WHERE HAVE YOUR MOCCASINS BEEN

 

The adage, usually attributed to our indigenous brothers, was actually written by Mary Lathrop in the 1870’s because of her contact with various tribes during her ministry.

https://jamesmilson.com/about-the-blog/judge-softly-or-walk-a-mile-in-his-moccasins-by-mary-t-lathrap/

“Walk a mile in his moccasins” is meant to instill temperance in our understanding of those we may disagree with or whom we simply don’t understand. Imagining ourselves in the circumstance of others, will result in a position of trust rather than one of fear.  In today’s climate, of separation and divisiveness we have allowed our society to be on the verge of social cannibalization.  Rather than seek commonality we tend to magnify that which we reject and fear.  Long before Ms. Lathrops poem reached its final stanza, some 1800 years had passed since Christ first instructed us, through his parables: “Let he, who is without sin cast the first stone cast the first stone” and Judge not lest ye be judged.” 

This seems to elicit the boundaries of common sense, you would think, but not so fast Pilgrim (in keeping with the moccasin suggestion).  We apparently feel more normal when we have opponents.

We would do better, as individuals and as a herd, if we understood each other better.  To accomplish understanding we need to listen rather than speak.  You might even ask yourself to recall how many times you experienced and felt the dismissive rejection of being ignored.  

As adults it’s to easy to recall the feelings of being told, as a child, to be quiet because you were unable to contribute anything substantial in reality.  Fortunately, some of us escape that syndrome and actually attempt to bring us together into a unified effort to move toward a common good.  

Christ again supports the moccasin adage with his commandment to “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. That also creates a problem because many of us use other people’s perceptions to measure our own self-worth.  It really doesn’t take too many sour opinions, of how your moccasins have made you appear to others, for the seeds of doubt about yourself to grow.  (This is not all bad because it has allowed many, in the profession of psychiatry and counseling, to feed themselves and their family.) So all of the above can be capsulated into, I don’t really like or trust me so much so I probably don’t like and trust you so much.  I can justify that because you, don’t act, or look, or think, or dress, like anyone I am familiar with.  Mix that with all the outside influence, of what other folks have said about you, our relationship will be adversarial. 

The fact of the matter is that judging by hearsay leads to what may be false beliefs fueled by gossip rather than truth.  That fact holds true for relationships with others and with ourselves. 

There is a lot to be said in favor of pragmatic thought going into the decisions that influence our lives.  It’s kind of like the difference between walking on solid ice or on the water that made the ice possible.

Once we understand that our moccasins have taken us, (me), on a path filled with a multitude of different experiences and that path has led me to now, we are closer to understanding the other moccasins resident.

Understanding the path, we ourselves followed doesn’t imply that we will like ourselves any better but it gives us the opportunity to accept ourselves where we are in the now and remain the same or allows us to understand and change those things that will enhance that acceptance.

So what advantage is there in walking a mile in the other guys moccasins?  It gives us a closer to fact basis about him, (or her), for our basic fight, flight, or freeze form of action.  We as individuals need to be prudent and use intelligence when choosing our course of agreement with others.  There are times when things are not as they seem no matter how much we would like them to be.  It is our own individual responsibility to practice discernment in our search for agreement.

PRAY UNCEASINGLY ON ALL THINGS AND LISTEN FOR GODS RESPONSE, HIS VOICE MAY COME AS A WHISPER

STOP DIGGING...

 SADNESS… STOP DIGGING

I remember, growing up the image of digging a hole deep enough to pop us out in the country of China. Well, it looks like we’re almost there.  Unfortunately, many of us who like our country, the USA, have allowed the diggers to bury us beneath a pile of their dirt.  We can plead, we can argue, we can vote and we can attempt to have our voices heard, but we have allowed the diggers to take our voices away.  One of the reasons the diggers have put us in such a deep hole is due to the utter complacency, thinking our lives and our system of freedom under the law, was too beautiful to be taken down. We became vulnerable instead of vigilant.  Through tunnel vision and our focus on providing along with the search for success, we failed at what we needed to preserve.

There are reasons the people from around the world have wanted to come to our country, legally and illegally, and none of those reasons included the opportunity to become slaves, to starve, or to stay stagnant in their position in society. People came by the millions from all corners of the earth just for the opportunity to join the experiment of a new type of government.  They took part in the creation of a society where the individual could achieve self-fulfillment and income through their own effort and abilities. They took part in banding together as one unified people to wage conflict to maintain those freedoms in the face of enemies with-in and with-out.  That was a lot easier when our enemies were not afraid to show themselves.  Not so today.

Our society has been likened to that of a stew-pot filled with all nationalities, cultures, colors, and belief structures and because of all those ingredients and flavors the stew was and is magnificent. 

Shamefully in the last fifty years or so we have allowed poisons to be sprinkled into that stew.  As in the bible we have allowed the thief, dressed in the mask of deceit, to transform our society, our government, our entertainment, and our educational and information outlets.  Dressed in the shiny cloak of making our people more acceptable and of a higher moral standard, than those who came before, we have become a divided nation no longer blended in unity.

