Talks with Jesus

I have decided that should be my tribal name.  Talks With Jesus.  Because I do.  I struggle with the world around me at times.  Most are not equipped to face the world the way that I do, and most do not approach life with the same scorecard that I do.

Because of that, it would be very easy to take my frustration out on the rest of the world.  I was gifted with quick wits, and a streak of stubborn angry that coincides with a deep sense of self righteousness.  I am not exactly sure where those traits came from, but I have them in abundance.

One of the only effective tools I have found is to talk it through in my head with Jesus.  I try to imagine the conversation we would have.  I think, in the hindsight of the Bible and history, we miss the fact that Jesus was extremely charismatic and just a great conversationalist.  He talked with everyone, and his conversation skills were unmatched.  It is what I imagine one of the great pleasures of Heaven, to be intimately acquainted and present with Jesus for eternity.

However, it is usually Jesus' teaching side that I need.  I was thinking about this yesterday morning, over NC's LGBT Bathroom fiasco.  Our esteemed Lt. Gov., who is probably a man of good conviction and character, doubled down on the statute.  I am not a fan, and have not been since its signing by Gov. McCruory.  I think it is hate speech in law, poorly informed on facts, and needless and divisive.

But, my temper gets the better of me.  I spent a couple hours cutting grass.  I call it tractor therapy.  It is really a time to put in ear buds, listen to praise music and go over things in my head.  I had this vision of a TV talk show debate, with all the "evangelical" politicians, pastors and journalists, with Jesus.

In my head, it goes something like this (Jesus' words in italics):
"So, we are not prohibiting anyone from doing anything, only protecting our children and wives from potential danger."

"Does that show love?"

"We are not against anyone, but men are men, regardless of what clothes they wear."

"Does that show love?"

"We can love the sinner, but must not condone or ignore the sin."

"Does that show love?"

"What would you have us do?"

"Love them anyway."

"Gays, men who think they are women?"

"Love them anyway."

"Murderers, rapists, thieves?"

"Love them anyway."

"Muslims, terrorists?"

"Love them anyway."

"Pedophiles, deviants?"

"Love them anyway."

"But, how do we protect the faith?  How do we ensure that our children are safe and not at risk to this sinful life and mockery of your values that America has become?"

"I protect the faith, I protect you.  My Father, who is your father as well, will judge all, including you.  You are not here to protect my church, or to protect me.  You are here to love others as you would be loved.  And while doing that, teaching them, with your love and words, about me and my Father in heaven, and the Holy Spirit who should dwell in you and help you.  We do not need your protection and we do not call you to be angry for us, just hungry and zealous for us.  To be in my church means to be in me, and I in you.  I can not exist in hate, and I will not dwell in pridfeful judgement, only humble piety."

"But, it is wrong, it is in the Law."

"So we're the Pharisees that put me on a cross, so that I might atone for your sins.  The Law did not die, it is forever.  But, I made you whole even though you broke my Law.  Do not withhold the same love from your fellow man, in my name.  That is offensive to me, and on that my Father will judge you."

"I told you my story of a Pharisee and a tax collector.  They both went to the Temple to pray.  The Pharisee prayed by comparing himself with the tax collector, and how much better he was.  That would break my heart to keep hearing you do.  The tax collector had many sins, but he did not concern himself with the obvious sins of the Pharisee, he just simply said he was not worthy and asked for mercy.  You all have your own sins.  More than you can count, or overcome.  Pay your attention to them, and not to the sins of others.  Leave vengeance to my Father, or do you think He needs your help?  Where is your faith?"

Imagine it.  I imagine sharing my words with Jesus all the time.  And, I am usually ashamed.  It makes me desire His mercy, His presence.  And, it makes me aware that I might be driving others away from Him.  That is a sin I cannot deny, but do not want to be guilty of.

Stop.  Think.  Pray.  Speak.  That is the correct order.  I pray that you have a day full of pauses, lots of good conversations with Jesus, and feel His presence in your heart, as you speak.  I should have had that process last night with that poor dude from Sothwest.  None of us get it right all the time.  Thankfully, Grace is like an ocean of oceans.  I use up a good bit of it every day.

GLYASDI

Humble before God

James 4:7-10 Submit yourselves then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn and wail.  Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

This morning, I woke up thinking about answered prayers.  I thought really hard about what I have been praying for, for myself and my wife, and our life together.  Yesterday was a day of answers, some very large answers.

While I would love to report that God gave us the answers that we were praying for, He did not.  I am not sure why, but I am sure of this, that I will submit myself to God.

We will together resist the devil.  He is very real, and he tries very hard to drive deeper wedges between you and God, especially when there are moments that you must, absolutely must humbly submit yourself to the will of God.

In those moments, you can come near to God, and He will come near to you.  In that way, you wash your hands of sins, you can't change the past, nor your wrong expectations.  You purify your heart by not being double-minded, not trying to figure out why God did not give you what you wanted, when you said you were leaving it to God's will.  Either you left it to God's will, and are just humbly satisfied that He continues to sustain you, or you try to rationalize the reasons for not getting the desires of your heart, and stubbornly cling to your double-mind.

