Parents..."Git a Grip!"

I don't know about some of these parents.  I was reading an article in the local newspaper on www.Gastongazette.com.  It was about a student named Ms. Amber Bolen, who was being “bullied” in her new school in Gaston County, NC. (http://www.gastongazette.com/news/bullying-51002-school-bolen.html ), and I thought to myself, "You have got to be kidding me. Where are these parents’ minds at?"  Which parents am I talking about?  Both...or all of the parents involved!  What in the world do you expect the schools to do while your children are running rampant around the school halls terrorizing and bullying other students?  Trying to show everyone how “gangsta” they are or how “tough” they are.  And don't tell me you didn't know they were doing it, that's garbage!  The same way your child’s been acting at home is the same way he, or she, acts in school!  What did you think?  Did they develop some new personality when they walked out the door of the house this morning and become a calm and rational student when they got to school?  You know better. 

Ms. Amber, you ain't fooling me either.  Shed a tear if ya want, but you were just as much responsible as the other kids that were involved.  Trying to play the "But I didn't do nothin' to them" card ain't gonna work.  Ms. Amber, “You is a big girl!  Ain’t too many people gonna be trying to bully you!”  You were rolling your eyes, givin’ “them looks”,  cussing, head bobbin', and hands on the hippin' just like they were cause you don't have anymore respect for the school than they do and your momma said she brought you up to “defend yourself”.  She just didn’t tell you what to defend yourself against.  Instead of trying to get a reputation at school, you need to be trying to get an education. 

Amber’s mother said Amber was sick for two days…uh-huh, right.  What did she have, “I don’t feel good-itis”.  She got “sick” right after her first confrontation with three girls, who didn’t know her from Eve, on her first day at her new school.  They just picked her out of all the kids in the school to bully and “poor” Ms Amber did nothing to provoke it or escalate it.  Had to be three “big stupid girls” cause three “little girls would not have stood a chance!  Get real!!  But…maybe she didn’t do anything.  Maybe they laughed, called her a name or something, looked at her “wrong” and it was just too, too much for Ms. Amber to endure, so she responded.

Ms. Canup and all you other parents out there, "git a grip"...on your kids that is!  You need to quit trying to blame everyone else for your children's misdeeds and attitudes cause that is how you taught them, or allowed them to act!  You sent them to school like that just like that.  Just like you sent them to school in those clothes, in that car and with that cell phone, you sent them there with those attitudes.  So don’t be blaming the schools.  They have enough trouble trying to act like they are teaching your little heathens.  Like I said before, you knew what they were doing.  What ya need to do is teach your kids some respect, not defense, so they don't go around trying to intimidate, harass and act "gangsta" cause they can get their little butts beat down by somebody who ain’t “acting”.  That is what happened with "Ms. Innocent" here. The schools knew what was going on and they also knew Ms. Amber’s mouth was just as guilty as the rest of them but they had to deal with "Ms Canup and her Posse" who continued to come up to the school and complain. 

What do you expect the school to do?  Assign a fulltime resource officer to your daughter?  Follow her around to make sure she is safe?  What you need to do mother, is teach your daughter some manners.  There are a lot of students, parents, geeks, bookworms and nerds who have gone through elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, being called names and laughed at and it wasn’t always pleasant.  What you need to do, dear mother, is try spending some time up there in that school yourself, sitting in the classroom with your little girl.  Ya know what?  I betcha nothin' happens then...cause mamma's watchin'!  What some of these schools need to do is put an observation area that runs behind some of these classrooms, with one-way mirrors.  That way some of these parents can see how their “little angels” really act in school.  But I don’t think that will happen cause parents already know.  And so do these kids!

Times Have Changed...

Ever felt like a person “out-of-time” or “out-of-place”?  A person who doesn’t feel like other people and society as a whole?  Money is not the “end-all” and “be-all” but it’s nice to have.  “Respect is earned not bestowed.” “Make our children learn without always trying to make it “easy””.  "Integrity, honor, truth and trust are the only things we can take with us when we die and the only things people will remember."  They now seem to be words from another time, another place.  These attributes are built, not given, and when we fail to instill them in our children, we betray them.  We betray the “trust” they have in us.  We betray the “trust” society has placed in us as parents.  We used to seek these things, to make them a part of our own personality but somewhere along the way we have forgotten to pass that on.  Our parents…my parents…taught that without those things, we are nothing.  Integrity, honor, truth and trust have lost their place in today’s society and therefore have lost their places in us.  When we have lost those things in us, our children never get it.  Society’s tomorrow will never have it and we will fail as a nation.