Rather than actually being at a higher standard, many have decided that we are arrogant and proud, therefore fitting into the hierarchy as a leader of improvement we should lower our standards of example and move behind.  One of our former leaders actually promoted “leading from behind” as a model for our country.  To my way of thinking that’s much the same as saying, don’t take a plane to “where-ever” take the donkey.

Those who think that a new World Order is what we should aspire too, are the diggers of that deep hole.  I ask the question… why should we go backward?  The New World Order concept reminds me of one I’ve read about before, I think it was in Genesis and it involved a tower or something, look it up.

Wake up folks and recognize those who are digging us deeper and deeper into failure as a society.  Recognize that partial truth is the same as any other lie and the thief has used that same device since the onset of time.

Remember that the “Good Samaritan” did not lay down beside the man wounded by robbers, he lifted him up and took him to a place where he could heal and get better.  We can not help any other nation or people by laying down, only by lifting them up.

GOD BLESS AMERICA…  PRAY FOR OUR PRESIDENT, OUR PEOPLE, AND LOVE NOT HATE.

HELP HEAL

 

 BLACK LIVES MATTER…

Great bumper sticker, great blame game rally cry, great for finger pointing, but not valid as a weapon.  As a society glued to our media sources, we are being led to the sacrificial alters of color and wealth discrepancy baiters.  I am in total agreement that Black Lives Matter but there is more to it than just being a biased trigger that further separates us from one another.

We have all sorts of wealth hoarders in our country that kneel, before the alter mentioned above, as esteemed members of our professional sports heroes, our political government members, our media and entertainment guru’s that look at every opportunity to appear better morally than the rest of us.  Granted a number of the top 5% of the wealth owners in our country are very generous toward all of humanity, but how many focus on the discrepancies in our own society?  How many of them are really trying to improve the conditions that they blame other folks for causing.

The current blame name-calling on our society white privilege and systemic racism rank #1 and #2 as the cause for lack of employment opportunity; poor access to good education; homelessness; little or no access to home residence; low income; unfair law enforcement practices; unequal racial incarcerations, etc.. Probably some truth in that view point but perhaps the finger is being pointed in the wrong direction. It seems that most of this will  take money to correct, some take congressional action and some need the local governments to do their job.  None of the solutions are really affected by race but by inaction.

Political decisions in the past have been to merely throw money at the causes of the fear, the causes of the lack of schooling, opportunity and jobs go unattended.  Jobs will not be readily available in the neighborhoods that children help provide food by being in gang families.  People will be afraid of gangs and those who dress and act like gang members.  Jobs will not be available as an escape as long as those children of a good high school education.

That’s where standing up and taking positive action comes into a solution.  The act of kneeling instead of respecting our flag and our country, gives you sports heroes a chance to affect young minds' opportunity to respect something other than the neighborhood boss.  Petitioning the local governments to allow school choice rather than buying union votes is a solution that you as local heroes could have a large impact on those neighborhoods that suffer the lifetime loss of the self-pride that knowledge can provide. 

The use of your dollars to help start new and help the existing neighborhood businesses.  I’m sure that you folks who are so involved with creating change in the attitudes of everyone else can think of hundreds of ways to bring the oppressed out of their miserable conditions.

Rather than promote the feelings of fear regarding law enforcement you might try some of the above ways of using your wealth to create opportunities.  A large portion of the systematic racism that affects our society is a result of fear of the unknown response we are prone to expect.  When some of us interpret our world through color, the word some is translated as all.

When most people encounter a young man covered in tattoos, pants worn with waistlines well below the cheeks of buttocks and talking with street language most will not expect good.  Law enforcement personnel are the same way we don’t imagine that having lunch or dinner with them.  You who are looked up to as role models and men and women to emulate due to your abilities in sports and the dollars you bank or spend have a great opportunity to help a lot of our population, not fear those who are different.  You have a chance to contribute to change not just awareness.  You have an opportunity to create minds that look at all the facts not just the tragedies that do occur.  You have an obligation to help create the changes we need as a society.  We all respect your abilities, help us respect each other.

God Bless our country, our people, and our first responders.

COLOR ME HUMAN (C) Ron Burres

I SEE A LOT OF THEM IN THE NEWS AND ON THE TV.  THEY JUST DON’T SEEM TO SEE THINGS THE SAME AS ME

THEY SEE HATRED AND ANGER WHERE EVER THEY LOOK

WHEN I LOOK OUT AT THE WORLD THIS IS WHAT I SEE

I SEE CHILDREN SINGING WITH JOY IN THEIR VOICE

I SEE PARENTS LOVING GIVING LIFE AS THEIR CHOICE

I SEE BLINDNESS OF COLOR IN THE MAKING OF MAN

 I SEE SAMENESS IN ALL, JUST THE ONE RACE… HUMAN

LOOKING AHEAD

FUTURE HEADLINE: Two Texas law enforcement offers escaped assassination when 911 dispatched social worker and anger management professional to handle a domestic dispute situation. Luckily no police personnel were harmed when the homeowner unleashed a barrage of gunshots as the social workers approached the door. Thankfully only the social worker and the anger management professional were killed in this engagement.