God's answers are final.  And, regardless of your faith, regardless of your heart's desire, regardless of your comfort and safety, God gives you what He desires for you.  God is love, God is good, He does not tempt, nor does He give harm.  Even when we cannot see it, in His wisdom, in His plan, we are where we are intended, every day that we allow Him control.

That is a potentially scary ride.  Even the deepest of faith cannot take away the concerns of the world completely, when it feels illogical.  The Devil works even harder then, and continually puts people in your path that demand a logical answer, that demand a quantification that makes sense to them and to the balances of the world.  And, they do not accept the simplest of truth, that you are only in God's hand and you are following the path He laid on your heart.

There is not logic there, that is easily glimpsed by the worldly.  And it confuses and frustrates them.  I actually got asked about one issue that I received a very clear answer about, "How did you think this was going to help me?"  The person was convinced they were helping me and I had hurt my own effort.  That person was not and is not in a place to accept the clear statement.  "I had no desire to help you, I had only the desire to do as God commanded me, for me."

Perhaps some think it is disobeying God not to just give that answer, regardless.  I do not feel it right, nor fair, to hold a conversation about my faith journey with someone that is not there, that does not comprehend, and add that confusion, tension and difficulty to the existing issue.  Were they to ask me to denounce the decision, I would say clearly that I could not.  If pushed, I would say clearly I can only do what God laid on my heart, and nothing there tells me to take back anything I have done.

How do you get through this, especially in a world that does not understand the greater value in your soul than in your bank account?  Submit, resist the Enemy, come near to God and the godly, wash, purify, grieve, mourn, wail, and humble yourself.

Because then, when it is truly not about you, not about wants, not about the world, not in response to the Enemy, not anything except obedience and desire for the heart of our Lord, God will lift you up.  In Jeremiah, God says that He has loved us with an everlasting love.  No turmoil, trial or temporary issue here in our lives mattered in all of the time before this moment, because God loved us through all of that time.  And, nothing about today will matter in all the time from this moment on, because God will never stop loving us, ever.

Everlasting love, or petulant bitterness because the answer I prayed for was not the answer God thought best for me?  His ways are not our ways, and we can never know the depths and reach of His heart.  We either decide He is for us, or live the wretched life of living against Him.

That was maybe the lesson God hoped I got yesterday.  It was the lesson I have taken away so far.  Perhaps in months, years, there will be a different lesson I see in the tapestry I weave in my life.  Until then, I will continue to trust in the answer God gave, and I will continue to listen to what He laid on my heart.  Because He loves me, and that means it will be eternally right, and eternally good.  Tomorrow is here, and yesterday will never again come.  Everlasting love for a man trying to submit humbly to the will of the ultimate and the everything.  That, that is an answer in every prayer, that you find in yourself every day.  I pray that you do, it is not your job to make life right.  That belongs to God.  Let go and let God.

GLYASDI

Rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God

James 5:13-16 Is anyone among you in trouble?  Let them pray.  Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.  Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.  If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.  Therefor, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James 5:19-20 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

None of this happens from our own power.  Nor does it happen alone.  It only happens with the Lord's blessing, and the Lord's power.  I am praying for Baton Rouge, for all her people, for all her first responders, for her healing.  I am praying for Dallas, for all her people, for all her first responders, for her healing.  I am praying for the United States, for all her people, for all her first responders, for her healing.

It says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  That does not mean sinless, or perfect.  It means persons just like you and me, that are scared, that are tired, that are unsure of what to do or how to impact a situation that is beyond our reach and our understanding.  I believe there is only one answer, and that is to take it to the Lord in prayer.

It might help if you understand that Jesus does not require us to do any more than be where we are, with Him.  And with Him, there is peace.  It does not mean the world around us changes, but it does mean that you change.  It is hard to be afraid, when you are chosen of the most high King, heir to His inheritance.  It is hard to worry, when you are sure of eternity.  It is hard to find things that are hard, when you are in the hand of the Lord.

I just thought, given how bad yesterday was, how unhappy and unfruitful our days sometimes feel, that maybe we need to remember what the ultimate measure of the worth of our days are.  It is not here, and now, but rather where God is, and forever.  It hurts my soul, the damage we do to each other, because it is not in keeping with God's command.  Nor is it in keeping with decent behavior.

We all need to see if we are wandering from the truth, and help each other back on the path.  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10

God Loves You And So Do I

Every.single.day.

It is wrong to kill people.  You see, I don't have to put a color or occupation in there.  It is just wrong to kill people.  It doesn't matter who is doing the killing, it is still wrong.

I don't like this whole turn we have taken as a nation.  But, this is what we have been working toward.  We all know that at a deep level, it is wrong to not adequately educate children in some schools because of economic conditions in that school zone, but it is happening every.single.day.  We all know that at a deep level, it is wrong to see entire generations lost to reliance on entitlements because of inadequate opportunity across large geographic areas, but it is happening every.single.day.

