The dichotomy of wealth

We see on television and on the streets the plight of those homeless, starving people in the United States. It's a common sight. I know you've seen it. You also we commercials  of groups collecting money for the poor, uninsured people who can't afford to get medical care. The are literally dying because they cannot get good health care. I don't have to remind you of this. We are all well aware of what is going on. Yet, on the same television channel, you see commercials for Disney World, Beaches, Viking Cruises and other fabulous places to vacation.  let's not forget the commercials for Mercedes, BMW's, Jaguars and other luxury vehicles including the ones made here in the U.S.

People that are barely getting by don't need to see commercials about Beaches and Cancun. Poor children will probably see Space Mountain or ride the Harry Potter at Universal. They can only only dream of going to such places. To them the closed they are going to get to Disney World is visiting the Disney Store. The commercials are really slapping the under $20,000 a year people in the face.

I am not saying that it's a bad thing to be rich. I am not saying there is anything wrong with being poor. I am not suggesting that the money made should be taken from one and given to another. I am saying that more could be done to help those who do without. The wealthy should be more giving. Wouldn't it be great if a $200k a year family would treat a $12k a year family. Send the family on a Disney cruise. Who would it hurt?

Rubbing it in the noses of the poor does not help anyone. it does cause problems between the classes. I know you have seen those science fiction movies where one group live high in floating cities, in crystal palaces, while the other group drudge around in muck, fighting to stay alive. Well, we're getting there!

Martyrs for the cause

My theory...AND my opinion...

Because of the seeming endless failures of liberal socialists to pass stronger gun legislation, they have stepped up the pressure by using young men as martyrs. Prompting these young men to to murder helpless people and then either commit suicide or "death by cop." This gets the nations attention and forces the nation to focus on the evils of guns.

For instance,...

Every time there is a mass shooting, the parents of the suspected killers denounce gun owners and their Constitutional rights by expressing their Constitutional rights.

For the most part, mass shootings have been in liberal states. While not all mass shootings occur in these states, it is suspicious that they do.

The timing is seemingly scheduled. Every mass shooting occurs after the last one has faded away from national attention.

All the socialist or communist causes are painted with the blood of martyrs.

Notice, that the focus is not on the victims but on the murderers. There is immediate rush of sympathy for the families, but that soon passes. That is the real issue. The victims and their families need more concern that the suspect.

All the suspects suffered from depression and on anti-depressants. It is commonly referred to as being troubled or disturbed.

Not one suspect or their families has taken responsibility for their actions. Their refusal to focus on what they did or didn't do is questionable. It's easier to blame someone else or an inanimate object.

Now, they are focusing on our American heroes. 


I'm not asking you to believe, agree or anything. It just looks like a pattern has been developing.

My prophecy...there will be a mass shooting in a conservative state in the southern U.S. in 4-6 months time.

So, Texting and Driving is Illegal?

Tennessee state law says that texting while driving is illegal. That's only on paper. People really don't care. In a recent trip through Nashville, I was passed with literally dozens of drivers confidently texting. Even saw a woman in a new Mercedes happily texting with her right hand. In the past few weeks, I even say a nice sticker on a car that warned against texting and driving. Yep, the driver was texting! Tell me there's a law that makes texting while driving illegal. You would think there would be cars lined up along the shoulder of the highway texting away. Nope! Furthermore, it doesn't seem to matter for the police.

The State's website, Top Ten Traffic Safety Laws for TN Visitors , has texting as the number one law to know. Really! Go look at the address. Tennesseans don't obey the law, so why should visitors. The no texting law in Tennessee has no teeth. If you get a ticket for texting and driving, it is a maximum $60 fine and no points on your driver's license. I see it as useless! If you want to really stop people from texting behind the wheel, make it $1000 fine and 30 days in jail with increasing penalties for multiple offenses. The DUI law hasn't stopped drinking and driving with it's stiff penalties! How would you expect a wimpy no texting law to stop those with the criminal mentality to text!

Texting while driving is like Prohibition. It just doesn't work!

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.