We are watching an interesting social experiment play out right on our TV screens our phones and our computers. We get to watch what happens when millions of people quietly seethe and do nothing to stop the madness. We get to see first hand how a few people with loud voices can frighten a much larger group into submission. We can watch as the few take over our municipal, state, and federal bureaucracies without one shot being fired. Whoops that last statement wasn’t quite accurate.

FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND RESULTS ARE IN

CHICAGO: 87 SHOOTINGS; 63 WOUNDED; 14 KILLED, included in those killed were an 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.

NEW YORK: 39 PEOPLE SHOT; 3 DIED; PLUS 13 STABBINGS

ATLANTA: 24 SHOOTINGS; 4 DEATHS, one of which was another 8 yr old child

WASHINGTON D.C.: 6 SHOOTINGS; 3 DEATHS

PHILIDELPHIA: 17 SHOOTINGS; 2 MINORS DEAD

YOU GET

 Just a thought...... We get what we let happen with our silence!

I consider myself to be one of the large silent majority that shows up when it’s time to vote but makes sure no-one can know what they really think.  We are now reaping the costs of our silence over the last six decades.  We have allowed our country to be infiltrated, allowed our educational system to deteriorate, have allowed our children to be indoctrinated, allowed our country’s internal history to be twisted and contorted. 

The bible tells us “You reap what you sow” but if you don’t sow anything you will be overrun with weeds.  Our silence has led to the current state of anarchy and we have allowed our crop and our children to be transformed from the crop we wanted to field upon field of poison ivy. 

It is sad that we have allowed our Judeo-Christian desires to be good stewards of our planet:  love our neighbors, take care of our poor and those in need, to be used to be twisted into the mess we experience today.  We have allowed good to extrapolate into a back door into our society that seeks to transform our nation into something that Marx and Lenin could only dream of. 

In multiple quests for personal power and wealth our body politic has been changed from “for the good of country” into how do I get votes.  We have watched politicians buy votes with perks for every different faction our people can be splintered into.

These past few years we have allowed targets to be put on the entire law enforcement contingent and have labeled them with stigma of being racist.  We have placed racism at the top of the list for what our country represents and we have allowed this to happen in our silence.  We have allowed enemies of our society in our educational system to indoctrinate our children while eliminating education regarding the growth and transformation of our country from the time of Columbus and the pilgrims, through wars to gain our country’s freedom. Wars to keep our allies free, WWI and WWII.  We have seen one of our deadliest and costliest war fought on our soil to eliminate the practice of slavery ; a war that led to the assassination of President Lincoln.

These past few weeks we have watched and heard our news media report on the revolution of anarchy that is taking advantage of the moment. 

The movement of “Black Lives Matter” as a legitimate message proponent has been infected by the weeds of anarchy.  The racist actions of a few personnel that led to the BLM movement, has cost the lives of many law enforcement individuals of all colors, races, and creeds.  Many of these men and women were assassinated simply because of their occupation as protectors of our neighborhoods. 

The pathway to a better place as a country will not be attained through hatred, anger and distrust.  It will not be achieved through teaching our children to fear each other because of color or belief.  It will not be achieved with silence and inaction.  It will not be achieved as long as we allow our nation to be governed by power seekers who maintain their positions in government by false promise and verbal manipulation.

 It will most definitely not be achieved through silence and the blind eye of indifference.

It is time for the “Silent Majority” to make their voice heard at the ballot box, make their voices heard throughout the media world, and to take back the education of our children.

GOD BLESS THOSE WHO SERVE OUR COUNTRY AND NOT THEMSELVES

TIME TO RESPOND

After months of trying not to drive myself, my friends, my family, around the bend with all the things and subjects the can push me over the edge....there are too many things cluttering up my mind so here I am again.  Right off the top I can list a few subjects that act as a motivator for my ire.

     The continuation of the 2016 Presidential hate Trump agenda;

     The promotion of Socialistic tenants throughout our educational system;

     Party politics instead of the legislative branch doing what their oath of office requires, working to        achieve what our country needs;

     The erosion of ethics and morality in our society; and on and on and on adinfinitum*.

     More than enough subjects not mentioned that will make my yadayadyada  continue for years to          come.

and it seems that the same old anti-Trump verbiage from 2016 returns for the 2020 fiasco to come.

COLOR ME HUMAN (C) RonBurres

I SEE A LOT OF THEM IN THE NEWS

AND ON THE TV

THEY JUST DON’T SEEM TO SEE THINGS

THE SAME AS ME

THEY SEE HATRED AND ANGER WHERE EVER THEY LOOK

WHEN I LOOK OUT AT THE WORLD

THIS IS WHAT I SEE

I SEE CHILDREN SINGING WITH JOY IN THEIR VOICE

I SEE PARENTS LOVING GIVING LIFE AS THEIR CHOICE

I SEE BLINDNESS OF COLOR IN THE MAKING OF MAN

I SEE SAMENESS IN ALL

JUST THE ONE RACE

HUMAN

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.