We all know at a deep level that it is wrong to have huge segments of the population, in the most economically depressed areas, in the highest entitlement reliance zones, operate with totally inadequate family support systems.  We all know that the likelihood things are going to turn out alright for the children is lower for an unwed teen mother already part of the significantly impoverished.  It is lower for single parents overall, and it is abyssmal for young, teenage moms.  We all know at a deep level that TV show like Teen Mom are part of the problem, and not the solution.  We know that the children of these at risk teens are the ones that suffer the agony, but it is happening every.single.day.

We all know at a deep level that the complete absence of any kind of positive male role model during the majority of childhood is just a recipe for disaster.  We all know that children that are never shown how to behave in a decent and supportive relationship, have no clue how to have one as adults.  We all know that children that are never shown cooperative parenting or cooperative life skills, have no clue how to do these things as adults, or even recognize them.

We all know at a deep level that the continuous and unmoderated exposure to violent video games is damaging and mind altering.  We know that children imprint deeply and with very little filter, and that they absorb and internalize.  If done with context, guidance and oversight by parents, teachers, responsible parties, it can be enriching and expanding.  When done in isolation, with no context, children convince themselves that the real violence they see on TV and around them, have the same rules and permanence of Grand Theft Auto.  By the time their minds sort out the conflicting data, and come to a substantive judgement, they have to survive puberty, hormonal imbalance, rage, inadequacies, juvenile righteousness.  Kids don't know better, because no adult interrupted their mind meld with the PlayStation and made them understand reality does not come with three lives, and they kill others, themselves and their dreams every.single.day.

We all know at a deep level that children raised without faith, and an understanding of a greater calling that is personal and available to them, grow stunted and selfish and absorbed psyches.  If never exposed to a mythos that involves selflessness, piety, charity, faith, comprehension of something greater than themselves, they struggle deeply as adults to attach to those ideals.   If never asked to join in corporate worship, or corporate morals of some kind, they struggle to involve themselves as adults.  If never told that there is a definite right and a definite wrong, and that it matters to them, their social circle and their own self, they have no compass as adults.  Yet, we are seeing children with no compass, no comprehension beyond their own self absorbed existence, throw away the next seventy years of their lives to crime, abuse and assault every.single.day.

We all know that if a child is not given community, family, belonging, a sense of concern for their well being at home where it is traditionally to be found, they will find it in the world around them.  The reason gangs work are not because they are cool, it is because they can belong.  People like them, look like them, background like them, concerned about them, wanting them, are a powerful attractant.  And with the preceding background, there is no hope that the children will understand how corrupt and corrosive the situation they are being offered is.  They just know everyone else is doing it, and when they are members, someone cares about them, at a deep level they have never before experienced.  Want to know why gangs work so well?  It is because there is almost no other avenue to fill the void in these children we are developing every.single.day.

There is nothing more powerful than the feeling of family, especially to someone that has never before known it.  When you produce that feeling for the first time, outside the home, outside positive boundaries, outside of the norm of the society I want to live in, you get what we see.  Damaged, broken, and horribly neglected children, by the hundreds of thousands, creating a tsunami of continued suffering, because they know no different, and can build no different world, because they have no different context.  Chicago, Detroit, Compton, Harlem, SE DC, Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, they are going to be different in 20 years, because we are creating worse situations and even more deprived children every.single.day.

Nowhere in this have I mentioned a race, because it is immaterial.  Our children are not born knowing that they are black or white or Latino.  They are taught that.  And right now in America, they are overwhelmingly taught that that means they are different.  We do it on the evening news, we do it in school, we do it in church.  We do it to them.  On top of all that I have already covered, we then tell them that they have differing expectations for something as stupid as the amount of pigment in their skin.  We even do it among white groups, black groups, Latino groups.  "You light skinned."  "You dark."  "Your hair is nappy."  "Your eyes are weird."

We do this to them, regardless of their other situations.  Then, we mix them all up together, and make sure they know who they can and can't trust.  If you lock your car doors when you see someone wearing dreads and baggy pants on the sidewalk, and your kids are in the car, you teach them.  When you generalize the homeless as unworthy, you teach them.  When you comment about the news, and who deserved to have what happen to them, you teach them.  When you see the cops and tell them to fear them, you teach them.  I don't care what your motivators are, or what your perceptions are.  You are teaching them to perpetuate that which you hate.  And we all do this, all day, every.single.day.

Why do I focus on children?  Because it is clear every.single.day. that we adults are not going to solve these things permanently, that are driving the shootings and protests and shootings and protests.  If we want to fix it, and aren't just saying we do, because we are uncomfortable with folks knowing we are alright with how things are, we need the kids to be different every.single.day.  If we are alright with how things are, we should stop contributing to the tension, just so we don't appear racist or conservative or liberal or hippie or whatever other you are afraid of appearing every.single.day.

We have to make our children better every.single.day.  That used to be the true measure of American greatness, every.single.day.  Mom and Dad worked hard, to do better, and give the best options to their children every.single.day.  We, as a community, cared about and watched over our children every.single.day.  We worshipped, we cooperated, we identified our compass, and passed it on to our children every.single.day.