Now, I am not going to say that my parents did everything right, they didn’t.  My parents were dysfunctional, one diagnosed, one undiagnosed and therefore I grew up in a dysfunctional family for the most part.  But both of my parents knew their responsibility as parents.  My father always worked, had a job, and hardly ever missed a day at work except that occasional, sometimes frequent Monday after. My mother liked to start things, create drama and be the center of attention.  I and my brothers didn’t always have the nicest clothes, didn’t always have lunch money. We carried our lunch in brown paper bags…peanut butter sandwich, a couple of cookies, and a piece of fruit.  We could always count on that!!  In my twelve years of elementary education however, I barely missed a day of school.  What my parents did know was the value of an education and the value of a man’s word.  Everything else in this life could be taken away but not your education and not your word, your sense of integrity, honor, truth and trust.  That was the standard for the families I knew and grew up with.  That is what our children have lost today.

Now, I use the word “trust” primarily because integrity, honor and truth have no meaning without trust.  The dictionary defines “trust” as a “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.”  It is the principal on which integrity, honor and truth are based for without trust there is no integrity, no honor, and no truth.  When a “trust” is betrayed you find no honor, no integrity and no truth in the person or thing that betrayed it. The law has betrayed our trust.  Politicians have betrayed our trust.  Educational institutions have betrayed our trust.  “Significant others” have betrayed our trust and we, if we are parents, have betrayed the trust of our children.  And we have done it all in the name of money, power, prestige and self-indulgence.  The new standard!

Today, we have become a society of “one”, of “self”…ourselves!  We have started measuring integrity, honor, truth and trust based on our own standards, individual standards and not standards that have been shown and proven over time.  The honor and integrity that allowed this country to be what it is…or was.  Our children have become pawns that we have been willing to sacrifice in the name of prestige, status and the all mighty dollar.  These have been the new standards we have set and these have been the new definitions we have based our lives on.  These have also been the standards we have set for our children and then we wonder why we have things like gangs, over crowded prisons, failing educational institutions, corrupt and dysfunctional legal and law enforcement systems.  These children have no sense of honor, integrity, truth or trust.  I truly takes a village to raise a child and these systems have betrayed our children.  We as parents have betrayed our children.

We used to hold people accountable. We were held accountable or I should say...I was held accountable for my grades, my chores, my language, and most of all, I was held accountable for my failures of respect, a form of trust.  Respect for my parents, my elders, my  teachers and the law.  Now days, children openly disrespect without consequence.  They curse teachers, neighbors, policemen and even parents.  I would have never even considered talking to my parents or elders disrespectfully!  Even to this day, I refer to my elders by title and last name...Mrs. Glenn, Mrs. Beard, Mr. Wright...and I am an adult!  I might think, but never say a curse word to an elder, a teacher, or policeman.  I learned respect, and respect was trustworthy.  No wonder youth today have no respect for life, for the property and possessions of others. They were never taught it, or taught how to get it, only told that they had to have it!  Our children are not being held accountable.  They are not being held responsible, for anything!  Children don't have chores, they have cell phones and Wiis.  Children don't have paper routes, cut lawns or shovel snow in the winter to earn money for things, they have credit cards.  They have parents who "don't want them to go through the same things I went through when I was growing up" meaning not being able to get the things I wanted just by asking.

  

People might say that “Times have changed.  They are not like when you grew up.”  And those people are right, times have changed.  More technology, more advances in medicine and science.  But in all those changes, did we have to change what made the United States the greatest nation on earth?  Did we have to sell those qualities that set us apart?  Of course, we had to change things like civil rights, women’s rights and the like but those changes were necessary and needed to bring us up to the standards of the principals the founding fathers laid out.  The standards set for a country, a nation.  Integrity, honor, truth and trust were standards for the nation but they were also standards for individuals in that nation and that’s the part we’ve lost and therefore, the nation can not survive.  I have often asked parents what they felt was their most important job as a parent.  I have received many different responses ranging from "to love them" to "making sure they have a place to stay".  I don't disagree with any of the responses I receive from these parents but offer them an alternate response.  The most important job of any parent is to "TEACH".  What we teach will dictate the type of child we transform into an adult.

