FIRE, FIRE

FIRE, FIRE

Once again I almost lost my television.  Luckily I can’t throw my shoe hard enough to cause any real destruction. 

This is unlike the real danger of hurling the wrong words at the wrong time.  Surely we have freedom of speech in our country, but it is not to be unrestrained.  Hollering “FIRE” in a crowded public venue just to get a reaction is deemed criminal.   So what about all the unrestrained hateful, spiteful and unchecked vocalizations that are being hurled into  our USA society today?

Years ago, far in the past times an old-timer can still remember, a very famous bear jumped in to try and stop fires that were occurring across our beautiful part of the North American Continent. No one knows how many tragedies were stopped by this icon “SMOKEY THE BEAR”.  The important thing is someone was smart enough to examine all the things that contributed to setting fires in the first place, then someone else working together with smart guy #1 found a way to present things that we as a society had to do in order to prevent forest fires.  They discovered by presenting their findings in a simple form all could understand, they could change behavior throughout our entire population for generations to come.

In our country we are experiencing the power of producing change.  Unfortunately, we have allowed factions within our borders to create a sub-society that strives to overthrow our way of life. While most of our conflicts have been waged from a position of strength and purpose, we have made some mistakes in our growth. Those errors have become the igniting elements that have thrown us into the heightened dangerous tinderbox of today’s American society.  We are a people whose population is divided as those who fought the Revolutionary and the Civil War.

We have come to the point of ridiculousness that requires the same out of the box solution as used to change minds for a good purpose. We need to come together as a people, but unless we defuse arguments and hatreds with facts that are true, rather than just beliefs, I’m not even sure that a “Smokey the Bear” or even a hero such as “Superman” can stop the suicide track our nation has set foot on.

Our three year olds have been on their own when it comes to finding out who and what their heritage is as a national society member, they have been given guidance , not by their parents, but by those who are handed these pliable minds to affect.  The results are in. 

Do you like them?  I don’t.  

Most recently we have seen advocates from all sides hurling their incivility and hatred into the tinderbox of our political social forest and it needs to stop.  As long as our people continue to rely on those propaganda messages that promote a lynch mob mentality and permissive approval, the danger increases.  Instead of looking for the why of any particular circumstance our national “truth purveyors” are more intent on who and what to blame and to make sure whatever is smoldering continues to escalate.  Rich powerful men are not all enemies.   There is fact and there is fiction.  There are lies and there is truth.  There is right and there is wrong.  No man is all good and no man is all bad.  As long as we allow folks to spout off regardless of how far they stretch credulity, how can you be sure what you are preaching and screaming about is valid?

  To act on someone else’s belief system is foolish for an individual and is a storm in the making for social-political outcomes.  When we have politicians provoking people to physical confrontation; entertainers swearing and giving example of physical harm to our politicians; when we have a society that sees the effects of mental instability paired with social media and choose to convict a weapon instead of the provocation, it’s not only wrong, THAT’S TOTALLY IMMORAL! 

We have to start judging pragmatically based on fact and with an honest appraisal of the full effects of what we think will get a real result that is good for our society and for the world.

There are two dogs in every human, one hateful and angry, one loving and helpful.  Be careful of which dog you are feeding and sustainin.

We have to start judging pragmatically based on fact and with an honest appraisal of the full effects of what we think will get a real result that is good for our society and for the world.

Pray for a world that respects God and country, and a world that works toward the betterment of the person next to him, and for those a world away.

The important thing is LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.

And please Lord ……………send us a Smokey.

45th PRESIDENTS INAUGURAL SPEECH

 http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/full-speech-president-donald-trump-inaugural-address/ar-AAm3VY0?ocid=spartandhp

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come.

We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.

Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another - but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.

Washington flourished - but the people did not share in its wealth.

Politicians prospered - but the jobs left, and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.

Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes - starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America.

This is your day. This is your celebration.

And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.

January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now.

You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.

At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens.

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves.

These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation - and their pain is our pain.  Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success.  We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.

For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry

Subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military

We've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own

And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.

The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.

But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future.

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power.

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this moment on, it's going to be America First.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.

We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs.  Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

I will fight for you with every breath in my body - and I will never, ever let you down.