USA BAD, BAD DOGGIE

USA   "BAD, BAD, DOGGIE

Racism, bigotry and prejudice are all part of the mantra behind the current display of anti-American discourse in the kneeling protest movement occurring in what used to be the NFL and is moving into the NBA.  It’s not like our society hasn’t been hammered these last few years, with the narrative that our country is bad to the bone.  The phrase “dog whistle” is predominantly used as a slur used to describe conservative speech but almost never recognized in the march of liberal, progressive demonstrations. 

Race baiting has almost reached the level of being an acceptable means of gaining income and relevance.  In order to sway public sentiment and gain political power, using the shout of victimization due to color is an acceptable part of our society.  Justification for this claim is not without validity. When the history of our country is looked at in the long term, the propaganda used to promote the ideology pitting color against color, advantage vs. victimization is the loudest bark on our planet.   

We all translate our environment through the veil of our individual belief systems, and because of this our responses can be manipulated by feeding our beliefs with false information. Fear is one of the most basic motivators and is also the most easily manipulated by rumor and outright falsehood.  There is a reason that the tablets presented to Moses on that mountain included the commandment Thou shalt not bear false witness.” (http://arbeeresponds2.blogspot.com/2016/11/force-fed-fear.html)  

The “take a knee” demonstrations are a direct result of the actions of such groups as the “Black Lives Matter”, “Antifa” and those promoted on various websites that help organize demonstrations designed to weaken our cohesive society.  The basis for these promotions are not altruistic nearly so much as they are part of the decades old battle between our free national concepts and socialistic and communistic ideologies.  Typical partial truths mixed with complete fabrications are the weapons of choice in the longest continual war endured by our country.  The technique of dividing the herd into smaller, weaker groups and spreading the fear of victimhood has spread across our nation thanks to groups like the Soros funded “Move on dot org”.  

I am fully aware of the sins of our fathers in regards to slavery, racial inequality and outright heinous forms of hate filled activity against our brothers of color.  I have to be honest in my assessment of the differences between then and now.  We are not the same society that incited the War fought against slavery and the American lives lost, primarily in the “white” populace.  We are not the society that segregates our people into the factions of “white privilege” and victimized “oppressed” colored citizens. The narrative that has been promoted regarding law enforcement, broad brushed, has appealed to those who have learned that being Black in our country is a condition with no real hope.  Race baiting politicians have helped to promote the idea that law enforcement is infected with bigoted, racists who set out to arrest and/or kill those of the colored community.  This belief has spread and has been used by the BLM movement which in turn has put a target on all of law enforcement.  That belief has no more validity than the beliefs that deny the HOPE that our country and our federal republic was founded on.  Blame narrative has put the plight and the blight of many neighborhoods as the result of white oppression when in fact the actual blame spreads across privileged and “victimized” all. 

Societies are living breathing organisms. If a large enough number of individual cells become infected, the entire organism suffers.  Our country is in great distress infected by divisive that divide this once united population.  A society that is divided by the narrative denying the move away from segregation in our country, denying our majority desire to be a cohesive mutually respectful society, becomes an easy prey for predators. The individual person is defined by what they believe and how they act in accordance with their belief systems.  Our society is the same with one exception and that is that the society is reactionary to the loudest noise and in some cases the most physically threatening groups, believed or not.

In the recent history of our society we have watched, mostly in silent apathy, the loss of many things we once wound our individual threads into a rope of strength.  Through the activity of social engineering we have suffered through attacks on Christian values and traditional moral and ethical constraints.  We have been a society sitting, as a whole, allowing our educational system to change us into a flock of sheep that no longer hold our country in esteem.  The push to remove staples of our society such as the “Pledge of Allegiance”, standing for our national anthem, the right of the individual to pray or even mention God.  The list goes on and on.  We are rapidly becoming a group of individual victims of circumstance, people who have to accept a position of not having any hope.  Instead of accepting any bit of self-reliance or responsibility. We no longer allow competition, score keeping, grading systems, free speech, as we rapidly move toward the infection of sameness.  Misinterpreting individual rights into the mantra “I deserve everything you have, regardless of my abilities and my effort to achieve” and if I don’t get the same things I am a victim. 

A note to the kneeling NFL and NBA millionaires:  What are you doing to help?  Are you a positive part of the answers to correct the poverty, the drug use and sales, the loss of business, the poor educational services, the indoctrinated hatreds and mistrust, the lack of hope and the vision of success.  Perhaps your present act of dissent is more detrimental than helpful.

PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY.. GO TO YOUR KNEES IN PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION.. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.

You might take the time to check out your belief system.

http://library.mtsu.edu/tps/Soldier_Lives.pdf ; https://youtu.be/lxaKUo5naoY   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxaKUo5naoY 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3d2_1451242991#XIfETKQXKv1Qgfwl.99   http://www.slamjamwbc.org/

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/airline-couldnt-help-sick-child-so-donald-trump-came-to-the-rescue/

WE WERE WARNED

WE WERE WARNED

I decided to change my routine this morning, I started to read in the New Testament.  Trying to break my usual input of politics and the study of current sociological malfeasance I denied my urge to turn on the usual media outlets.  Within the first three chapters of Mark I read the words of Jesus as he explained the inability to survive as a divided entity. 