Political Correctness is Incorrect!

I believe that within each person there lies a desire to be one with each other, to live harmoniously in a world where, one day, a man CAN be "judged on the content of his heart and not the color of his skin".  But, as fate would have it, that day has not yet arrived. There are still those in this society who are products of antiquated thoughts and beliefs, misinformation and just plain ignorance.  I personally have contempt for anyone who is not willing to converse and examine his or her ideas, give and receive information and then formulate or re-formulate their ideas and principles.  But I salute those ignorant folks who can’t, or won’t, because they have held on to one of America’s basic beliefs, concepts and principals…freedom of speech and the expression of that freedom.

Now, I don’t have to agree with your opinion or the expression of it but I support your right to say it!  As a matter of fact, I wish you would.  In that way, we can have an exchange of ideas, concepts and beliefs and if you don’t want to do that or you don’t agree with my ideas and principals or I don’t believe in yours, we can go our separate ways until one of us realizes our folly.  Say it so we don’t have to guess what is going on inside of you.  Say it so we know exactly where you are at and what you believe.  If you have a position and you believe in it, don’t be scared, voice it!  Forget being politically correct!  Now you might say that your views aren’t popular anymore in this day of political correctness.  Rest assured they are just as popular.  Political correctness has just made you skittish.

Political correctness is a joke!  Political correctness is incorrect!  I salute people like Bill Maher and Michael Moorer who exert their First Amendment rights, whether I agree with them or not.  Even the “Teabaggers”, those moronic political conservatives, have the right to espouse their views.  Let’s start another HBO show called “Politically Incorrect, Teabagger Style” or “G.O.Politically Incorrect”.  Let them express their right to be politically incorrect like Bill Maher and Michael Moorer and then let’s see who follows them.  We already know that a laughing stock Rush “Limp Baugh” is.  Let them say what’s really on their minds instead of couching it in “politically correct” terms and phrases meant to deceive and hide their true intentions.  Let’s see what they really have to say.

Political correctness robs you of being “you”.  It forces you to accept others for the facade that they put on and want others to see.  It teaches us to lie about those things inside of us and represses our ability to examine and review our opinions and thoughts for change.  It, like its name implies is a “state of reform” or “a state of setting right or rectifying”.  It is one stagnant step in legislating thought.  It tells us how we should look at things, how we should think about things.  True “political correctness” is informational, not dictatorial.  Psychologists will tell you that 99% of the decisions we make are made with insufficient information so the more information, the better the decision.  Political correctness does not provide information or permit change, it orders it, dictates it.  True change can only be achieved through a close examination of ones ideals and principles.  Political correctness only fuels the fire of deceit and hatred. 

The founding fathers knew this well.  In drafting the Constitution, the first idea, the first thought and therefore the first change or amendment to the Constitution was to include in it the right of citizens to free speech.  Speech begins with a thought which is an opinion.  Political correctness deprives us of those opinions and the right to express them in speech.  Political correctness abridges the freedom of speech and is therefore unconstitutional.

In the Workplace

They take my kindness for weakness.
They take my silence for speechless.

They consider my uniqueness strange.
They call my language slang.

They see my confidence as conceit.
They see my mistakes as defeat.

They consider my success accidental.
They minimize my intelligence to "potential".

My questions mean "I'm unaware".
My advancement is somehow unfair.

Any praise is preferential treatment.
To voice concern is discontentment.

If I stand up for myself, I'm too defensive.
If I don't trust them, I'm too apprehensive.

I'm “defiant” if I separate.
I'm a “fake”, if I assimilate.

Yet, constantly I am faced with hate.

They take every opportunity to berate

My character is constantly under attack

A means to provide another setback

Question the way they treat me

They begin to watch me closely

Good, Better, Best,
Never ever rest
Until YOUR Good is Better and
YOUR Better Best!

When I'm in Trouble...I See Black People!

That's what it seems like.  When white people do things wrong and get into trouble, their way out is to see black people.  So here we go again, “the black person did it.”  That’s what ole’ Bethany Storro cried when police and hospital personnel in Vancouver, Washington asked her how her face got burned with acid.  She reported that a black woman, wearing a green top and khakis just walked up to her and threw acid in her face outside a Vancouver Starbucks. She told everyone how she couldn’t understand how this could happen to her because she was a “nice girl”.  She thanked God because she had just bought a new pair of sunglasses moments before and if she hadn’t she might have lost her sight.  It was a miracle!

