Who I am, why I care, and why you should, too.

[elder999]

Well, I figured...why not an Aaron Cuffe thread.

It's not what you think, though.......

So, who is this Aaron Cuffee fellow who seems to have such a hard on for the American President?

(I don’t, you know. I don’t think much of him one way or the other-I just don’t like what he’s doing to our country.)

For starters, I work for you. My work at the laboratory-and elsewhere-has a direct impact on all of our security-and not just those of you in the U.S.

My parents-and I-though I was only three at the time-marched on Washington for voters’ rights back in the ‘60s. I should point out to those of you who insist on labeling me a “liberal” or worse), that many were called those same things at that time (pinko, commie, outside agitator, nigger-lover, nigger, etc.), simply for trying to right a wrong, and trying to make the country move a little closer to the way it’s supposed to be.

Seems there’s always a derogatory label for those that do the right thing, or speak out about something they see as wrong-and I thought those were American values.

My family name “Cuffee,” is the anglicization of a west-African name. My family-or rather, my line of my family- is descended from the eldest of six brothers who bought their freedom from the ship’s captain-named Slocum- that owned them. Some of my family wound up in Maine and Massachusetts, some on Long Island, and others in other places.

You might have read about the youngest of those brothers in history class; you probably didn’t, though, so here:

http://www.bridgew.edu/HOBA/Inductees/Cuffee.htm

And yes, many of my forebears were ministers-my father, my grandfather, my great grandfather (I could go on, but…) as well as successful businessmen. Our family has lived as freemen by a set of principles for nearly two hundred years now: we are capitalists; we use our wealth to serve the greater good of the community of man; we fight for the continuing support and application of civil-and human-rights outlined as inalienable in the Constitution.

You could say we’ve been in the voting rights-or perhaps just “rights”- business for a very long time. My ancestors were also whalers, and other sorts of mariners, as well as full-time abolitionists-my summer home in Sag Harbor, N.Y., has been in the family for more than 150 years, and was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Members of my family, in addition to making themselves rich, have fought and died in almost every major war of this country-as far back as the French and Indian war.

Oh yeah, Indians.

My family has a long history of intermarrying with the tribes of New York and New England. By 1820 the word for “black man” in the Amagansett and Naragansett languages was “Cuffee.” I am a registered and enrolled member of the Shinnecock tribe on my father’s side, and ¼ Wind River Shoshone on my mother’s.

Basically that means that racially, I have a long history of being shat upon by the country that I’ve been raised to love

Love? Well, yes. Love as the place Lincoln spoke of, “the last, best hope for the world.” Love as the ideal of what the Founding Fathers intended-though I know that very few if any of them had any but white Europeans in mind as enjoying the rights that my family has fought so hard for throughout its history.

My family has a tradition of service. I consider my job a form of service-to all of you.
Believe me, I don’t need to work for a living at all, and I look forward to the day that I can do something less….stressful. In the meantime, I work in the service of a government that I cannot trust, whose motives are not what is presented to all of you, and whose actions are stripping us of the liberties that I have been taught that all men are meant to enjoy-many of which I have voluntarily abrogated for myself as a condition of employment. I have no privacy-none .I have no “freedom” to associate with whomever I wish, or even to travel to certain countries-“friendly” countries like Israel-without extensive preparation and debriefing-and only on official business. I’ve been lots of places on “official business.” I mostly can’t talk about them.

The time will come, very soon now, that I will also no longer talk about the Patriot Act. Why?

Well, because I’ve been told not to.

No, not by John Lindsey, though I have to thank him for his forbearance of my jabs at G.W. Bush and company, but by my employers-no matter that many of my posts have been from home-ALL my communications are monitored as a condition of my employment. It’s not posts about Bush, or other current events that I’ve been “warned” about, or even the posts that have skirted around what I actually do. It’s only the posts about the USA PATRIOT Act that I’ve been told to stop-

Why do you suppose that is?

So, unlike Bruce did, I’m saying that I’m going to continue to post here, and enjoy your company; it’s provided a delightful distraction for the troubled man that I’ve become, of late, and I don’t have to give it up.

I just have to stop being “the canary in the coal mine…” and stop my singing.

[David T Anderson]

Thank you for posting Aaron...both this post and all the others in the past. I think we've gotten, or are getting, or will get the message, particularly as time goes on...

[kage110]

Please keep posting all you can, Aaron. I always enjoy reading your posts - particularly as I agree with so much of what you say (what is it they say about the true mark of a man's intelligence is how much he agrees with you? ). I would love a chance to sit down and talk with you about everything and anything over a good glass of 'whatever your favourite beverage' is.

Serving a government is never an easy task and one fraught with great trials for those with morals. You only have to look at the current events in the UK surrounding the death of one David Kelly, a scientist for the MOD, to see what I mean. Please do not let yourself go down that road. Quit before life gets anywhere near that bad.

If you want to serve so much perhaps you should perform the ultimate service and run for President? Goodness knows we need some intelligence in that particular office, and a sense of justice without occupying the moral high-ground would not go amiss either. Mind you, you would get even less privacy there....

Hugh

Aaron, your posts have been greatly appreciated.

Keep doing what you can, and writing when you can.

Cheers,

Mike

[Tripitaka of AA]

You see, Aaron even managed to preface a whinge-post with something fascinating, informative and beautifully crafted. That is why we should appreciate our ability to enjoy his company.

As for the terms of his employment.... ouch.

I will be happy to read Aaron's posts on whatever subject he chooses, but I will be saddened to remember that he is shackled and restrained by his employer. The "Hannibal Lecter" muzzle on a proud descendant of formidable men that overcame great prejudice and bigotry is an uncomfortable image that Aaron chose deliberately (sorry, I mislead you by artistic licence, he never mentioned the Hannibal Lecter muzzle ).