Mark chapter 3:24-27  ²⁴ How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. ²⁵ And if a household is divided against itself, that household can never last. ²⁶ Now if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot last either -- it is the end of him.

Those words have survived for centuries but it seems that we as a society have ignored that warning when it comes to our own nation.

Abraham Lincoln: America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. 

Nakita Kruschev: We will bury you and 'We shall destroy you from within'. Words within the context of defeating our capitalistic democratic philosophy and our society through the use of words rather than physical warfare. 

A historical Syrian adage “The word is mightier than the sword” has proven itself time and time again throughout our species history.  The use of words has been used as a prop for ideological propaganda to gain great success.  That success as far as benefit, is only in regard to effectiveness, but more in terms of its resulting debris.  The debris left scattered throughout our world by well-spoken, persuasive tyrants, ie. Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro and a list of others promising answers to discomfort, is quite similar to the fate suffered by those mammals scurrying after the pied piper as they rushed toward their own demise.

Our society has discarded pragmatism in favor of idealism, unfortunately, while thinking we can run and leap, we are still just crawling and stumbling not yet able to personify our goal of perfection.  Mankind in its climb toward becoming more god-like, more merciful, kinder and gentler than the rest of those in various food chains has some of us denying the nature of our world.

It is difficult to understand why, after all the forewarning and historical lessons we, as a society, have allowed our country’s government and educators to drive us toward the edge of a suicidal jump from hope and promise. Just as our physical bodies require healthy nourishment our society requires beliefs that are pragmatically constructive to its healthy growth and survival.  We would never allow our heads to be severed from our bodies on the promise and arguments of a thief.  To our detriment we allow power grabbing politicians to lead us toward the removal of our base concepts of self-reliance, hope of achievement and trust in those who lead. 

More reading of the Book gives warning in the beginning chapters.  Evil is able to coerce with lies, partial truths and false promises.  The story of Eve being enticed to act against the best interests of mankind by the Snake gives us the warning…  Not all things that sound really good, are and care should be taken before accepting a free lunch without looking at it.

It would make sense to be prudent in our acceptance of most all things that sound too good to be true.  Nor are all things we hear regarding the ill intent and history of others are factual and true.  It makes sense that we learn to be individual thinkers that delve into the truth of what we see and hear.  We need to understand the motivation behind what is fed into our belief systems.  The “GIGO” principle in computer language and input is understood in the world’s languages, but somehow, ignored when we choose our own personal operating systems. 

SOURCE, PURPOSE, GOALS, COST, UNEXPECTED NEGATIVE RESULTS, HISTORICAL SUCCESS RATE, IS IT GOOD FOR YOU PERSONALLY, IS IT GOOD FOR THE DIRECTION OF OUR COUNTRY, IS IT GOOD FOR MANKIND AS A WHOLE, IS IT A STEP TOWARD OR IS IT AN END GOAL , and most importantly, WHAT WILL THE UNEXPECTED RESULTS BRING. 

These are a few of the things we should examine before we dump things into our belief systems, and our choice of actions.  The need for self-education is more important today than any other time in man’s history, due to the intense manipulation of the mass.  The use of propaganda is a very silent and insidious tool and we are seeing the effect of some 50 years of the infection of the educational, media and entertainment personal information systems available to our people, most particularly attacking those not yet in control, our children.  Pragmatism has been overturned in favor of social engineering and letting others determine what the highest purpose of the individual should be.  We complain about school yard bullying, about bullies that pick the weakest link in the social hierarchy then attack them verbally and physically.  Yet those same “I’m better than you” who condemn the young bully, will use the same well-honed techniques of shaming someone they disagree with.

Our nation is in danger of being overturned by our younger generation, those who feel disenfranchised, who have been taught that our system and our society are bad for mankind as a whole.  We see multiple generations of our society attacking a duly elected political administration, decrying a governing system that has provided the world with so many positive things.  The result is predictable if we allow it to continue.  We cannot reverse this march toward extinction as a political and social system by the use of force.  We need to use truth, honesty, and history.  The same methods need to be employed, we need to educate our young people, not abdication our responsibilities as adults.

Our country and our President are under attack by a media and backed up by public idols (actual or self-titled) who regurgitate false rumor and innuendo.  The same techniques used by the schoolyard bullies are used to stop any possible chance of success.

Pray for our country, our people, and our warriors.

May God bless us all.