Wait a minute!  What did you say? She what?  Lied!?  No black girl?  Self-Inflicted?  Damn!  She admitted it before she got on Oprah?  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39221785/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

How many times have we heard this story?  It was a black man, several black men, a black woman, a gang of black people.  Remember Susan Smith who accused a black man when she drowned her children in South Carolina.  Remember Bonnie Sweeten who blamed a black man for abducting her and her 9-yr old daughter in Philadelphia only to be found at Walt Disney World hotel. Remember Charles Stuart from Boston who accused a black man of killing his wife and remember the John McCain volunteer who accused a black man of carving a “B” in her face during the presidential elections.  Their stories were called “hoaxes”.  Let’s not forget the Black police officer in New York who was shot and killed by a White police officer after the white office saw him running down the street with a gun.  The Black officer was chasing a suspect with his weapon drawn.  I didn’t hear anyone calling that a “hoax” but it’s the same thing as Susan Smith, Bonnie Sweeten, Charles Stuart and now Bethany Storro…a mentality!

They all started with a mentality, a stereotype, a belief that turned into a lie, a crime, and a hate crime.  It's not a hoax! People who call it a "hoax" are the saem ones who say, "Aw, he was just joking" when that co-worker makes the off-color comment at work. That same mentality existed in the people who "just believed" without question because they said a black person did it.  They could identify with the mentality.  So what’s worse than the lie itself?  It’s the existence of the same mentality today that led to lynching when it was the “in thing”.  We can wrap it up in politically correct language.  We can try to legislate it away.  Personally, I would just rather you call me the “N-word” (political correctness).  Then at least I know where you are coming from and where your mentality is at.  Don’t smile in my face and then blame me for killing your daughter behind my back.

10 Things Everyone Should Know About Race

This is a reprint of an article I felt was worth repeating:  http://www.newsreel.org/guides/race/10things.htm


TEN THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT RACE

Our eyes tell us that people look different. No one has trouble distinguishing a Czech from a Chinese, but what do those differences mean? Are they biological? Has race always been with us? How does race affect people today?

There's less - and more - to race than meets the eye:

1. Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn't even have the word 'race' until it turns up in a 1508 poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings.

2. Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.

3. Human subspecies don't exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven't been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most genetically similar of all species.

4. Skin color really is only skin deep. Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone's skin color doesn't necessarily tell you anything else about him or her.

5. Most variation is within, not between, "races." Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees. About 94% can be found within any continent. That means two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.

6. Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or war, even debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar physical characteristics.

7. Race and freedom evolved together. The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that "All men are created equal." But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How could this anomaly be rationalized? The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.

8. Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became "common sense" in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.

9. Race isn't biological, but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power, and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.

10. Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn't exist is not the same as creating equality. Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.

The Internet Thieves?

I just went through a tiring process of wiping my computer clean and reloading everything on it.  Why you say?  Because some idiot out there in Cyberland wants to steal my information so he, or she, sent me a Trojan on Facebook.  Now normally, I don’t open messages that have strange looking links or don’t have any text to explain the message.  I also don’t open any messages that say I am the subject of a You Tube video or some nonsense like that, but two days ago, my brain was suffering from some unknown disease or mental lapse and I opened a message from one of my FB friends.  OMG!!!  The avalanche of pop-ups and new screens was my first clue and I couldn’t do anything but curse! 

Why do people do that!  People work to get the things they have (most people), even Facebook friends lists, and they don’t want other people coming around and destroying or stealing the things they have worked so hard to get.  It’s because we have become lazy as a nation.  We have adopted an “instant gratification” mentality and we have passed that on to our children.  No longer do we have to work for what we get.  No longer do we feel we should have to put any effort into what we do because we feel we are “entitled” to it.  Our children are “entitled” to have a TV in their room, Xbox 360, DVD, cell phone, computer and a MP3 player just because they are “our” children and everyone else’s children has one.  Our children are “entitled” to get an “A” in school because they come to school everyday and their parents didn’t know they had homework.  Our children are “entitled” to have the highest priced clothing and shoes to go to school in because they are “our” children and it makes them more “popular”. Our kids don’t do chores anymore, earn their allowance, or have neighborhood paper routes.  Now we make mommy or daddy deliver the paper or we have mommy or daddy drive us around so we can go dance or piano, to soccer practice, football practice or any other extra-curricular activity we feel we want to try at mommy’s and daddy’s expense.  And then we wonder why “Little Johnny and Little Suzie” grow up to be neighborhood terrors, cyber-bullies and criminals.  IT’S BECAUSE THEY NEVER HAD TO WORK FOR ANYTHING!!!  It’s always been handed to them.  They never had to work for anything as children, so why should they expect to have to work for anything as adults.  Parents don’t get that.  And then when Little Johnny and Little Suzie get to be about 14 or 15 and they start demanding they get a car or demanding that they be able to do something like date or go out late at night, or go to that party, parents suddenly become indignant and call their children “ungrateful”.