Now, we are afraid to call a wrong thing wrong, because it offends someone every.single.day.  We are afraid to call bad parenting bad parenting, because it offends someone every.signle.day.  We are afraid to interact with others, because they are different, every.single.day.  We have given up on stamping out drugs, because we want to lock everyone up over it instead of treating it, every.single.day.  We have made things like prison, truancy, bail profit centers, because we can't bear the cost of our social failings every.single.day.

None of this is about race, none of this is about whose life matters.  I don't have any issue with any of those things, except they do not address the leavening of the system that we need.  We are abdicating responsibility, leadership and reason.  We are giving ourselves over to wholly unsatisfactory and unworthy leaders in this election cycle.  We have spent eight years demeaning and derailing a President that would be considered even more successful than any since Reagan, simply because he is black, and we don't have the balls to admit to our children so that they can at least put a name to the unreasoning hate.

We are not conservative and liberal, we are racist and we know it every.single.day.  We blame the President for the shooters and the tragedies, and then imagine he is plotting to steal our guns.  We publicly proclaim that we would shoot him dead if he tried, when there is zero evidence that anyone is trying to do that.  We claim that the opposition hates minorities, because they do not want to continue the entitlement tidal wave we are experiencing, and we call them that, racist.  We imagine slights where none are meant, we treasure up and never forget slights that are real.  There is a zero sum game at play, and if you lose one point, you lose all, every.single.day.

If, and when, we decide to be better every.single.day., we will forge some common ground.  We will decide that we cannot continue as we are on either side of any argument, nor can we fix it all in one step.  We will identify areas of agreement and take them whenever we can.  We will raise the tide for all boats, and make it so the tide is not feared, nor something you cannot swim against.  We will continue to find agreement, instead of focusing on disagreement.  We will all gain some, instead of all losing more every.single.day.

Maybe when this election is over, and whoever is in the White House is white again, we can get to governing.  We can nominate and confirm Supreme Court Justices.  We can pass laws.  We can see something like government, instead of petty childishness.  We can get past our failed leaders, our failed ideology and be American.  We can make an attempt to not be African American, or Irish American, or Anything American, and just be American.

There is a long way to go to get there.  But, it used to be the goal everyone had, every.single.day.  Even Dr. King, and his dream, that was about us all just being Americans every.single.day.  We have lost that dream, and it shows every.single.day.  And it shows to our kids every.single.day.  That part is the worst every.single.day.  Can't we all just be Americans every.single.day?  And if we could just consider everyone else at least as worthy of being alive as we are, ourselves, it would be so much easier to do every.single.day.

I mourn for the cops killed, the people killed, the children killed and the dreams killed.  None are more important or more damaging than others.  They are all wounds we bleed from every.single.day.  We have to stop the bleeding and work to heal every.single.day.  Because we do not know how many more days we will ever see, every.single.day.  That ought to make it even more important to be something today, every.single.day.

GLYASDI

Just going to leave this here

I am going to just leave this here, bold added for emphasis to my point.  We are subject to the rulers and authorities, to be obedient.  When we are not, we run afoul of God's plan.  Bad things happen, and when we continue to push foolish arguments and quarrels about the law, we are self condemned.

Titus 3:1-11  Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always be gentle toward everyone.
    At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.  This is a trustworthy saying.  And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in god may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.  These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
    But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.  Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time.  After that, have nothing to do with them.  You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

This is your first warning Black Lives Matter, Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Joe Walsh, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Rev. Barbour, and all the rest consumed with perpetuating this chaos.  I should have done it weeks ago.  All things are not right, but God works all things to the good of all.  I don't understand the plan, and that does not mean anyone's death is a good thing.  There is a real Devil and enemy, and he hunts and prowls like a roaring lion.

But, there is more God than Devil, and it has always been so.  Nothing now is more evil than before.  We have not yet reached the pinnacle, which is killing the Son of God, for being perfect.  We are not there.  And, whatever else may or may not be true, God is in control.

If you don't believe in God, go busy yourself with being foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  I will not.  Perhaps I have been.  The perfection of God's grace is that He forgives us our sins, no matter how many times we sin.  So, for what I have done that is sinful, I humbly ask pardon and forgiveness.  If you do not know how to meet God, where you are, please just reach out to me.  I will make the introductions, or find you someone that can.

God Loves You And So Do I.

Numbers Lie

It has been a very difficult few days in America.  It started with what appears to be the flat out murder of a man in Louisiana, followed by what appears to be the flat out murder of a man in Minnesota.  Both of these events were at the hands of police, and the victims were black.  Then, as the  community marched in Dallas to protest these events, a deranged man shot 11 police officers and killed 5 of them.  The deranged man was black.

The piece that is laying hard on my heart is the grossly negligent thinking that is endemic across the spectrum in America now.  No one knows what numbers and statistics are correct.  There is constant argument about the specifics.  In general, the only thing we, as a nation, have completed successfully is to confuse and infuriate each other.

