presidential nomination. He noted that he has won more states, votes and delegates than Clinton so far. [It Happened in Memphis]

"I don't know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is first place," Obama said, drawing cheers and a long standing ovation from about 1,700 people in Columbus, Miss.

Saying he wanted to be "absolutely clear," he added: "I don't want anybody here thinking that somehow, 'Well, you know, maybe I can get both.' Don't think that way. You have to make a choice in this election."

"I am not running for vice president," Obama said. "I am running for president of the United States of America."

Obama aides said Clinton's recent hints that she might welcome him as her vice presidential candidate appeared meant to diminish him and to attract undecided voters in the remaining primary states by suggesting they can have a "dream ticket."

Obama had never suggested he might accept a second spot on the ticket. But until Monday he had not ridiculed the notion so directly, even if he did completely rule it out in Shermanesque terms.

He told the audience that it made no sense for Clinton to suggest he is not ready to be president and then hint that she might hand him the job that could make him president at a moment's notice. Keepers of the DREAM! Or has this been a nightmare?

"If I'm not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?" he said, as the crowd laughed and cheered loudly.

Mississippi holds it primary Tuesday, the last contest before the Pennsylvania primary six weeks from now.

Clinton and her husband, the former president, had suggested recently that a Clinton-Obama ticket would be popular and formidable against Republican Sen. John McCain in November.

Many political activists discounted the notion all along. They noted that the two senators lack a warm relationship and, more important, that Obama would be ill-served by hinting he might accept the vice presidential slot when he holds the lead in delegates and hopes to win the presidential nomination.

In the latest Associated Press count, Obama leads Clinton, 1,578-1,472. He has won 28 contests to her 17.
Moreover, many insiders feel the ambitious and fast-rising Obama would chafe in the vice president's job, especially in a White House where Bill Clinton would almost surely play a huge advisory role.

Still, the notion of a Clinton-Obama ticket has received ample discussion in recent days on cable TV news shows and newspapers such as New York City's tabloids.

In an interview Friday in Wyoming with KTVQ-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Billings, Mont., Obama's comments were somewhat mixed.

"Well, you know, I think it's premature," he said of accepting the second spot on the ticket. "You won't see me as a vice presidential candidate."

His Monday remarks were more detailed, pointed and humorous.

Of course, they will not completely end the speculation. Presidential candidates routinely disavow any interest in the vice presidential spot. But some, including John Edwards and Al Gore, change their minds when they fall short of their top goal. Keepers of the DREAM! Or What?!!2 April 2008

Is This the New World Order in Formation?!!

Bayou Chicot Noose's 13 May 2008
Near Ville Platte, Louisiana

This is the New World Order's North American Union, from the outset the sham-trickery of the Skull & Crossbones crew. For which your illustrious leaders of this Democratic Republic called America are ALL a part of, including the candidates of note for 2008, bar none excepting Barack Obama.

This is why Bill Clinton could remark his true confessive thoughts of Barack's campaign as a fairy tale. A neverwill happen. A moot point. Because the good old boys of the Dark Society of the Skull & Crossbones discriminates.

How blessed can we get, with Barack.!

OverStepping the Bounds:Of Justice?-Mauffray & Walters

Judge in Jena 6 case again closes records, will appeal order that opened Mychal Bell hearing

By MARY FOSTER , Associated Press
Last update: December 7, 2007 - 11:48 PM


A week after one of the so-called Jena Six defendants pleaded guilty to second-degree battery in the beating of a white schoolmate, the judge in the case said the records will remain closed, pending an appeal.

Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. will appeal to the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal an order that opened the hearing and records in Mychal Bell's case.

"In the interim, we have advised the clerk and his staff that the judgment is not yet final, and that they should not permit access to the record in the two Mychal Bell proceedings, nor any other juvenile proceeding," Donald R. Wilson, Mauffray's attorney, wrote on Thursday.

State District Judge Thomas Yeager's order to open all proceedings and records concerning Bell is not yet final, said Dan Zimmerman, who represents The Associated Press and 24 other media organizations that sued.

"There's not much we can do at this minute," Zimmerman said. "We'll just have to wait until it gets to the appeals court."

Bell, 17, was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility on Dec. 3. He was given credit for the 10 months he had already served.

Bell was charged with taking part in an attack last December on Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School. Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack, but was discharged and attended a school event later in the day.

Barker and his parents filed a civil suit this week against the LaSalle Parish School Board, the parents of the young men accused of beating him, and the adult members of the Jena Six.

Bell originally was charged as an adult with attempted murder. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September that verdict was thrown out and Bell was ordered tried as a juvenile.

The charges against Bell and five others _ the so-called Jena Six _ sparked a huge civil-rights demonstration in Jena in September.

The activists said prosecutors treated blacks more harshly than whites, and pointed to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three other white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged; LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters has said there was no state crime to charge them with.

The AP and other news organizations went to court seeking permission to attend hearings in Bell's case, and to review transcripts of previous hearings and other court records in the central Louisiana case.

New York State of Mind

Ruston Man Who Claims Someone Put a Noose In His Work Locker is Arrested for Work Theft

(December - 4 - 2007)

RUSTON (TV8) - A Lincoln Parish man is being investigated for two separate incidents. Both alleged crimes happened while he was working at the Lowes in Ruston. TV8's Jennifer Townley reports.

25-year-old Jonathan McZeal was booked at the Lincoln Parish Jail Tuesday.