America will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders.  We will bring back our wealth.  And we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work - rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.

We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world - but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones - and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

The Bible tells us, "how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity."

We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.

When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.

There should be no fear - we are protected, and we will always be protected.

We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger.

In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.

We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action - constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

The time for empty talk is over.

Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not let anyone tell you it cannot be done.  No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America.

We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions.

It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.

And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator.

So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hear these words:

You will never be ignored again.

Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together, We Will Make America Strong Again.

We Will Make America Wealthy Again.

We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again.

And, Yes, Together, We Will Make America Great Again. Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.

BLM HIJACKED

 I Miss You Daddy (Police Tribute) https://youtu.be/1XvRQGDsIqs via @YouTube


Time and time again as tragedy strikes our country, as people lose their lives and law enforcement is involved we witness a form of chaos.  I understand the pain of family, friends and community trying to make sense of their loss.   I understand their disbelief that the person who once had that life could have given justification that would allow the police to take that life from them.  I can empathize with that disbelief shouting for an explanation, some reason that could never be adequate in softening the pain they feel.

There is also the element, in the community, of the anger stemming from the frustration of living in a world that seems to treat them as second class citizens.  In a society that is perceived as one forcing a quality of life on one group far inferior to what they see existing in the rest of the world.  Human nature demands that inequality be eliminated.   If the maintenance of that inequality continues over generations an inherent anger boils out of the resentment carrying with it anger, hatred and mistrust.  In that context understanding the BLM movement, as a megaphone shouting enough is enough, is not that difficult.

The African American and Latino communities in our country are also individually divided within themselves.  Those who find their direction as that of striving through life by hard work and integration into the predominantly Caucasian society co-existing with those who see their only hope is in the survival of their clan. 

Confrontation is inevitable between the clan and the larger society in which it fights for survival.  The distrust and hatred that flows generation to generation is a form of belief structure that becomes a natural part life.  This belief system, in our society, gains in strength every time a perceived injustice occurs.  Every time a member of their clan is detained, questioned the first inclination is to assume that is a result of bigotry on the part of other party.  

That is a condition of society that needs to be questioned and the malignancy cured.  That is something that we need to correct based on mutual understanding but most of all based on reality and fact.  Trying to sort through the perceptions on both sides will demand understanding and concessions to be given by all components of our societal make up.  The fact of the matter is that any of us can feel threatened and intimidated, and we need to be aware that is occasionally justified, just not in all cases.  The BLM has brought that problem, the one of racial inequality, into society’s awareness.  Now the how to fix it stage is in progress, public awareness is demanding that progress.

One day live in a nation where they would not be judged "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  Martin Luther King.

http://arbeeresponds2.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-new-day-httparesponse2blogspotcom2013.html

The culture that is trying to grow and evolve with-in the United States has been struggling ever since the inception of slavery.  That malignancy has stained our goodness for almost 200 years and has weakened the strength of the cord that bonds us together.  The United States as a country, as a society has achieved things in our world far surpassing that of any in the history of the world.  We are the experiment intent on giving an example as to what can happen to the human race when the individual is given the opportunity to excel.  The stain of slavery is used to paint the whole of the experiment a very nasty color.  That failing, along with some others, continues to be a weapon in the hands of other who would see it fail.  Those others have hijacked, and stolen the message of the BLM movement, they have taken the grief and the pain of honest family and community and used it as a weapon against our way of life.  

Some interesting and pertinent informational sites below:


https://www.facebook.com/peggy.hubbard1/videos/1451438344885456/  

 http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/16/hacked-soros-memo-baltimore-riots-provide-unique-opportunity-reform-police/

(http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=977).

http://blackcommunitynews.com/the-real-power-and-purpose-behind-black-lives-matter-movement/

http://heavy.com/news/2016/09/keith-lamont-scott-charlotte-north-carolina-police-shooting-daughter-facebook-live-video-brother-officer-name-photos-reading-book/

The theft of purpose has no good result for the BLM as the methodology of the Soros funded rioters is not intended to find any solutions.  Their intent is on creating anarchy, raising the temperature of hatred and resentment within our borders.  The MSMedia, and some politicians are complicit, driven by ideology, they feed the narrative expanding the anti-American sentiment.  These factions are the equivalent in nature to predators and devourers of carrion.