Some things that should inform us.  More white people than black people are shot by police.  This is a statement that nearly everyone agrees with, but it quickly degenerates into argument about the accuracy of the numbers.  So, for the sake of this discussion, here is a website for the Washington Post database that tracks such things.  These numbers are through the end of June, but if you bookmark it you can check back as they update the database.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/

If you look at those numbers, 238 white people have been shot and killed by police.  123 black people have been shot by the police.  79 Hispanics have been shot and killed by police.  In total, 225 people that are identified as other than white have been shot and killed by police this year.

By the 2010 census, 63.7% of the population is white.  13% of the population is black.  17% of the population is Hispanic.  If we break down the numbers by percentage simply on lines of race, the distribution should be: 320 white casualties, 66 black casualties, and 86 Hispanic casualties.

All that math tells us is what is claimed is true, black people are shot by police at more than twice the proportion they make of the population.  White people are shot at much less than the proportion they make of the population.  Only in the Hispanic community do we see something close to proportionality with numbers.

That is at least a basis of conversation and seems pretty damning, and exactly the reason mathematics can be a lying, sniveling dog.  These numbers are utilized by people that should and do know better to taint the conversation for their particular purposes.  What none of these numbers tell is the true story.

Looking at that story, it is easy to have the conversation that has been pushed upon us for years.  The system is disproportionate to minorities.  And while that is definitely true, I would suggest that it is less about race, and more about probabilities.  Would it shock you to know that 26 police officers have been shot this year?

Let me lie to you with numbers, to show you how easy it is.   Only .000326% of the black population has been shot so far this year by police.  Meanwhile, .00946% of the LEO population has been shot.  That means police officers are almost 30 times more likely to be shot than black folks, by percentage of the population.  Imagine if I could get on CNN with this shocking factoid, could get people to hear that and understand that police are almost 30 times more likely to be shot than even black folk.  Would it fuel a disastrous and misguided Blue Lives Matter movement?  Or would people of good reason and common sense say to themselves, "well, they are cops, that means they interact with criminals at a much higher rate, because of their job, it makes sense that they would have a much higher probability to be shot."

The latter would be correct.  And this is the issue the black community is struggling with.  People who I will assume had the best of intentions, got fed a number.  Without understanding the construct or probabilities associated with the numbers, they began to base an incredibly publicized and electric movement around them.  "Black people are killed at twice the rate of whites, by the police!"  With only that, and no understanding or conception of the probabilities and structure around that ratio, they were horrified.  I would be too.  And, they set out to do something about it.

I applaud the Black Lives Movement for that.  It is certainly something that needs to be addressed.  But, I think that the approach of trying to change the police is incorrect.  We must address the probabilities and construct of the population that drive these numbers.

The numbers for black folk look unbelievably high.  But, I think that there is a reason the distribution looks like this.  It is an important point to understand.  The police interact much more frequently with people in areas of high crime.  These areas are disproportionately the home of black citizens in this country.  A police officer is human.  Human reactions are guided by experience.  Areas of high crime means areas of intense effort to avoid, elude and obstruct the police.  This leads police to a very different profile and expectation in reactions in areas disproportionately populated with black citizens.

I am not saying that is correct, or what should happen, I am just pointing out that humans are informed by experience.  We have given them more powerful weapons.  We have decided to attempt to control drug usage by impacting the street level users and sellers.  We put police, in a heightened state of preparedness, in the position of dealing with people at the most desperate level, at a much higher frequency than the rest of the population (that is predominately white.)

These are the facts.  So, in areas of greater criminality (driven by poverty and opportunity, not by race), the task of the police is to be at the street level and focused on the lowest rung of the ladder to the pit of despair.  The decisions made by both parties in that situation are poor, and result in the worst outcome much more often.

I refuse to believe that we have somehow sifted the American population, in every major community and turned only the racists into cops.  I do not believe this discussion is about racism.  It is about probabilities, and the things that drive those probabilities.  Honestly, whoever you are reading this, if you found yourself driving through these areas the police patrol most frequently, and you saw four or five young men, regardless of color, standing on the corner, what would you assume they are doing?  You know, right after you lock all your car doors, and decide you are going through that intersection whether the light is red or green.

Assumptions suck, but they are fact of human nature.  It is what informs the flight or fight instinct, and regardless of training, regardless of how fair it is, assumptions are always made.  And, just as I think the Black Lives Matter group has been horrible deluded by numbers, so too have the police.  You see, the police and most of the government, trot out these huge numbers of black on black crime.  There is no reliable source of data, NONE.  All of the numbers you see sited all over the place are estimates, and concoctions based on guesses and models.  That means wrong, some more than others.

Yes, more blacks kill blacks than whites.  Shockingly, more whites kill whites than blacks.  What is most troubling is that we continue to focus this prism on race.  It is an incorrect approach that is going to always result in what we see, ineffective actions, continued anger and frustration and no real change or progress in the actual problem.  Most murder victims are killed by someone they know, and that usually means someone of the same racial makeup.  That is just the fact.