I use to work in a warehouse where I was a Warehouse Supervisor.  New employees would come in and begin work.  After about the first week, they start asking about raises and time off and after the first month how they can get a higher paying position.  They hadn’t even learned the basics yet and already they were asking for raises and promotions.  When they get disciplined or corrected, they get belligerent.  Then when they fail to receive what they think they are “entitled” to, they go “postal”.  Thanks mom and dad!

As a nation, we have lowered our standards for ourselves and our children.  In schools, businesses, and in our homes we have begun to expect less and less of ourselves and our children and when you expect less, you get less!!  You get failures of the school systems to educate our children and overbooked jails and prisons filled with people who have done exactly what we have taught them to do…get it for as little effort as possible!  You get poorly inspected pipes and failures to do routine maintenance.  You get Deepwater Horizon and PG&E pipe explosions.  And you get trojans in your email!!

Getting Paid To Gamble

The PG&E gas line explosion and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and rig explosion are indicative of why President Obama should allow the tax cuts for the wealthy to expire. These are the people who gambled with the lives of the crew of the Deepwater Horizon and the innocent people living in the San Bruno, California suburb. These were also the people who previously plunged the rest of us into an disastrous economic recession, putting millions out of work and out of their homes. The only people who seem to have benefitted from the recession are the CEOs and top executives of these companies. Most of them aren’t going to jail. They aren’t giving any of the money back. They are supported and praised by their respective companies, given lucrative severance packages and sent home until they are quietly hired by another company. Why should they continue to receive the benefits of lower taxes?

The bottom line is that these companies are not trying to improve the lives of everyday workers through creating jobs and stimulating the economy, they are only trying to improve their own lives and do so by gambling with our lives on a daily basis. They gamble with our financial, emotional, and physical lives and the lives of our families and then receive huge salaries for doing so. The GOP would have you to believe that if we continue lower taxes on the wealthy, they will spend and create jobs. I don’t see that. If I am a habitual gambler and get more money, what do I do? I gamble more and put more on the line. The compulsive gambler doesn’t know when to stop gambling and these are big-time compulsive gamblers. Businesses try to shave costs and reward those who cut the cost of doing business. These CEOs then place your life and my live on the table and gamble that they will win. The stakes are getting higher and the losses are getting more expensive to you and me. Tony Heyward gambled and 11 lost but he still received close to $18 million for the gamble. Check it out:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/07/top-1-making-280-1979/

For My New Facebook Felon Friend

I got up this morning and like several thousand (maybe millions) of other people I logged into my Facebook account and checked to see what was going on in the world, at least the FB world.

Well first, I had to check a comment left by my online “Boo” up there in Tennessee who I think reads these blogs I put online, who knows? She wanted to know, then didn’t want to know, what I did for a living. I chuckled, ask her what she thought I did for a living, and then went on to see what else was out there.


I had a “friend request” out there in “cyberland” so I clicked on the link to see who wanted to be my friend. It was a young man from Port Penn, Delaware…okay. Well, I checked the mutual friend that showed up, he only had one, and then checked out his profile cause sometimes you get those people who only want to advertise their sleazy (who am I to judge “sleazy”) or inappropriate products or services to you. So I perused his information page to see what he was all about. As I looked through it, something caught my eye…his political views! Now normally this would not even matter to me, your views are your views and I don’t really care whether you are a Democrat or a Republican cause most people don’t even know why they are either, but his said something different…”Felons can’t vote”.