 

Pray for our Country, our people, and for peace.  Love your neighbor.

God Bless the USA

MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA

Boy, 13, fatally shot by police after pulling out BB gun    September 15, 2016

At what point in time did our press and our media file objectivity and fact in the trash can?  

The AP, Yahoo, CBS have all presented the header above in one form or another.  For those skimming the media, as a source of their information, this is just another case of law enforcement run amok.  This use of miss-informational highlighting to grab attention is a disservice of the highest magnitude.  

It serves our nation and our society nothing less than one individual person serving arsenic to a school full of children.  This practice of using the nomenclature of news reporting as a hidden editorial commentary is reprehensible.  Unless you take the time to read below the header, and you are already inclined to distrust the police, then that headline only serves to increase your resentment, frustration and anger. 

The police in this case were justified. Rather than promoting a false narrative why not encourage a discussion of why a 13 year boy would be involved in the situation.  Why not encourage a discussion as to why he would think pulling a weapon in that situation would be a safe thing to do.  Once again we are able to witness the effects of the law of cause and effect. 

In the last couple of years, starting with the Trayvon Martin tragedy, the media has made an effort to portray the victims of police shootings as innocent victims.  They take pains to show pictures of the victims that are misleading in order to gain sympathy on one hand and the probable injustice on the other.  I have to search hard to find any pictures in the news of the 17 year old 5 ft. 11 in. 158 lb. pot smoking, man most often shown as a quiet demure 13 year old boy, real Trayvon Martin at the time of the incident.  It is time we demand truth in reporting because we cannot form our society based on deception. 

Our society has gained, from this disservice, a movement full of dissent, anger, revolt and anarchy.  The BLM originated as a result of the misrepresentation of facts.  This misrepresentation has cost the public thousands of dollars resulting from riots, and more importantly, the lives of many in the law enforcement community.  

The blood of our fallen police rests firmly on the heads of those who spread false narrative using the megaphone of news reporting media.

Pray for our Country.  Love your neighbor.  Spread hope not dissention.

God Bless the USA

9/11 THEN AND NOW

Remembering 9/11/2001 and writing about are always equally heart wrenching.  The emotions that are so deeply connected to that series of events affect my life on an almost daily basis.  Fifteen years later the same emotions that flooded over me that morning still grab at me.  What makes it difficult to write about is making a cohesive comment about what resulted in my existing anger, sorrow, pride, and inability to fully understand why.  Intellectually it’s not that difficult as to the why or how but the how can people do such things will forever escape me. 

I remember getting up that morning for an early sales meeting, getting into the shower, hearing my wife shouting at me to come

and see the televisions view of a plane flying into the 1^st Tower.  Still drying myself off I watched as the second plane, making a slow turn then slamming into the second tower.  Oh my God it was not an accident.  Over the next few hours the horror continued to unfold, the anguish and compassion boiled up inside for all those poor people and their families.  As the buildings failed, the engineering was unable to predict such a cataclysmic event.  So many emotions emerged to fester within me some 15 years later.  The anger is still there, the burning need for revenge has dissipated and morphed into a strong desire to stop any form of hatred and actions formed by indoctrinated ideology.

Today 9/11/2016 I am still trying to gain an understanding of those events, I am still emotionally affected, but I now know who and I know the why.  I watched our people, all races, colors and creeds. The people that make up the cornucopia we call the United States of America.  I watched and felt in my heart as they joined together and in purpose to undertake the task at hand.  It was surely reminiscent of the unity of purpose and prayer that brought us to victory during WWII.  I watched as our people united behind a President we all knew, at that point in time, had our backs and would see our much needed justice.

Today I find myself still rising early and turning on the television to peruse the latest news and political bickering.  This morning the first thing to hit my eyes and ears was the vision of our President.  I very seldom see Barrack H Obama as the President of all of, as a result of so many of my own particular views and his.  Today as he spoke he struck me a solidly the president of all of us.  He spoke of many places in both of our hearts, and once again I felt a spark of unity between citizen and President.  It felt good.