What is wrong in this nation is that poverty is the most disabling and horrific genetic disease in the nation.  And, as of today, it has no cure.  But, poverty, the economic disadvantage that come with poor education, poor opportunity and poor training, is endemic in the same communities for generations.  As the rate of poverty goes up, the crime rate goes up.  As the crime rate goes up, the murder rate goes up, because it is a component of the crime rate.  This excites everyone, and vows are made and elections decided on cleaning up the issue, almost always related to policing and law enforcement.  That is like addressing poor car safety by ticketing the folks who have been in an accident.  Doesn't even sound right, does it?

The key to real reform, is not in making the police more sensitive, or aware.  The answer is not in the ethnic diversity or make up of the police.  The answer is not in addressing incarceration rates.  The answer is not in judicial oversight because minorities are more likely to get longer sentences.  It is already way too late in the process for any of that to work.  It is all needed, but not today, and not now.  Those will not impact the bad brakes rolling off the assembly line.  It is just a ticket for causing an accident because your brakes failed.

The issues is in creating a break in the poverty and disadvantage faced by most of the intensely urban centers of population in this country.  If we could come together around Impoverished Lives Matter, and work on making education important to parents, stability important in the family, opportunity an engine that provides a real living wage, we can almost eliminate the racial disparities in all of these statistics that we interpret so badly.

Imagine that instead of programs and things based on something like race, we make it based on economic factors in the community.  No one deserves a scholarship because they are black, or greater admission rates because they are black, they need a scholarship because they are poor, and they need admission guidelines based on the poor ass job the public schools are doing.

Imagine programs that create real, valuable work in areas of generational unemployment.  I don't mean a recession, you know where most of us lost a bunch of money in our 401K (that has come back now) and value out of our homes (that has mostly come back now).  I mean places where the unemployment rate has been 30% and above for multiples of the 20 year generational period.  If we did that, and had to put that work somewhere, like in getting rid of lead pipes in the public water distribution system, fixing the power grid that is 40 years older than the nuclear power plants that are 50 years old, fixing the roads so that there are enough of them and they are of a good enough quality to represent America, fixing the bridges that are, in the majority, structurally unsound and at risk, across the country, what would we have?

Imagine the return on that investment.  Not only to the infrastructure of America, but to the crime rate, to breaking the cycle of poverty that impacts all races and drives the statistics most often used by our politicians to lie to us.  It would eliminate the need to have this continued debate about gun control.  Employed people, worried most about their families, their jobs and their future, rarely get in trouble with their guns, they are busy doing other things.  It would eliminate this continued stupid debate about illegal immigration.  If you have to have government papers to get the jobs, and we are smart enough to create a path to get those papers, we get taxable income, we get rid of an entrenched portion of the criminal activity, we get rid of a stain on our nation, treating people like they don't count.

Yeah, I know.  That means we have to spend money.  We have to invest in our nation, through our citizens.  Of course, that could not possibly work.  When FDR did it in the Great Depression, the economy did not recover, nor did we build the cornerstones of the infrastructure we utilize still today, 85 years later.  That is all imagination and a vast left wing conspiracy to get your tax dollars.

It is actually the only thing that has been effective, ever, in this great experiment that is America.  Only when we turned on the spigot of government spending, have we seen real, indelible improvement to the lot of life for the entire spectrum of the country.  What do those 5 slain officers in Dallas, and those two black men slain the days before, and the hundreds across the nation of all races mean?  It might just mean that we should solve the root cause of the issue, and stop talking about race.

I agree with Morgan Freeman, want to stop racism?  Stop talking about it.  And then get to work on real issues with real solutions, that make impact.  That is just what I get out of the numbers, when they lie to me, and interpret to me, and bark at me in anger, and just plain don't understand what it all means.  Time to get to work.  The only cure for anything we have ever had in this country is to get to work.  We should try taking a dose or two of that medicine and real soon.

Don't You Dare

Don't you dare tell me that this is all we can expect.  That murder for murder is now the expectation.  That criminals are justified in their crimes.  That evil is all that there is left to our communities.

Because if I have to understand what would drive and motivate actions like Dallas, to understand your experience and your viewpoint, you can keep both.  I neither desire, nor will I attempt to understand you or meet you where you are.  Where you are is evil and of the Enemy.

Don't you dare revel in the loss of life, because now the rest of "us", know what it is like to be black, brown or anything else.  That kind of sickness and disturbed logic is what drives the cycle of crime and poverty.  It is beneath human dignity and contemptible in the eyes of reasonable men.

Don't you dare try to justify anything to me, except how much we need to pray and beg God to heal this land.

Don't you dare try to connect this evil in Dallas, with the evil anywhere else.  Not only aren't they connected, except in mercenary evil, they are not comparable or complicit.

Don't you dare.  Just don't.

Pray that no more people die.  

Pray that somehow, this mob of anger that our communities of color have become, develop leadership and purpose.

Pray that we try to act like the Americans we would be if we kept to our ideals and principles, and stop being African American, Hispanic or whatever else.  We are all just Americans, by the grace of God.  I have been the other places, help yourself, go there and enjoy being what they are.  You will never be happy you made that trade.  But, it is your decision, one way or the other.  And your responsibility to live correctly with it.  If you are staying here, act like you have a stake, because you do.

Pray that some sanity and sense returns to our discourse and our interactions.

