Racism is a Generational thing.

Anyone born before 1970 should be given some leeway when they comment on race. Before 1970, parents and grandparents, even great grandparents expressed certain views that would be racist. Those born from 1900 until 1970 held on to the racial opinions of family and society as a whole. After 1970, race relations improved so much, that those born after that year have parents who are more open-minded than their antecedents. Those born after 1970 had parents born after pivotal events such as the mandatory desegregation, Martin Luther King's assassination, and the assassination of Malcolm X. Those born after 1970 were delivered into a new society where race was less important than being an individual.

Each generation is more accepting of those with differences. You cannot force societal changes on a group over a single generation. It takes time for changes to be made. Those born before these changes have the hardest time adjusting. Give them time to adjust. Don't use their maladjustment to retaliate against them. Yeah, I disagree with what Donald Sterling said. Yeah, I disagree with what Paula Deen said years before they came to light. Deen was born in 1947. In 1947, the US military was still largely segregated. Sterling was born in 1934. There was relatively no equality between the races.

Brown vs Board of Education wasn't until 1954. Until that time, there were two sets of school in many town across America. Still, in some states limited segregation was allowed. In McKenzie, we have a relic of those days. It is a reminder that even though President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it wasn't until the 1960's, nearly 100 years, that a truer sense of equality was born. 

Give people a little slack. After all, that's what Jesus would do.

The Expected Christian

So, you are a Christian. What does that tell me? If you truly are a Christian, then to me you are an ordinary individual with or without a job, in good health or ill, skinny as a rail or needing more than a hundred pounds to lose person. Let me tell you what you are not...perfect. No matter how much you work at it or pray over it, you are not perfect. Christians have a handle that they are not perfect and sometimes slip more than they should. It's okay, God loves YOU!

When you shift the position from looking in to looking into a mirror, what the public sees, is something totally different. You are cheating on your wife. You take money from the collection. You have a DUI on your record. You have the psychological compulsion to steal small items in the grocery. You may have killed someone in a fit of rage. To those on the outside, those who consider themselves non-Christians, you are a hypocrite. They will point you out! Attempt to shame you, particularly in public and are quick to spread the news.

That's the good news. You know that people are going to point you out for the mistakes you have made, but don't care about the good you have done. Christians are never paraded in the streets because of the good they do but the things that what others see as un-Christianlike conduct. They have no idea what it is like to be a Christian. Your failings are carried around like a human billboard. The bright side is that that is what they except from non-Christians. It is to these 'blessed' people. They expect you to be superhuman. That is exactly what you are expected to be. At least, that is what is expected of you from those outside. There is no amount of goodness you could do to change their opinions because the first time you fail to help an old lady across they street you are a hypocrite and a prime example of why Christianity is evil, false, cruel and proof that God does not exist.

You know what? That's okay. It doesn't matter what other people say or do in reaction to you. It all boils down to the fact that God love you. He is more understanding than any other. He knows you are not perfect. He knows you will stumble and fall. In all actuality, Man has higher expectations of you than God does. God does not expect you to move mountains, but Man does. Remember, being a Christian means being Christ-like. Christian does not mean you are Christ.

Guess what time it is...

It's Monday, October 14th. It has come to the point in the year when we bash of Chris Columbus. This is what Columbus did...

1. He did not discover America, neither did the Vikings or Native Americans. America was discovered tens of thousands of years ago by hunter gatherers from the Asian continent. We don't know exactly where they came from but they did spawn the great civilizations that would eventually populate North and South America.

2. He did not start slavery in the Americas. Spain already had slaves from the African continent 500 years, at least, before Columbus was born. It was a natural extension of an already existing institution. The Dutch, British, French and Spanish all had a hand in the African-American slave trade. You can't blame one man for the sins of a whole continent.

3. Columbus did not discover a direct route to Asia. While his mission was a failure, he did find two new continents to explore, yes, and to exploit. It was generations of men who followed that led to the European expansion.

We should really leave the dead man alone. Columbus Day is just a holiday in October to give the banks and federal employees a day off. Deal with it!

What did Columbus do? Why, he sailed the ocean blue in 1492...

Division

Everyone talks about division. It’s a fact of our current human condition. We love to divide individuals into groups with similar characteristics. We conveniently ignore that we are all the same species and that is the most important factor we share. It does not matter if you are white, black, or yellow. It means little if you are Anglo-American, Afro-American, Sino-American or any other hyphenated description you want to invent. You would only be different if you were the “Man from Mars” in Blondie’s Rapture. It makes little difference if you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, pagan or worshiper of the Great Individual Raindrop. Why does it matter? All it does is separate us! I am sick of gay, lesbian, bisexual and x/y chromosome confusion syndrome.  Of course, this would not be complete without normal, abnormal, crazy, “different,” or strange. Do we really have to continue this?

Of course, if you are an American, it all started when “all Men are created equal” was put to paper.  Are we illiterate enough to not understand what that means? Well for those who don’t know, the Enlightenment use of the term Man or Men refers to the human species or Homo sapiens. It did not mean the male of the species. The Founding Fathers had a vision and knew what they were doing. They were planning ahead. Jefferson believed it! He knew that the time was not right to fully force the belief of equality for all. It took the Civil War to knock down a barrier that kept slaves from being equal to their masters. It took Women’s Suffrage to remove the barrier that kept women from being equal to men. It took nearly five decades for the full recognition that all humans are equal.

 Yes, we are still having a few issues. The new issues are not easily discernible. Gender identity issues come to mind. You can no more tell the difference between gay and straight than you can tell the difference in German and Austrian. You can’t tell by looks. You can’t tell by language. You can’t even tell by their family name. So really, what difference does it make? NONE! You treat the individual as an individual and carry on. Why are we really concerned? Yes, I am ignoring the social conventions about differences, but those aren't real! They are something we made up. A proof in “made up” is the equality of animals to Man. No matter how you put it, there is and always will be a difference.

Okay, I’m a dreamer. What can I say? We will eventually get to a point in our existence that division is no longer desirable. I can tell you exactly when that is going to happen. It will happen the day we play out the opening ten minutes of The Day the Earth Stood Still. That monumental event will remove any division within the human species. We will finally be knocked off our individual pedestals and stand as one species on Earth.  Your neighbor of a different religion, ethnic background, and sexual orientation will be standing next to you and you both will understand there is no division.

VA comments on shutdown

You have seen how the politicians have pointed fingers at those they think is to blame for the government shutdown. The Veterans Administration has done the same. The VA's website blames Congress. I believe it is inappropriate for a government agency to comment on who's to blame for political made on the hill. It is not the place of any government agency to officially blame any agency.

VA Appropriations Lapse Plan

Dear Starbucks...

No Starbucks coffee shall pass through my lips. I refuse to allow myself to be uncomfortable just so others can be comfortable. I shall honor your request and not bring a gun into Starbucks. Sorry, but that means I won't be coming in either.

Need a crazed serial killer?

I have been watching Criminal Minds for about a year and I'm starting to get caught with episodes. This morning I caught the last ten minutes of "Our Darkest Hour" and found Tim Curry starring as the villain. Man, I do mean villain! I have been a fan of Tim Curry's for years and first saw him in Rocky Horror Picture Show. As he gets older, Curry refines his art. He really does have a knack for the bad guys. His performance in Criminal Minds shows he has taken 'bad' to a crazier level.