HELP ME UNDERSTAND.. PLEASE

I'm really trying hard to understand why interpretation of our century's old language has been so scattered. It's as if the "tower of Babylon" is being revisited. When President Trump condemned ALL hatred, bigotry and racism, in the past that word ALL would have been inclusive, and would have included the White supremacists, the neo Nazi's. Why is that so difficult to understand. I am also trying to understand why those folks who objected, to those mentally deranged hate filled jerks, and arrived at the scene wielding baseball bats looking for a fight and getting it, shouldn't have been included in that word ALL. In context of that group vs group exhibition of hate there were also people in that park who came there to protest the "Nazi" like practice of erasing past histories. History that, if erased will undoubtedly be repeated due to a lack of awareness of consequence. Why is it ok to hate our President? I also fail to understand why the fact that I am a Christian conservative, who believes that hatred is a form of murder, that believes I have been directed to love my neighbor, that believes in forgiveness, that believes people can be changed, that believes in honesty and truth, Why should I, as a supporter of our President, be called a Fascist, a racist, a hater or be considered to be a bad person.🤔 Feel free to respond https://www.facebook.com/A-Response-2-by-Arbee.../

LIKE IT OR NOT... POINT YOUR FINGER AT

Wow.  We as a nation could not ask for a better chance to do some real soul searching.  That search should tender positive results for our nation, our society as a whole.  Will the lesson be squandered?  Most likely the answer is, probably.  Unfortunately the sad practice of playing the blame game will continue, the indoctrination of ideologies, the refusal to let go of past angers will foster more of what the mirror of Charlottesville could let us see. It seems pretty clear as to what the results of hatred and anger can be, but as to the real causes behind it all, put the blinders on because we don’t really want to see the why.  We miss the why because we always want to blame the other guy in lieu of seeing all sides of the matter, including our part (as in all contests) our side.

The majority, of the United States of America citizens, are aware of the hatred generated by indoctrination in the children of radical Islamists.  When we see Isis parents, pounding the bigotry of their beliefs into 4 and 5 year old children in order to ensure the survival of the ideology, the parents themselves show us the effects of indoctrination.  When we see the indoctrination of fears and hatreds being smeared upon the minds of our own children we are unable to see the correlation.  We are not born into this world in a state of fear, anger, and hatred.  Somebody has to teach us who to fear and hate.  We also have to be taught how to act and react to our targets.  That mental sickness, and the acceptance of it as normal makes it ok for me but not for you.  Indoctrination can be a very subtle force, and in most cases it is hidden by generations of repetition.  

In our own country this form of anti-(choose your poison) is turning our country into hundreds of small groups at odds with one another because of some injustice, real or perceived.  The United part of our society is unravelling at an exponential rate, fueled by the words of those who would see our country fail.  We as a society need to fall back on the adage, “United we Stand, divided we Fall”.  We as individuals need to take an honest hard look at the facts of our history, the actual results of our way of life, the progress our way of life has made in all forms of human endeavor.  Our growth has not always been pure and beautiful.  There have been some very ugly growing pains along the way and those need to be recognized to the same degree as are the successes.  We as a people need to be able to put our place in this time in perspective to where we have been, how we failed and how we succeeded.  Trying to erase the facts of both good and bad will not change where we are today but it will increase the probability of failure tomorrow. The above preamble takes me to the subject that prompted the following commentary from this plain and simple citizen of the United States of America.  What teachable possibilities have the violence in Charlottesville (8/13/2017) given us and what can we hope to change.

We need to stop accepting violence as a form of discourse for change.  We need to stop accepting partial truth as fact. We have to stop attributing the actions of a few to the all of other groups.  We need to accept and learn from our past.  We need to look for ways to effect change through the use of reasonable discourse.  We need to start acting like a society of adults rather than one comprised of toddlers.  We need to understand that forcing political correctness merely masks hatred, bigotry it doesn’t change those illnesses.  We need to embrace our differences at the same time as we recognize and respect the rights of one another to have different goals and beliefs.  I am quite sure that everyone has their own list, but as individuals we need to inspect our beliefs in the face of fact not fiction.

God Bless our Nation,

our warriors,

and our leaders.

Love your neighbor, and yourself.

Pray for peace and understanding.

Like it or not... HE'S RIGHT

CHARLOTSESVILLE, VIRGINIA… 8/13/2017… Who are we supposed to blame?

In a city, known for being a great place to be an American citizen, a clash occurred at a “White Nationalist” demonstration.  Once again our duly elected President can say or do nothing right.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides - on many sides,” Trump said.

Ted Cruz on his twitter feed: “It's tragic and heartbreaking to see hatred and racism once again mar our great Nation with bloodshed.”

President (past) Obama tweeted a quote from Nelson Mandela, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..."

In contrast to the facts, almost every report of this conflict  and Mr. Trumps reaction, no mention of the opposition of this demonstration is named, nor is the context of the Presidents condemnation of all those factions at play.

Some of the reality of this situation has been obscured in order to heighten the “anti-Trump”, anti-USA”, resistance movement talking point that Trump is a bad, bad, person.  The real causes involved in this sad part of our societies growth pain are basically what the President called out, bigotry and hatred.  Like it or not, Mr. Trump was right when he called those two sicknesses, hatred and bigotry, as being the basic causes behind  the rising fever of divisive conflict in our nation.