Disenfranchisement of felons is not new, and yes, I knew that felons couldn’t vote in a lot of states or have restrictions on their ability to vote. But something moved me, urged me to click on that statement to see what would follow. So I did, and got three web results: Washington Post, Time magazine and Straightdope.com. Hmmm, which one should I click on? Washington Post…too conservative! Straightdope.com…never heard of it but seems too liberal. After seconds of deep thought and deliberation, I clicked on the Time magazine link ‘cause I like CNN. I eventually read all three articles but I had to start somewhere (links to all three articles included at the end of the blog).

The whole idea of felon disenfranchisement started with guess what…race! Disenfranchisement laws, particularly in the South, were created largely to prevent African-Americans from being able to vote. As it is today, at the beginning of the Civil War, African-Americans were disproportionately represented in the prison population and to prevent the rare possibility of them voting during pre-Civil War days, laws were enacted in the States to prevent those with criminal records from voting. The 14th Amendment, Section 2 gives States the right to deny the right to vote for “participation in rebellion, or other crime.” That's ironic because the whole idea of "The United States" and "The Constitution" and "We The People" was based on the idea of rebellion and therefore no one should be allowed to vote. 

Today however, felon disenfranchisement has become more of a political argument rather than one of civil rights or the restoration of civil rights for felons. Since most felons are from low-income, predominately minority, particularly African-American homes and since most African-Americans and low-income minority voters usually vote Democratic (65 to 90 percent), Republicans, and now “Tea Party-ers”, would not want to see an additional 4 to 5 million voters on the rolls. In addition to that, how many legislators, at any level of government will be willing to base their platform and election hopes on giving any rights back to felons.  Too bad the Constitution didn't say when enough was enough!



If you want to read the articles for yourself, here are the links:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1553510,00.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1789/why-cant-felons-vote
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2004Aug17.html

Today's Prohibition

Is the sale of illegal or illicit drugs or any other commodity in minority, low-income neighborhoods a means for the disenfranchised to become a part of the mainstream economic system? Are today’s drug dealers and gang-bangers any different than the bootleggers and rum-runners of the prohibition era or the pharmaceutical companies of today? For many young people, particularly those who suffer the most as a result of bad economic times, a “broken” and unfair legal system, and the continued discriminatory and stereotypical attitudes of those in power, the answer is a resounding “NO DIFFERENCE!”


As in prohibition, the desire and market for illegal drugs allows many “entrepreneurs” to fill a “gap” not serviced directly by the legitimate market. I say directly, because “pharmaceuticals” (politically correct name for “drugs”) are big business as well. Doctors (legitimate drug dealers), on a daily basis, “prescribe” millions of dollars worth of pharmaceuticals under the guise of curing or treating some human malady, condition or disease and keeping you coming back. In 2008, the amount of money spent on prescription drugs was estimated to be around $234.1 billion according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers. That’s more that $641 million dollars a day! Tobacco and cigarette companies who for years, knew their product was dangerous and addictive, were, and are, allowed to continue to sell their products. Just as prohibition opened up new vistas for the disenfranchised, so does drug use. Supply and demand, the American way! Gangs are just the “street” version of a pharmaceutical company and dealers are the doctors. The “pharmaceutical company” sends representative out to the “doctors” offices and solicits them to sell their product and offering them “incentives” to do so. What’s the difference? How many have made their fortunes by illegal and unethical means and then become “up-standing citizens”?

Burn the Quran, the Bible and the Flag!

Rev. Terry Jones down there in Florida and that other minister in Springfield, Tenn who want to burn the Quran in retaliation for those who want to build a mosque near ground-zero are as stupid as the people who get upset at them wanting to do it.  The only comment from any minister, priest, pastor, preacher or rabbi that I have heard that even approaches a level of intelligence is the comment made by Bishop David Rickens of the Catholic Diocese in Green Bay.  He said, "The burning of the texts of another religion, especially their Scriptures, totally misses the mark," and he was right, it does miss the mark, even if he said it was for the wrong reason.  Here is the mark!

The Quran, the Bible, and the Flag are symbols people, not artifacts!  They are not sacred objects of worship!  They are manufactured by people, in a factory, somewhere!  Bishop Rickens called it right when he referred to the "texts" of another religion.  The Quran is the text of the Islamic faith, just as the Bible is the "text" of the Christian faith or the Torah is the "text" of Judaic faith.  The Flag is a symbol of America and American ideals.  Now, we are trying to raise the Twin Towers to the level of the Quran or the Bible. 

