“The last day I saw my son was Valentine’s Day, so he was bringing flowers for his girlfriend.
We all have the right to react however we want. But the way we react will also be part of who you are. I lost my son and my best friend which is very painful. I can just be sad or fight.
It shouldn’t be the ‘new normal‘ to think that our kids could be targets.
This is not about me. This is not about how I feel. This is about my son. He’s part of what the kids are asking for.
Those kids you saw in Washington now have a new member.
Thank you to the @MiamiHeat & @DwyaneWade for all the love and support that they’ve shown to @ChangeTheRef and Oliver family!
ChangeTheRef and the kids thank the outstanding Miami Heat organization for going above and beyond to keep Joaquin’s voice alive through our mission and to bring smile to all of his friends faces!
Please watch this video and share with others so that we can spread the word about how we are trying to change the world!
Be a part of the change we are making in this world.
This is why America and its coalition are trying to remove Assad and get a “West Friendly” government in Syria The war against Assad did not start in 2011 with the Arab Spring but at least as early as 2000 when Qatar proposed to construct a $10 billion, 1,500 kilometer pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, connecting Qatar directly to the European energy market and reducing the EU’s energy dependence on Russia.
This made it a threat to Russia which sells 70% of its gas exports to Europe.
Assad, remaining loyal to his Russian ally, refused to sign the agreement to allow the pipeline to run through Syria and, instead, approved the “Islamic pipeline” running from Iran’s gas field through Syria to the ports of Lebanon, potentially making Iran the main supplier to the European energy market. Naturally, this did not go down well with the Gulf’s Sunni monarchs allied with the West, Israel, nor the West itself, particularly as it seeks to weaken Russia to the point of the Yeltsin era – back to subservience.
Robert F Kennedy Jr., in February, 2016 wrote,
“Secret cables and reports by the US, Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link.”
In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.
In 2011, the US joined France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and England to form the ‘Friends of Syria Coalition,’ which formally demanded the removal of Assad.
The CIA provided $6 million to Barada, a British TV channel, to produce pieces entreating Assad’s ouster. Saudi intelligence documents, published by WikiLeaks, show that by 2012, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were arming, training and funding radical Jihadist Sunni fighters from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere to overthrow the Assad’s Shia allied regime.
Qatar, which had the most to gain, invested $3 billion in building the insurgency and invited the Pentagon to train insurgents at US bases in Qatar.
U.S. personnel also provided logistical support and intelligence to the rebels on the ground.
The Times of London reported on September 14, 2012, that the CIA also armed Jihadists with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons from Libyan armouries that the agency smuggled by ratlines to Syria via Turkey.
According to an April 2014 article by Seymour Hersh, the CIA weapons ratlines were financed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Following Washington’s decision to remove Assad, its Middle Eastern allies, including Turkey, has been assisting anyone and everyone (including ISIS and al-Qaeda) opposing the Syrian government.
Assad has repeatedly said that Turkey was not fighting extremism but actually fomenting it.
In December 2015, German newspaper Deutsche Welle reported that “Military and logistic support from Turkey was the key factor in extremists’ takeover of Idlib”, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said.
The war in Syria has now lasted for seven years. Although its roots lie in peaceful protests against the government, it has become something much more complex.
Joe Inwood explains who is fighting whom and why.
~April 13, 2018~
Britain and France joined the United States in the strikes in a coordinated operation that was intended to show Western resolve in the face of what the leaders of the three nations called persistent violations of international law.
Mr. Drumpf characterized it as the beginning of a sustained effort to force Mr. Assad to stop using banned weapons, but only ordered a limited, one-night operation that hit three targets.
Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990’s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan’s East Village, such as Sin-é, gradually focusing more on his own material.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine listed him at number 39 on their list of greatest singers of all time. In 1997, Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to resume work on the album, to be titled My Sweetheart the Drunk, recording many four-track demos while also playing weekly solo shows at a local venue.
On May 29, 1997, while awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed, in the Mississippi River when he was caught in the wake of a passing boat; his body was found on June 4.
~Wikipedia~
~~Hallelujah~~
Official Video
~~Published on Oct 25, 2009~~
Jeff Buckley
Well I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah …
On June 12, 2016, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States.
~Wikipedia~
On a day like today, 9 months ago, I woke up to the news.
It came with a deep, gut-wrenching feeling!
49 people dead, many injured, in a gay club relatively near my house, on Latin night.
~Orlando City unveils seats honoring 49 Pulse nightclub shooting victims~
Orlando City president Phil Rawlins led a private ceremony unveiling 49 rainbow-colored seats honoring 49 Pulse Nightclub shooting victims.
The seats, which honor the people killed at a popular Orlando gay nightclub on June 12, are in section 12 of the Lions’ new stadium set to open in March at the start of the 2017 Major League Soccer season.
I’ve missed several important events and this is one of them.
I’m trying to catch up.
On June 12, 2016, we woke up to the terrible news of a mass shooting in a local gay club: PULSE.
This started around 2am this morning. Lives have been lost, our community is in pain. Investigation still ongoing …. local police, FBI and other Federal Agents.
Sad days continued in this country.