This demonstration was a objection to the removal of a segment of our history, a statue of Robert E Lee.  I am not a white nationalist but I disagree with the current pump up of political correctness.  The cheer leaders of this bastardization of our history include those groups which would pull our people into the mire of hatred.  The antifa group, a major part of the Resistance Movement, also arrived at this demonstration in a state of preparedness’ for conflict.  You will be hard pressed to find mention of this fact.  Once again, like it or not, President Trump was absolutely correct in saying many factions were at fault.

Hatred , bigotry, racism is being promoted by so many divisive components of our society and by those who would see our way of life, capitalism and democracy, fail and disintegrate.  Many say that the war in Afghanistan is our longest war, but that war has only been going on for a mere 15 to 16 years.  The propaganda war being waged on our country through propaganda, education and Medias has been conducted against us for some 60 years.  This “fifth column” is finally coming out into the open and its effect is catastrophic  and is evidenced by the almost complete division of our society since the Civil War. 

Like it or not, our President is 100% correct when he calls for our people to abandon hatred, when he calls for us to unite behind the tenants of our system of life, the one based on the merging and acceptance of the color race and creed of our neighbor.  Like it or not, as individuals, we need to look in the mirror and see if we have been infected by our national sickness.

Pray for our country, our people, and our President.

Pray for healing of our Nation

Pray for the elimination of all forms of hatred and bigotry.

GOD BLESS THE USA

RESPONDING TO RATHER

Remarkable.  The infamous Dan Rather penned a heartfelt editorial piece regarding what he sees as a pending calamity to our country.  He sees President Trump as the epitome of disaster, a viewpoint held by a vast number of our country’s citizens.  Using his credentials as a self-proclaimed Dr. of psychology, like so many others, he has proclaimed the POTUS to be paranoid and of “of questionable mental fitness.”

My response to his editorial has nothing to do with the past history of Mr. Rather's ideological bent towards creating false narratives to give credence to his beliefs.  I do, however, disagree with so many of the beliefs he has taken to heart and I will attempt to look at our state of division from a different point of view.

In the first paragraph, there were so many points of disagreement that I debated about wasting my time on an article so steeped in talking points, innuendo and propaganda.  The report, by the Truth Examiner,  also is worded as to create a colorful picture of reality.  To my point, “Trump’s paranoid accusations have taken Rather to his breaking point” is an example of spreading an attitude through innuendo.  Sometimes, in the scope of reality, that which seems to be paranoia has just perception as a foundation.  I do agree with parts of what Mr. Rather is putting forth in his essay and that is the point that our country is divided to the point of creating a danger to our citizens and to the very fabric of our country and our society.  We do not agree on the causation of this great divide.

Rather writes: “On one side we see understandable outrage, with many questioning the mental fitness of our Commander and Chief.”           

AR2: The outrage he is speaking of is understandable, not because it is based on facts but it is based and entrenched in many minds due to the practice of spreading fear through the media which Mr. Rather represents.  As citizens, we have become oblivious to the amount of mental manipulation foisted upon our societal mores on a daily basis.  Our perception of “what is” no longer depends on factual foundation but it is now formed by whatever the elite coastal P.C. police have decided is in our best interests.  The progressive religion of making the rest of us conform to what they perceive as being a higher moral standard.  This past political season has proven that not all of us are in agreement with that elite group.  My contention is this: that so-called “understandable outrage” is there but is based on false narrative.

Rather writes: We see Trump’s allies rallying under their shared hatred of our previous President.

AR2: The talking point trying to present the noticeable racially (fictional) hatred on the part of President Trump, and those of us who have been tagged as deplorable, racist, bigotted, ignorant and morally deficient, has no connection to the irrational policies of the previous administration.  Our disagreement with the previous administration is not due to racial color but to the policies and methods in play during that period of our history.

Rather writes: We do know that there were numerous contacts between close aides to Donald Trump and senior Russian officials at a time when all indications point that the Kremlin was actively trying to undermine the integrity of our election.

AR2: This is a pretty far stretch in the practice of innuendo.  That statement is clearly making the connection between any contact with Russian is tied to an attempt to influence the election process in favor of Mr. Trump.  This bit of unsubstantiated rhetoric has been widely promoted by the detractors of President Trump in the continued onslaught of political partisanship. There were contacts for sure but the why is most apt to be “because it was their job.”

Rather writes: It is long past time that we have a complete and independent bipartisan investigation, especially since the director of the FBI is under such a cloud of political manipulation. Now is the time to breathe the cool winds of impartiality and facts. We need statesmen of steady head and temperament willing to put country ahead of politics. We cannot afford for our democratic institutions to be consumed by a bonfire of lies, innuendos and conspiracy theories.

AR2:  So I have to admit, there is more than one part of the Rather commentary that I agree with, and the above statement is the other.  Although I agree with the need for an investigation, I am quite sure the outcome will not be what is expected by the progressive faction of our society.  The reason being is POTUS will be found to not be paranoid.