Later on in the broadcast, much of what took place that morning in 2001, the subject of United Flight #93 and the memorial were shown and spoken about.  It reminded me of what makes me so proud of our nation, our flag, and it’s people.

United Airlines flight #93 held 7 crew members, 33 passengers and 4 hijackers.  Watching that show this morning I learned that the memorial had not only the names of those victims on display, but there were tapes of passenger communications.  The plane had been late on its takeoff and because of that many of the passengers were aware of the planes being flown into the towers.  They knew that the terrorists who had taken control of their plane had no intent of landing the plane in one piece.  With the terrorists in charge or the plane they still managed a vote, a vote that saved many lives that day.  What I find so American about their act was not the heroism involved but rather the depth of compassion they had to feel for the people they would save.  Rather than sit still, as frozen in fear victims, they realized they would not survive the day.  They chose to take away the advantage the terrorists held. they chose to use their lives to save the lives of people they didn’t even know. 

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

When they chose to use their lives to save the lives of people they didn’t even know, was that act even greater?  I think so.  The mentality of sacrifice runs deep within our national dna. Even as we have those who disparage our county, our flag and our anthem there are those who put their bodies, their very lives, at risk for others.

 

Those men and women deserve our respect.  They deserve to be honored in voices of thanksgiving.  The men and women who serve the rest of us do not deserve to be targets, as pawns in ideologically composed internal disagreement and resentment.  

We are fortunate to live in what history will see as the greatest social experiment and achievement since the birth of our species.  We need to start acting out of our best.

God Bless America.  Pray for your neighbor and your enemy.

A NEW DAY http://aresponse2.blogspot.com/2013/09/it-should-be-new-day.html

IT SHOULD BE A NEW DAY (IN MEMORY OF Martin Luther King)

“We all stood - amidst this brotherhood of humanity - rapt with attention as King told of his dream of an America where his four little children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  Martin Luther King.

What a powerful phrase. It should replace the tired worn, “we shall overcome”, rhetoric of the past. Why are there not thousands of voices condemning the continuation of a fight against those who would continue a fight in anger when achievement in harmony would be so much better? The blame of failure to succeed lies within the individual and those who instill beliefs of blame upon others.”  (Huffington Post)

King’s words are revered today as a battle cry.  Not the words about character (they would be pointing the finger in an unpopular direction) but the call to overcome unfairness. We have too many churches, learning institutions and politicians clinging to the injustices of the past rather than the possibilities of the future.  

If an honest appraisal of our race problems in the United States were to be taken, one would have to admit to great movements toward equality in most areas of our society.  We hear only about how badly we mistreat our African American populace and other people of color.  This is in fact true, but the reasons are most likely not due to prejudice.

We continue to hear about the disproportionate numbers in regards to unemployment, incarceration, conviction rates and income.  We get bombasted with media hype about how Latinos and African Americans are viewed as dangerous by the rest of us.  About how we view them as incapable of holding higher paying jobs.  Once again there is truth in those statements, but the reasons are most likely not entirely due to prejudice. The responsibility for curing social illnesses is one we all bear each and every day.  If we as individuals do nothing to make our neighbors existence on this planet better, then we are failing both them and ourselves.  As a society, we need to start treating cause rather than blaming the symptoms on someone else.

Martin Luther King’s dream consisted of an uplifting of his people into a place where their character replaced color as criteria for equality or inequality.  There can be no denial of his character or the character traits that he propagated within his community.  Whether or not he would be happy with the advances we have made regarding racial equality is not the question.  Would he be promoting the anger, the resentment and the entitlement mentality?   I don’t think so.  He was a person who accepted his responsibility as a leader and acted in that manner.

We no longer have that many heroes in our society who promote good behavior, a high ethical standard and the Good Samaritan attitudes that I was privy to in my formative ages.  The Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidys have all been replaced.  Heroes expounding the feats required to overcome evil are at a minimum, while being replaced by examples of a more dubious nature.  Our young people are in an atmosphere constant input from those outside their immediate influence.  This is not limited to any one ethnic group but spreads across all boundaries within our country.  Our society is what the majority holds sacred in its cumulative beliefs, ethical sensitivities and whatever seems popular. 