Lives are not black, blue or all.  They are transient, temporary, fragile and irreplaceably valuable, period.

Lives are not destined from birth, they are informed by influence and surroundings, and made by decisions.

Fate does not exist, no one is fated to be or do anything.  The possibility exists for all of us, to be our best selves.  And the failure to achieve that can never be the responsibility of anyone else, but yourself.

You cannot be what others make you, you can only be what you decide you are.  If you decide that you are a good person, and will act that way, you will be.  If you decide that you don't care, and that whatever it is you want to do, regardless of consequences or pain, is okay, you will be a dangerous and deadly thing that is not human, but mostly animal.

There are many people dead, across this nation, last night, from violence, crime, and the bad and tragic decisions that were made.  Our decisions do not affect only ourselves, but no one outside of you can make the decision for you.

We have lost our understanding that regardless of our background, our history, our past, we are still ultimately in charge of and responsible for our actions.  We have almost finished creating the next generation of this nation that thinks someone or something else is responsible for and accountable for their decisions.  It is the "Man", the "system", the "Hood", the childhood, the parenting, the drugs, the insert all other excuses here.  And, it is all wrong.  It is your fault, what you do.  Whether you wear a badge, baggy pants that show all of your ass, Armani suits, or military uniform, you are the ultimate responsibility for you.

It is not okay, because you had a hard childhood.  I have sympathy for your struggle, but it does not excuse criminal or anti-social behavior.  It is not okay for any reason.  Even if you are mentally ill, you are responsible.  You may not be liable for punishment because you could not reason out the consequences, but you are still responsible.

That is what struck me this morning, as I woke up and read news articles and watched video of Dallas.  People, multiple people, chose to get weapons and go shoot police officers, who were ensuring that peaceful protest of police killings was not disturbed.  Just as the officers that pulled their trigger in Louisiana and Minnesota, those people, just as full of hate as the cops in the other shootings are assumed to be, are responsible for their actions.

We are responsible for our decisions now.  All of us, every single American, now gets to decide what they will do.  Will you do nothing, but feel bad?  Will you do something to make the situation better?  Will you pray for peace and healing?  Will you get involved in something positive for the community?  Will you egg on the bitterness of others?  Will you repeat and accept partial knowledge and assumption as fact?  Will you knowingly aid and perpetuate the continuing violence and unrest?

We all have a choice in every situation.  We all have the responsibility for that choice.  We are all informed by our past, by our upbringing, by our history.  But, none of us will ever be anything but responsible and accountable for what we decide.  That is the ultimate message of the laws we have written, and the message of the faith we practice, whatever that faith may be.

It is not about gun control.  Don't you dare cheapen your intellect by assuming that controlling guns removes the responsibility for actions taken by those wielding guns.

It is not about police limitations.  Don't you dare cheapen the lives of all who died by assuming that if we limited the police severely, we remove the responsibility for our actions and choices, police and civilian.

It is not about race.  Don't you dare cheapen your humanity by assuming that if we just had less of any type of people that would remove responsibility for actions of hate.

It is not about anything, but the choice to do evil.  It is that simple.  And evil comes in all colors, all religions, all nations and all situations.  Don't you dare assume anything explains the evil you do, or think, or say.  Because your very nature, your very humanity exposes the lie there, and will destroy you from the inside.

Don't you dare ignore this.  Don't.  Just don't.

God Loves Us All.  Why Don't We?

National You Have Got To Be Kidding Me Day

Well, yet another federal investigation into the Clinton's.  Yet another finding of insufficient cause for prosecution.  You know how when you have a person that has committed 20 previous burglaries, and one happens close to where they are, that person is immediately suspected?  Yeah, and that person has a high bar to pass to keep from getting charged with number 21?  Yeah, that doesn't work for the Clinton's.

In the interest of disclosure, I will never vote for Hillary/Felony.  I think Bill Clinton had a womanizing problem, but was basically free of the stain of larceny and subterfuge.  He probably does not have the capacity.  His "wife" is one of those people you are quite sure could throw puppies in a sack, and into the creek to be done with them.  She, she has the mercenary and indeterminate attitude to do most anything, from the sense I get.

Now, I don't know the woman personally.  I have never spent any kind of time with her to get a sense of what she is like, at heart.  I can only go by how her life has played out, how she has responded publicly and what efforts she has made to change her behavior and her mien.  Based on that, she does not pass the sniff test, and plenty more stinky things are going to come.

That is not to say that if I were left to be the single deciding factor in who becomes President, Felony Clinton or Trump...well, Felony is probably not going to nuke Canada for making fun of her hair piece.  Trump is such a bag of kooky, I would never chance the future of this nation in his tiny hands.  Anyone that would has a much braver streak of defiance than I do.  In the pit of lesser of two catastrophes, I will take the tornado over the hurricane.  It is smaller, shorter in duration and way less devastating long term.  That doesn't mean I want a tornado, but having been through both, yep, I take Felony.