The recent flap regarding the possibility of wire-tapping the Trump campaign (denied by the Obama side) has been proven to have credibility.

http://thehayride.com/2017/03/video-mark-levin-goes-on-fox-friends-lays-out-the-proof-that-trump-was-surveilled/

 Trump’s error with his tweet was to say that Obama was the one behind the surveillance, when Obama may not have ordered the illegal wiretap of an Amerian citizen, he was made aware and he allowed it to occur.  Not good.

Seek truth, not validation.

God bless our country.  God bless and protect our President.  

God give us all the ability to discern fact from fiction.

MANIPULATED MADNESS

Just to get things straight, Mr. Trump, the news media is charged with giving us, the citizens of our country, the news about our government and its actions and misactions.  Their current displeasure with you for calling them out to be a bunch of deceiving lying miscreants has reached the heights of ranting and raving.  Similar to the craziness they have accused you of exhibiting, they are beside themselves with haughtiness and have joined ranks to force you into compliance with what used to be the norm.  They claim they have an absolute right to question you regarding your governmental actions, as well as anything personal, that may have an effect on our nation.  They are correct in that thought.  I am having a hard time finding any way to deny that right, as well as any record of you denying it.  Regarding the possibility of them lying, I am tempted to search out the meaning (of “what is is”).

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When started writing this it occurred that I should define some of the words I planned on using.  Since Mr. Trump is intent on calling the news folks “fake news” and labeling them as a danger to our country it seemed that I should find out for sure what the News should be.

Now, for myself, I thought the News would and should be something I could rely on for information.  If I, or anyone, were in a position of relying on the news as part of the decision-making process it should be fact based.  In searching the intimidable google for the definition of “news” the words “truth or fact” were not of the description.  This is not the definition of news that I expected to find as a part of journalism.  Like in every aspect of life there is something that has to be a part of any professional endeavor, even journalism, and that is ethics.  Ethically the use of objective, non-nuanced reporting is, and should be, a part of any reportage claiming to be a news report.  That degree of professionalism is sadly missing from most of the news media in action today.  I use the word action because by observation I have seen what I used to trust, morph into something I abhor.  It is no longer objective news that we are getting.  Instead, it is more like we are being subjected to a never ending barrage of mind swaying tone and chosen content.  It’s like deception and propaganda are now disguised as news.

Most of us in the general population don’t always get the nuance of our own written language, but those professionals who write the articles and especially the headlines are masters of creating a mental climate.  How many times are we attracted to an article by a headline that bears little or no semblance to the articles factual content?  It’s not the article that will stick in the minds of the quick scanning public, it is the idea pushed by the headline.  Is that lying? Questionable to be sure, but it is definitely misleading those who rely on it for information.

To read the headlines, and listen to the majority of the media outlets, Mr. Trump held a news conference in which he was totally out of control, ranting, raving and for some media personnel, he was mentally unhinged.  Now I have watched this news conference, the one in which he called out the media, and I just didn’t find the segment where this POTUS was deranged.  Could it be that the “HYPE” is on?  I heard numerous Senators, both Red and Blue stating that Mr. Trump was tyrannical and trying to silence the press, preventing them from holding him accountable.  I listened to the conference many times, and again I couldn’t find any support for that point of view.  Some even went so far as to claim him to be one of the most unAmerican Presidents of all time. Rubbish!

What Mr. Trump, our President, did say was that he relished the questions but what he objects to is the misleading coverage of his activity as POTUS.  I’m not sure how that position is that of a tyrant, a dictator or of someone ruling a third world country.  Which is just one more example of what he’s talking about.  If anyone is capable of reading, seeing or listening they would have to know that the media is very strong on giving us the impression the Trump is a buffoon, a power hungry miscreant intent on ruling the world as a king.  Unfortunately, there are many “fastnews” feeders that buy into the propaganda like faux news reporting.  There is a public mania within our population is being groomed, by every propaganda method known by the professional misleaders,  and it is designed to stop the “TrumpTrain” in its tracks.  We have politicians, entertainers, educators and our neighbors raising the level of fear much the same as those old lynch mob rabble rousers of the old west did.  All it takes is the small seed of rumor to start an avalanche of false information that is sucked up by our nation of Trump haters.  Those who would see our system of government and our productive society fail are gleefully stoking the fires of discontent and there is a large portion of our population willing to throw more gas on the fire.

There is no doubt that between the tweets and the ignored practice of politically correct “polititalk” used by the normal politician, Mr. Trump gives ample ammunition for his detractors.  Couple that with the hysteria created by the press and educators misleading use of our language, there is a great disservice being perpetrated upon our society and our nation.  Even that fact is being disguised as being evil name calling by our President.  It’s no wonder that a large portion of those demonstrating their Trump anger, have been motivated not by fact but what they have been led to believe. 

America, all of us need to start reading and hearing between the lines and noticing what is not being said as well as what is.  We need to start listening to what is said as well as watching the actions that are being taken.  We need to search out the facts rather than buying into the fertilizer that is being dumped on our perceptions.

Lord, Open the eyes and ears of our people and give them the gift of discernment.

God bless the U.S.A and our President