Now I understand how some might see the Twin Towers as a memorial, a place of grief and rememberance, even a cemetary, but those who died on that tragic day weren't all Christians.  There were by some counts, approximately 60 individuals who were also of the Islamic faith.  I am also sure that there were also some who followed Judaism, Buddism, Hinduism, and some other "-isms" who also lost their lives as well.  Those who crashed those planes into the towers and the Pentagon and the ones who were overcome in Pennsylvania before they could kill more people, weren't trying to save Christians, Jews, Muslims, or any other religious faith, they were trying to kill everyone.  It was an act of "terrorism" which has no religious faith.  If we choose to condemn all who practice Islam for the acts of a group who happened to also follow Islam, then let's condemn all Christians for the acts of those one guys, you know, the ones with the white robes and pointy hats who declared themselves the Saviours of the white race and killed thousands of innocent blacks or the other Christians who oppressed and enslaved blacks, or the Christians who supported that guy with the funny moustache over there in Germany and killed 6,000,000 Jews.

Here is the mark people, WE are the Quran, the Bible, the Torah and the Flag.  WE, the people of the United States are supposed to be the embodiment of those principals and ideals.  If the principals, ideals and beliefs contained in those "Holy Books" abide within each of us, then burning the book has no meaning!  The building of a mosque near ground-zero does not make that site any less a memorial, a gravestone, or a place of sorrow.

The Quran, Bible, Torah and the Flag are ways of life, not words in a book.  When we get upset at the burning of the symbol it is because the contents, the meaning, the principals of those symbols are not within us, those things are not a way of life for us!  We have deified a book, a text and not the principals contained within.  Wake up people and quit being so self-righteous!  Hit the mark!

Secrets

How have my secrets kept me
Over the life I have survived
No one knows the sorrows
Failures I have revived

Each and everyday
Mistakes that I have wed
No one knows the secrets
Hiding in my head

Regret, remorse, the anger
Blame, the shame, the dread
No one should ever know
What sleeps within my bed

My teardrops hold my secrets
They fall down to the ground
Depression fills my inner soul
Cause no one is around

If someone learns my secrets
What will they think of me
So I push away all those who care
So my secrets they can not see

My days are filled with smiles
False upon my face
To help me keep my secrets
Within my safer place

-A. Jones

A Pound of Flesh

"The pound of flesh which I demand of him Is deerely bought, 'tis mine, and I will haue it."  This phrase from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, 1596, has been on my mind lately.  The figurative use of this phrase refers to any "lawful" but "unreasonable" restitution for a wrong, real or perceived.  In the play, Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, lends money to Antonio, his Christian rival and sets the security for the loan at a pound of Antonio's flesh.  When Antonio defaults on the loan, Shylock demands an actual pound of flesh as retribution and revenge for Antonio having previously insulting and spitting on him.

That was the 16th century, but today in the 21st century the sentiment remains.  Gangs, no longer fist fight, with the occassional knife thrown in,  they exact a pound of flesh.  They shoot, kill and seriously injure others over senseless, exaggerated, and perceived wrongs done to us by others whom we may or may not even know.  The pound of flesh is then taken, taken from families, friends, children, parents and innocent bystanders, none of whom had any part in the wrong done.  "I am injured, so I will not only injure you but I will injure your family, friends and any innocent bystander who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."  The motto is "Somebody's got to Pay".  The lasting effect of that action on ourselves and on others...is neither "lawful" nor "reasonable"!  They are indiscriminate in who surrenders the pound of flesh.

When I was a young man, my four brothers and I often found ourselves engaged in some neighborhood scuffle.  The neighbors across the street, down the street and around the corner, whoever said a cross word or performed some wrong on the "family honor".  Lines would be drawn, words exchanged, and then...the first punch, sucker or otherwise, would be thrown.  We thought it was a fierce battle, a stuggle for neighborhood dominance and the right to say "we kicked your butts".  But these jousts, these excercises of puerile testosterone, weren't over drugs, money or women...as a matter of fact, we usually couldn't remember what they were for so we said "so-and-so" said "such-and-such" about "jiggidy-boo" and that was enough. The next day, we laughed and played together, like nothing happened.  It was done, over with, and everybody moved on.  Not so today!

How much is enough?  How much flesh do you need?  How much respect do you gain and how much do you lose?