I will not be that deciding factor.  I will not be voting for either candidate.  If I cannot find enough about Gary Johnson or Jill Stein that does not frighten me as much, I will be casting a vote for one of them.  If I cannot, I will be leaving the Presidential ballot blank.  No way I am casting a ballot for either of these extremely poor people, nor their extremely poor capacity.

Do not let the apologists fool you, in that Felony is the most qualified candidate for President of our lifetime.  I would submit that the most qualified of my lifetime was probably Richard Nixon, and he was an amateur compared to this woman's criminal capacity.  More qualified than Felony, and shamefully denied a second term for doing the right thing, an issue that Felony or her husband has never faced (doing the right thing), was George Herbert Walker Bush.  The same group of "sages" that anoint Felony as ultimately qualified, called the recent slaughtering of the lambs that was the Republican field, the most talented field of their lifetime.

People don't really know what to make of this year's election, or what to make of these two people.  It is almost inconceivable to imagine Mitt Romney facing these issues.  He ran a terribly mercenary business ruining people's lives, but he was rich, they were poor, what is a rich dude supposed to do?  Not get richer?  That is not the American way.  I found it disgusting, and I did not vote for him, for lots of reasons, but mostly because he was milk toast in an Armani suit, who the rest of the world would hang by his silk tie.  We tried that kind of awe shucks good boy schtick in '76.  For those of you that don't remember, it involved wearing sweaters in the White House to save energy, a failed foreign policy, the decimation of the military, and the capture and holding of Americans in an embassy.  We could not even figure out how to get into Iran, much less free the hostages.  We had broken the military to the point that it failed to even make it into the country it intended to enter.

Mitt was a terrible candidate because there was no passion there.  You couldn't even see passion when he was supposed to be showing how much he hated Trump's guts.  And, look, if you can not work up a good ole hatred of Trump, you just don't have the stuff.  Neither Felony nor Trump lack passion.  Felony's is the kind of cold, slithering rattlesnake intense kind of passion to possess power.  There is no doubt who wears the pants suits in that family, and I am positive Billy Boy is just fine with that.

Trump is the carnival barker.  I have no idea if there is any passion there for wanting to do something for America, but there is certainly passion there to increase the Trump brand.  The Emperor has no clothes kind of thing, which is why the tax forms will never be released before the election.  He hawked steaks and wine from the stage at a news conference while running for President.  He will be the NASCAR President, selling advertising space on the side of Air Force One, which will be repainted Trump 1.  This is all about the size of his miniscule hands, and the man is seriously in bed with the Neo Nazis and White Supremacists.  Where else does he keep getting stuff off White Supremacy message boards to stupidly retweet?  People are sending it to him and he is reading it and going Wow!, then retweeting it, demonstrating agreement with and support of that crap.  Hell, I would much rather have Felony in the White House with all the Sisters of the Cracked Nuts, than someone that is in bed with Aryan Nation and the KKK.

I cannot and will not support this.  You have to really think about who you support.  It is not okay to play fast and loose with some of the nation's most sensitive material.  I have seen good sailors completely lose their career over one misplaced email that was at most Confidential.  Hundreds, fifty different email chains that were Top Secret, that is completely inexcusable.  I was once one of those Americans overseas, facing down our nation's enemies.  I could not imagine the Secretary of State running Top Secret information about my ship's position and mission out of a server in her fricking basement.  Her home basement, not even the State Department basement.  That is beyond excuse, for someone that is the "most qualified candidate of our lifetime".  Bullshit.  The most inadequately prosecuted candidate, perhaps.

It is also not okay to be racist.  And, if you do not see the comments about a Federal judge, who is a naturally born citizen, being unable to fairly run a trial of Trump, as as racist as you can get, there is something wrong with your seeing abilities.  Look, there is nothing I can do to prove that racism to you if you don't see it.  You will most certainly not see the misogyny that is endemic in his record.  You will certainly not see the slimy business that is in his record.  You will certainly not see how detrimental his approach to Muslims, about 1/6 of the world's population, is to the safety, security and overall well being of our nation.  You will certainly be blind to that, and the visually impaired are about the only special interest group he has not insulted or mocked, maybe on purpose.

If nothing else, this is a chance to understand exactly what this nation stands for.  If all we are confident of, capable of, and concerned with, is the perpetuation of the status quo, it will be apparent.  If we, as a nation, are determined to be American, and not be whatever this is, it will be apparent.

The truth is like a pair of spectacles, that allow you to see clearly and with wisdom.  It is not going to be found on Breitbart, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or the shadowy corners of the NRA backed conspiracy internet sites.  It has to be found by research, and the unwillingness to follow along blindly with what you are fed.  I feel bad for the law of this nation.  This is a bad situation for the FBI.  They took the pussy way out.  "A reasonable prosecutor would not seek this indictment."  Yeah, when did reasonable have anything to do with this snake pit?

Now what?  Do we all just continue to take it?  Do we assume this is all we can legitimately expect?  Because, if it is, I feel for my children and grandchildren.  They are going to know what it feels like to live in Britain today.  Lost, and adrift in their own smoke screen of near relevance, talked about only for their own damaging economic suicide.

Hooray, July 5th, our National You Have Got To Be Kidding Me Day.