“It was both the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history, as well as the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks in 2001.”
Forty nine people died in the incident and another 53 were injured.
Puerto Rico has its first LGBT monument in the island’s history, which now is also a memorial to the victims of the Pulse shooting.
The monument is seven concrete pillars, each covered in colorful mosaics, and sits at the entrance of Sixto Escobar Stadium in San Juan’s Third Millennium Park, according to Noticel, a Puerto Rican publication.
The monument cost an estimated $9,000, funded by city taxpayers, Noticel reports.
It was designed by Alberto de la Cruz.
A section of the monument lists the names of the 49 people who lost their lives at the Pulse shooting, highlighting the names of the 23 Puerto Rican victims.
Next to the names, written in Spanish, is the quote,
“This tribute to life strengthens our commitment to fight hate – the product of homophobia – with love and respect.
The monument’s dedication took place almost exactly one year after a federal judge in Puerto Rico first ruled in favor of marriage equality.
Although an anti-equality judge in Puerto Rico tried to halt that ruling, a federal appeals court determined in April that the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which brought marriage equality to all 50 states, was also binding in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States.
“We celebrate life,” said San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín at the monument’s inauguration. “We must work together to eradicate discrimination and homophobia. We must raise our voice for justice and equality of every human being.
We must aspire to a country where everyone is equal and not be judged by how we love.”
Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, Jason Derulo, Meghan Trainor, Juanes, Pink, Mary J. Blige, Selena Gomez and Britney Spears are among 24 artists featured on a new recording to raise money for victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre.
The all-star release, “Hands” — a charity single from Interscope Records with support from GLAAD — was conceived by hit songwriter Justin Tranter, co-writer of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and hits for Gomez, DNCE, Fall Out Boy and Stefani.
The June 12 slaughter at the gay nightclub in Orlando, which killed 49 people and injured 53, is the most deadly mass shooting in American history and the deadliest act of violence against the LGBT community. Funds from the song will aid families with medical care, counseling and will also be used for education.
Proceeds from the sale of the new tribute single in the United States will benefit Equality Florida Pulse Victims Fund, the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida, and GLAAD.
“Hands,” is a musical tribute to the 49 victims of the shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The track features Mary J Blige, Jason Derulo, Britney Spears, Tyler Glenn, Selena Gomez, Halsey, Ty Herndon, Imagine Dragons, Juanes, Adam Lambert, Mary Lambert, Jennifer Lopez, the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles, Kacey Musgraves, MNEK, Alex Newell, P!nk, Prince Royce, Nate Ruess, RuPaul, Troye Sivan, Jussie Smollett, Gwen Stefani, and Meghan Trainor.
“Hands” was written by Warner Chappell writers Justin Tranter & Julia Michaels, and BloodPop®; produced by BloodPop®, Mark Ronson, and Justin Tranter.
[Verse 1: Britney Spears + Gwen Stefani]
Can hold a gun
And hold your heart
Can put out fires
And make ’em start
Skin and bones
And flesh and blood
With all this nerve
How did we get this numb
[Pre-Chorus: Meghan Trainor + Troye Sivan]
Cus they can hurt
Or they can heal
They can give back
Or they can steal
They can break the world
Or they can change it too
[Chorus: All Together]
Ooh hands
Hands
Woooo hands
Oh hands
Cause they can love
Or they can take
They can fight up
Until they save
They can break the world
They can change it too
Ooh hands
[Verse 2: Selena Gomez + Kacey Musgraves]
Doesn’t matter
Who you love
All that matters
Is your love
I’ve been watching news
And seeing all this hate
Tell me is it wrong
To want a little change
[Pre-Chorus: Mary J. Blige]
They can hurt
Or they can heal
They can give back
Or they can steal
They can break the world
Or they can change it too
[Chorus: All Together led by Jason Derulo]
Ooh hands
Hands
Woooo hands
Oh hands
Cause they can love
Or they can take
They can fight up
Until they save
They can break the world
They can change it too
Ooh hands
[Post-Chorus: Led by Imagine Dragons]
If a million hands can build a wall
A million hands can break it down
If a million hands can build a wall
A million hands can break it down
Ooooh
[Bridge: Jennifer Lopez]
Can hold a gun
And hold your heart
Can put out fires
And make ’em start
I’ve been watching news
And seeing all this hate
Tell me is it wrong
To want a little change
[Chorus: Adam Lambert & Tyler Glenn + P!NK & MNEK]
Ooh hands
Hands
Woooo hands
Oh hands
Cause they can love
Or they can take
They can fight up
Until they save
They can break the world
They can change it too
Ooh hands
[Post-Chorus: Led by Imagine Dragons]
If a million hands can build a wall
A million hands can break it down
If a million hands can build a wall
A million hands can break it down
Ooooh
[Outro: RuPaul + (Mary Lambert) + Nate Ruess + Together]
Just take my hand baby
Everybody’s in love
(All that matters is your love)
(Change it or break it)
(They can love or they can take it, take it all)
If a million hands can build a wall
A million hands can break it down
If a million hands can build a wall
A million hands can break it down
Ooooh
It Is What It Is 