Character is only relevant to now, in the new society, not what was or what may be a better for the individual in fact.  Age old mores of value are being eroded by the constant waves of anger, mistrust and feelings of being denied, the “you owe me because I exist”, perks of life.  It is as if the past descriptions of morality and respect for others have been replaced in the new heroes with the attitudes promoted by gangsta rappers, shock entertainers, anarchists, rebels, violent videos.  It is no longer an “in thing” to be a law abiding, hardworking, responsible young adult who works toward achieving successes in their life.

The society and country we are to be exists in the nourishment we provide the minds of our children.  It rests upon each of our shoulders to insure the quality of character that will enhance the beliefs of the future in a positive manner.  All people of all groups within our great country have the responsibility of positive example, remembering that we are all members of the family we call humanity.

CONSEQUENCES

The ugliness of unintended consequence twists its way into our collective lives.

 Ignorance of the future caused by today’s actions are all around us.  As a society, we have mistakenly condoned, as parents we have fueled, and as educators we have failed, and as leaders we have given permission to act out.  In our country "We the People” have the right to dissent, to disagree and to enact change.  As a society, we have given permission to act out however we want.  We have given permission for rappers the right to spew out profanities, race baiters to embolden age old hatreds and politicians the right to lie and educators the right to instill personal bias into the minds of children.  It’s little wonder that we find ourselves at the precipice of anarchy.

The new face of ignorance, fueled by anger and intended manipulation, is one of death.  Under the guise of justified right and permission we are watching a small percentage of our society rip our way of life from the rest of us.  We are not alone receiving the ill effects instilled hatred, prejudices and indoctrination.   On the World’s stage we can see the results of century’s old indoctrination and implied permission.  No one with any degree of civilization would condone any of the horrors perpetrated by those hiding behind the mask of Islamic jihadism.  In the same manner’ no member of our society with any knowledge of right and wrong would condone the murder of law and order.  Unfortunately, we face another result of unintended consequence.  Our society has given permission and our media has magnified the voice of those promoting the rise of anarchy.

As individuals, each of us acts out our lives according to our beliefs the best we know how.  It is almost impossible to act against what we truly believe.  Our beliefs are what give basic permissions to act in one way or the other. The appearance of agreement from other people simply re-enforces that permission.  In some cases, in which society wants to bring awareness to a situation, in order to bring about change, the act of magnification continues long after awareness has been achieved.  The use of violence to promote social change comes out of an ignorance of the law of cause and effect.  Sometimes what we have been taught, what we perceive and what we believe are blatantly wrong.  If those we continue to learn from are affected by the same ignorance, we will continue to act out in ways that are going to cause a detrimental effect.  Violence may change action but it is never going to change belief.

The results of historical blame are something we all have to live with but not always entirely justified.  Our collective belief focuses on the bad and the ugly while ignoring factual truth in its entirety.  There is no doubt in our collective memory that bad things occurred between white and black historically.  We are already aware of that.  Anger, riots and killings are not going to make our society more aware.  The unintended consequence is not the creation of repair but the ugliness of confirming and affirming justification for new fears.  If you want someone to trust you and to listen to your viewpoints, smashing them in the face is not going to advance your point of view.  Think about what you are doing and don’t maintain an ignorance of result.

Infusion of hatred is not going to have a desired effect, nor is the injection of fear and mistrust.  Recognizing why someone is angry and hateful is not going to have the effect of cure.  Effecting a correction entails a lot more than explaining the “why”.  Shouting the “why” from the rooftops has a corresponding unexpected result.  The result is increasing the feelings of mistreatment and the search for revenge.  Politicians today in their divisive rhetoric give permission to everyone to show their worst.  Instead of speaking about positive correction, they speak on how one side is against the other.  That understanding of why they act badly sometimes appears as permission to continue with the bad activity.  Understanding why you are smashing me in the face doesn’t give you the right to help correct your form of communication. To change the direction, we need to understand each other; to change interaction between both sides; and wanting improvement.  To have a positive effect requires positive action.  The law of cause and effect is universal and is absolute.  If I act out of fear and misunderstanding the result is predetermined by cause and effect.  Anger is not a positive fuel, violence is not a positive fuel and as such their effect is bad for us all.