As has been mentioned before, people of such integrity should be elected to High Office. Gotta be an option, Spanky! (can't wait to hear that one explained during a televised debate between candidates )

[kage110]

As has been mentioned before, people of such integrity should be elected to High Office. Gotta be an option, Spanky! (can't wait to hear that one explained during a televised debate between candidates )

Starr: Mr President, did you, on the xxth of xxxx 2003 repeatedly spank Mr xxxxxxxx with your leather belt, on his naked posterior, at your residence in New Mexico?

President Cuffee: I did not then, or ever, have spanking relations with that man!



Sorry, couldn't resist

[Kimpatsu]

Strong, sweet, hot, black Cuffee...

[bruceb]

The litagation of every single problem or crime in our society will one day cause the destruction of the same system that it supports, but in the arena of patriotism, or who we are and who are our ancestors ..... each of us has the potential to be better or worse than those who have come before us, we just have to try.

On the other hand ...

As misshappen as the 1000 post thread was ... if read in its entire text ... it was my goal to spend less time posting in threads, and get away from the computer. If many of you who were disillusioned at more posts after post 1000 apply this same means to study this way in their own martial arts, it is no wonder we have a communication problem? Oh well ...

You know what Aaron .... one does not care because of their lineage or ancestors, but because the way they look at the world is one that wants the world to be a better place.

As far as being told not to write or talk about such things because of your employer, who I assume is the gov't of the USA .... as an employee one is a representative of said gov't and having been there and done that ... the choice is to speak out and quit your job,or to fall in line and keep your job. I don't see the problem. The old saying of "... you knew the job was dangerous when you took it." comes to my mind.

Oh well.

As far as speaking on banned subjects ...

The only thing you can do is to never specifically talk about the USA but point to parallel or simular situatons that are occuring in other countrys or have occured in history without specifically tying them to present administrations or present events.

So there is a way to indirectly talk about what you want to, but it must be discreet, quiet, and let the undercurrent carry the topic, if you want to keep your job.

More of us should care, but that only seems to happen when it directly affects our pay check or income, doesn't it? I would hope that more of us would be educated and aware how the litagation of laws is placing an ever increasing burden on the backs of the average citizen, and decreasing our freedoms, which I think is the point of this post .... isn't it?

[elder999]

originally posted by the happy bridge dweller You know what Aaron .... one does not care because of their lineage or ancestors, but because the way they look at the world is one that wants the world to be a better place.

As far as being told not to write or talk about such things because of your employer, who I assume is the gov't of the USA .... as an employee one is a representative of said gov't and having been there and done that ... the choice is to speak out and quit your job,or to fall in line and keep your job. I don't see the problem. The old saying of "... you knew the job was dangerous when you took it." comes to my mind.

Well, no, Bruce, of course one does not necessarily care because of lineage or ancestors-true enough, but, in my case, one does. Unlike some-who have enjoyed all the rights guaranteed by our Constitution-and whose ancestors have also enjoyed that right-I come from a line of people who have had to fight to be recognized by that document from its inception-more importantly, we fought so that others could enjoy the same rights as well. To see so many sit by and complacently allow those same rights to abrogated is galling-doubling galling because of where I work and what I do.

As far as being told not to write and talk about the USA PATRIOT Act-and it was only the USA PATRIOT Act, I think I can say that that speaks volumes about what is happening in this country-I never signed away my rights to free speech, freedom of religion, or public assembly-I did sign away my right to privacy, and , in some instances, due process. While it has been not-too-subtly told to me that future posts on the USAPA would be “severely frowned upon,” it was also made clear that I was free to post on a variety of other topics-Bush, the war on terror, etc.-as long as I continued to maintain security. I was even commended on how a handled issues related to my work life in a way that does not violate security.

You should find that puzzling………

I will say that I've already considered your advice, though.....

Oh, and while I wear a variety of hats, and actually collect more than one paycheck, officially I’m an employee of the University of California-the contractor that runs the lab for the Department of Energy. I also do some work for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, as well as the Department of Homeland Security.
I can say all of that….I just can’t tell you all of what I do.

Or talk about the USA PATRIOT Act here, anymore…..

Oh-and thanks you guys, but I’m too smart to want to be President-I’d have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Oval Office, even if I thought for a minute that I was right for the job-which I don’t.

[Shitoryu Dude]

On another note - while I have researched my own various ancestors back to pre-revolutionary times, some of which were rather notable, the one that stuck in my mind the most was the one that was hung in the Southwest in the mid-1800's for stealing horses.

Some family history is not as impressive as the rest.

[elder999]

Originally posted by Shitoryu Dude
On another note - while I have researched my own various ancestors back to pre-revolutionary times, some of which were rather notable, the one that stuck in my mind the most was the one that was hung in the Southwest in the mid-1800's for stealing horses.

Some family history is not as impressive as the rest.

Also apropos of nothing, it's rumored that my namesake-the first Aaron, and not my grandfather-was a pirate and a wrecker at times, though he was never caught, and died of a reasonably old age in leisure.........

[kage110]

Oh-and thanks you guys, but I’m too smart to want to be President-I’d have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Oval Office, even if I thought for a minute that I was right for the job-which I don’t.

Aaron,

That statement probably qualifies you for the job far more than virtually any politician out there!

Misquoting someone I say, 'If someone wishes to become a politician - never mind a President - that fact alone should be enough to bar them for standing for office'.

[A. M. Jauregui]

Aaron, I sympathize with your situation more then you might know...

Keep up the adroit work!

[yamatodamashii]

Well, I'd mention that I'm affected by the same Act, but then this thread would start to sound like a support group...

[Starkjudo]

Jason, how does that make you feel?

Rob Thornton