He turned himself into police custody after learning Ruston Police had a warrant out for his arrest.

McZeal works at Lowes in Ruston, where he's accused of stealing about 6-thousand dollars.

He's being charged with theft over 500-dollars for refund fraud.

Lieutenant Curtis Hawkins says, "he would either of somehow obtained a receipt or someone would bring a receipt in and he would either give the money back or take money out of the register and keep it himself, um, you know, something along those lines, where there was no merchandise turned back in to balance that out."

The alleged thefts happened between August Second and October 20th.

Meanwhile, Ruston Police are also investigating a claim McZeal made in November, just a few weeks after the last theft at Lowes took place.

McZeal told police he found a noose and a hate letter in his locker at work.

Hawkins says, "right now we're treating these as two separate cases. The noose complaint that was called in, the harassment, the threatening letter that was called in was one case. During the course of that Lowes said hey this guy, we're going to contact you and they contacted us about the internal theft complaint that was going on there at Lowes. It just happened to be the same guy. We don't know if there's any type of connection or thing like that."

If police find that McZeal filed a false police report about the noose to cover up the alleged theft he could be charged with criminal mischief.

Hawkins says police are following leads on the noose incident.

Criminal mischief is considered a misdemeanor offense.
Jonathan McZeal is 25 years of age.

Congressman Conyers?! The Bishop says, the rule of justice in america is to deprive the poor & black of their rights as much as possible. The rule of justice for the poor & the black and all people of color, should be to 'bang the walls' of injustice until they crash and come tumbling down like humpty dumpty!

Judge J P Mauffray and his partners in crime are in contempt of court, a court presided over by an adhoc judge appointed by the LOUISIANA STATE SUPREME COURT! It should by "Krystal" clear now that the JUDICIARY COMMISSION & the LOUISIANA ATTORNEY DISCIPLINARY BOARD should step in and do its job.

A hearing should be now held, on the judicial malfeasance & prosecutorial "indiscretions" which have emanated from the 28th Judicial District. Mauffray, in contempt of Court; will the Judidciary Commission, put the blind fold on like the lady, holding the unbalanced scales of justice in Louisiana.

The coercive matters at hand, should require another round of subpeona-ed Court officials; including the Court Administrator, the Clerk of Court; his assistant(s) the Criminal Clerk of Court, the Civil Clerk of Court [in reference to the Barker family suit & possible manipulative malfeasance in office] plus, the defense attorneys for Mychal Bell, Louis G. Scott, Bob Noel, Peggy Sullivan & *Carol Powell-Lexing.

Such a subpeona should also include *Sister Krystal Muhammad, Regional Director of the New Black Panther Party in New Orleans. The alledged Thursday 29 November filing of the civil suit at 11:56am & the ensuing pending court case of December 6th 2007, of which case; certain attorney(s) were still working towards a December 6th Trial.

Now, all proceedings concerning the Mychal Bell case and plea, & consequently the other Jena Six defendants, should be enjoined by a higher court, possibly at the federal level; from pursuing any further action until a "FINDING OF FEDERAL FACT can be garnered.

Again, we call on President George W. Bush, to issue an executive order, demanding a full & thorough investigation of the matters concerning the 28th Judical Court District & Jena,Louisiana!


Bell's records closed while ruling appealed
Staff and AP reports

An appeal is being filed to challenge the opening of criminal records of "Jena Six" defendant Mychal Bell.

Meanwhile, LaSalle Parish officials aren't releasing those records and already have rejected a media request for them.

An order by 9th District Judge Thomas Yeager of Rapides Parish to open all proceedings and records concerning Bell is not yet final, said Dan Zimmerman, who represents The Town Talk, The Associated Press and 23 other media organizations that sued. |then|
gssc Free Michael Cobb

Access to Mychal Bell's court records denied
Staff report • news@thenewsstar.com • September 26, 2009
|now|
The Louisiana Supreme Court, by a 5-2 vote, denied a writ application Friday by a group of media agencies, including The News-Star, for access to court records and transcripts in the case of Mychal Bell, a member of the "Jena Six."

The ruling leaves intact a June decision by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal that said a trial court had "erred in ordering that the transcripts of all hearings held, or to be held, in this juvenile's case be made available to the public, and, in ordering that, following an in camera inspection, the juvenile's record be open to the public."
Bell was first charged as an adult in the case of six black males accused of beating a white classmate at Jena High School, but his case eventually moved to juvenile court. Media organizations filed a civil lawsuit last year, arguing that those records should be open.
A state appeals court in April reversed a ruling that would have allowed the public to see transcripts of all hearings in the case of the only Jena Six defendant to be tried so far.
A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that because Bell's case is in juvenile court, all records are private — even those of hearings that should have been open to the public. The media are asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.
Bell was convicted in 2007 as an adult on a charge of second-degree battery in the December 2006 attack on another student at Jena High, but the Third Circuit overturned that verdict, saying he should have been tried as a juvenile.
Juvenile proceedings for felonies or violent crimes must be open to the public under Louisiana law, the Third Circuit ruled.
Both sides in the case agree that Bell's case was a violent felony, it said, and Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. should have opened the hearings.
However, the judges ruled, there is no requirement for a juvenile's record or transcripts to be open.
It overturned 9th Judicial District Judge Thomas Yeager's ruling that the transcripts should be public because the hearings should have been.