Recognizing fault is easy unless it lies on our own shoulders.  It’s always easier to see when we are looking away.  Like it or not, if we look to the common sense of proverbs the unintended consequence of looking at the “log in your own eye before the splinter in the other person’s eye” is one of positive action and correction.  If you want to fix a problem, be brave enough to ask yourself, are you partially responsible for it in the first place?

Pray for our country and our people for understanding of the truth.

God Bless America

HONESTY, TRUTH,and STUFF

It’s easy to define honesty and easy to define truth and sometimes difficult to distinguish between them.  Stuff is a lot harder to catch ahold of as most often it will contain components of the other two active nouns.   Easy differentiation between honesty and truth can easily be determined.  Honesty is simply those things that one sincerely believes in, while truth is based solely on those things that can be factually proven.  Stuff, on the other hand is harder to trap in any sort of specific definition.  Stuff can be part of an actual belief and will most generally contain some smidgen of truth.  The truth portion is included and serves the purpose of one thing, to make it credible.  We see all three of these things on a daily basis. Some are obvious, some are not.  One thing you can be positive about and that is stuff is going to be hidden, insidiously, inside statements containing a bit of the truth item.  Sometimes this occurs honestly.

The use of propaganda is nothing new.  Human beings have used this pretty much since the beginning of time.  I can even see biblical inference to that as far back as Cain when he threw the misdirected curve “am I my brother’s keeper”?  History has illuminated propaganda’s use of stuff during wartime, sometimes for good results sometimes for ill. Our society is being greatly affected by this practice, some of us are aware of it coming from every direction and the effectiveness of it is apparent.  The strength brought to our nation for the last two and one half centuries is that of a strong cable formed of innumerable individual strands.  United we stand has been more than just a motto it has been a glue that has helped our nation become one of the strongest, most inventive, most generous and free of any nation throughout history.  Our national unity, the cable, is and has been taken apart a strand at a time.  The methodical erosion, seductively employed by political factions and ideologies to separate us into easily swayed groups, has been hastened by news media, educators, zealots and the inherent laziness of those who honestly accept stuff without truth.

For the majority of us, the news media has been our source of gathering data.  Unfortunately, this source is no longer reliable as a provider of truth.  We can no longer base decisions on what we read or what we hear as being factual and complete.  We are led to believe, by a form of mass manipulation, by conspiracy theories, the stuff behind agenda as being honest and true.  We need to start thinking for ourselves. We need to examine those things which we honestly believe to be true.  We need to follow through in order to find truth, follow that with honest logic and we need to take the time to get it right.  We need to ask: “what is the underlying agenda to what we are being led to believe and does it pass the smell test?”  We also need to be honest with ourselves.  Asking: “what is my own personal agenda?” How much truth or how much stuff is in my honesty?  Finally, what is the possible motivation or agenda behind that which we are being asked to believe?

There are so many points of dissention bombarding us on a daily basis it would be really difficult to pinpoint what is most important to us as individuals.  Without a doubt, somethings are at a critical mass in each of our individual list of topics.  Thanks to the ease of disbursing stuff, we seem to be at each other’s throats.  It is increasingly simple to create a state of mass dissatisfaction inside a population in pain due to a large number of causes.  Most of us are affected and influenced emotionally by terrorism, unemployment and those things we deem as unfair to ourselves and or others.  We all are aware of what the other guy should do to make things better. We all know what he has done to put us in those terrible situations.  We of course stand alone, blameless in our “honest” assessment of reality.  If you or anyone else presents something to you on a topic in the sake of your own honesty, put it through the sifter of truth. 

We are witness to the results of an anger based on partial truths, on discoloration of fact and the opportunistic advancement of agendas that are dangerous to all of us.  How much anger will it take to give anarchy the home field advantage?  If you are to believe that law enforcement has an agenda of causing harm to you, your neighborhood, your race or your religion, find the facts and the truth that supports your beliefs.  If you believe that a war being declared on law enforcement is justified, that physical confrontation and the use of violence are justified, it’s time to check out your moral compass.  If you believe that the NBP movement’s involvement is a positive part of the Black Lives Matter movement, you need to have a look at the real agenda and approaches used by the New Black Panther group.  If you think anti-white, anti-police rhetoric is not agenda driven, an agenda of making some self-promoting demagogue appear relevant, you need a dose of logic.  You should be looking at the historical, not just to see what has happened in the past, but to the motivations behind those shoveling stuff in your direction.  Ask yourself, what do they want, what are they willing to do to get it, is what they are really after good for me and my family? 

Police are not all perfect, our nation is not perfect and neither you nor I are perfect.  The majority of our society wants what is best, not just for ourselves but for our neighbors.  One of the Judeo-Christian precepts is that we love our neighbor as ourselves.  One of the parables used to clarify that command was that of the “good Samaritan”.  In this parable the Samaritan sought out and provided the means to heal a Jewish traveler after he had been beaten by thieves.  In historical context, Jews and Samaritans did not like each other and both nations acted out prejudicially.  Sound familiar? Who is your neighbor, I ask that he have no color, and as for race we are all the same, human.  

God bless our country and our people and please heal our nation.  Pray for our country.

I WANT TO HEAR YOU

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in full pandering mode, announces that she is going to do everything she can “to make white Americans listen to their African American brothers.”  Wow, that statement is sure to get the full support of those voters in her camp already.  The large majority of our society has already listened to the anger, the resentment and all the racial divisive rhetoric spewing forth from the mouths of our politicians.  As for that large majority, we don’t need to be lectured but we do need to be able to have a legitimate conversation.

If we were to look at our societal relationships, all of the different components that we have been divided into by the political factions, this country appears to be badly fractured.  If these were relationships between individuals, say in a marriage, those relationships would probably be terminated.  There is one thing that might keep those marriages together and that is strong mutual purpose.  We, as Americans, have that purpose. Unlike individual relationships we cannot be directed in to the process of mediation or escape through any sort of dissolution or divorce.  We do not all have the interests of our mutually created children to give us the impetus to repair all the mistrust, the false perceptions and all the past history confronting that process.

In that state of anger, the individuals involved do require the ability and the desire to listen to the other side of the argument.  Any of us who have ever been in a heated argument are very aware as to the difficulty involved in the activity of listening when you are being hit over the head with a frying pan.  In the aftermath of the Dallas assassinations, I have to direct my own attention to the perceptions created by some narrative that brings the problem of race relations into the headlines once again.  There are certain beliefs that I myself hold at my core.  I believe that most of us in our society have similar beliefs.  We care about sustaining our own lives; we care about our own personal safety; and we care about our personal reputations.  We as individuals care about those things and so do people in other neighborhoods. If we all care about those things, where does all the disturbance and distrust stem from?

For all segments of our society it is really difficult to form bonds of trust with someone or something that wants you to trust them at the same time they are threatening you.  The minorities in our country are nervous, mistrusting and fearful of Anglos and police due to past history.  Police and Anglos are on the direct reverse of that coin.  Both sets of fear have some basis but in reality those basis are only partially justified.  I say partially because in absolutely none of those cases can any of the groups honestly tar and feather everyone in the other groups.  Walking a mile in the other guy’s moccasins does not mean there is no mud on that particular footwear, or on the ones you were wearing.

In the case of “Black Lives Matter”, I can understand the need to draw attention to a situation and viewpoint. Surrounded with cause, that violence against young men in the Black community by law enforcement needs to be in check.  Very few in law enforcement feel that ones’ skin color is a reason for taking a person’s life.  That is the voice of reason, but the voice of fear is also in play.  The tension playing out, black vs. blue, is part of the effect and cause relationship and that is where our sensible conversation should be focused.  While the young black man may fear for his life at the hands of a police officer, the police officer has a justifiable fear as well. Like it or not the slogans of “kill a cop”, “pigs in a blanket”, and knowing that a target has been openly placed on your back could lead to fearful reactions.  No matter how much training an officer goes through his basic instinct is to stay alive.  I’m sure that any reasonable person would understand the apprehension behind confronting young black males when the showing of weapons and attitude predominate a neighborhood.  That does not grow out of prejudice.

Black Lives Matter as a statement is great, as a battle cry and as a call to arms it is extremely dangerous.  To create a war where discussion and understanding could actually be a solution seems counterproductive.