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“Man Overboard,” both literally and figuratively speaking.

Mr. Speaker, in February of this year I tweeted to the President of the United States with no expectations that it would cross his eyes. Therefore, it was mostly an attempt to get a conversation started with the American people.  This blog is different Mr. Speaker.  It’s called “Man Overboard.”  But first I needed to give a little background.  In 2016 my book “Guidance Against the Odds” was published.  I had no writing experience, and the two-year process taught me a lot.  First and foremost, the words a person uses and how presented, written or spoken, can depict the character of a person.  In 1963 I was serving as a Fly Talker on the Flight deck of the USS Forrestal (CVA59).  I communicated with Flight Deck Control and other Fly Talkers in real time the physical positions of planes, personnel, and equipment.  In that job, I learned the valuable lesson of human/social cohesiveness.  On a typical day of flight operations in the Mediterranean Sea, a fellow shipmate fell overboard; to flight deck control, I immediately radioed “Man overboard!” “Man overboard,” port side!   As I watched him hit the water, the ship began to turn. I was later told by my Division Officer, the tone of my voice, gave no hesitation in notifying the Officer of the Day.  His words were true, for it was almost immediate when I heard the Boatswain of the Watch “Man Overboard” “Man Overboard, port side!”   This 81 thousand ton warship, the length of three football fields began to turn with shipmates working as a team to save a life.   Mr. Speaker, you are third in line to the presidency. As Commander in Chief, the words you use can make or break the cohesiveness of a nation.  “Loose lips sink ships,” meaning — “beware of unguarded talk.” When will real leaders yell “Man overboard” to our president to bring our country together?

N. C. Martin was my shipmate from the state of Ohio. I watched him hit the water belly first. He did not survive. Although his death was an accident, I learned something about human nature. I was 18 years old. For the record Mr. Speaker, I am now 73 and my account of life in my book “Guidance Against the Odds” is surely not fake news.  Let’s not trivialize Charlottesville, Virginia to a “both sides” scenario and the death of Heather Heyer who stood up for what she believed.  Call it for what it is — “Man Overboard.”

Henry Lee Faulkner

Chief Navy Counselor

U S Navy Retired

“The Real Baltimore: Communities”

Without violence while educating ourselves on how we got to this point… in the first place.   Then and only then will we be able to communicate on a higher level,  as with “The Real Baltimore Communities,” https://therealnews.com/bmore0620safebudget/   Conservatism has begun to triumph, paralleling the Civil Rights movement with potential violence never seen before.   The “marketers of discontent”  started with (College Republicans) in the seventies with two innovations.  The first was the adversarial (hate) fantasy, and the second was the discovery of the enormous profit that could be made with political entrepreneurs…  the “Lobbyist.”  Peddling right-wing grievances to the like-minded while the left wing (Liberals) were sleeping. Conservatism in general with (The President) has not openly disowned/condemned the Nazi Party, KKK or the White Nationalists, just the violence on both sides, as stated by the president.  A settle green light or demented moral authority for them to openly display hate.  Real Republicans must stand up, or the assumption of a racist party will continue.  A complete insight and good read would be “The Wrecking Crew” by Thomas Frank.  We are on the steps of a nuclear holocaust, and as a nation, we can’t see the Forrest for the Trees. “If there is no enemy within the enemy outside cannot hurt you.” Meaning: We are our own worst enemy.

“Guidance Against the Odds”©2016

Although commonly said a picture is worth a thousand words, the following a one- year time line written in five hundred and thirty-one words paints a vivid picture of Baltimore.  Baltimore, a city, proudly known for its American’s firsts.  First Roman Catholic cathedral (1821). First railroad (1827).  First shot tower (1828).  First dental college (1840).  First Ouija board (1892).  First rubber gloves used in surgery (1894).  Even the first permanent building topped with a revolving restaurant (Holiday Inn, 1964).  BUT!  There’s another first that one hears much less about.  Baltimore was the first U.S. city to pass a residential segregation ordinance (1911) referred to as “Baltimore Apartheid Style.”  Despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, discrimination is perpetuated even today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. (“American Apartheid” by  Douglas S. Massey and Nancy Denton.)  Segregation is both a consequence and a cause of black poverty.  It does not take a rocket scientist to conclude that poverty can be a breeding ground for violent crime. The dynamics are repetitive throughout major cities all across America.

Time line  August 22, 2016 – August 03, 2017

August 22, 2016, After a high-ranking official in the Baltimore police union with a history of making controversial statements — and getting disciplined for it, I entered the blog https://bookmystorysite.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/baltimore-my-baltimore/  Once again this official landed in hot water after referring to protesters of a Maryland Fraternal Order of Police conference in Baltimore August 14, 2016, as “thugs.” On his official department email account, he further stated: “On the bright side maybe they will stop killing each other while they are protesting us.” A generalized statement that one could conclude that he meant the demonstrators were all black and were all of the criminal persuasion. Of course, they were not, and if I called it a racist statement, there would come push back.

January 12, 2017, The Baltimore Sun reports on Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s consent decree statement. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/doj-report/bal-loretta-lynch-statements-doj-consent-decree-20170112-story.html This prompted “Take 2” of my blog “Baltimore My Baltimore,” seeing the consent decree as a positive step to an ever growing problem.

March 2017, seven Baltimore police officers were indicted for federal racketeering, crimes ranging from filing false overtime claims while recreating at casinos or committing crimes like robbing a driver during a traffic stop.

April 7, 2017, the City of Baltimore and the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a Consent Decree. https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925056/download which is a court enforceable agreement to resolve DOJ’s findings that it believed the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) had engaged in a pattern and practice of conduct that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and certain provisions of federal statutory law.

April 8, 2017, I wrote a blog titled “Waving the Proverbial Red Flag,” https://bookmystorydomain.blog/2017/04/08/waving-the-proverbial-red-flag/ trying to start a civil conversation on a not so settle trend, a perfect storm. A prevailing atmosphere which began with the Residential Segregation Ordinances of 1911-1913.

April 17, 2017, CNN reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that consent decrees between the federal government and local police departments on reforming police activities could lower police morale. Here again, was an individual’s actions/opinion with governmental policies perpetuating hyper-segregation. Adding flint to an already bulging power keg.

August 03, 2017 CNN reports: Baltimore police body camera videos show “multiple officers working together to manufacture evidence,” according to the public defender’s office, the second such instance of alleged misconduct caught on tape in recent weeks.

Trust between the policing authority and the community is now the biggest issue the city of Baltimore faces.  As Baltimore disintegrates due to violence, it is worth looking at how different the city is from its home state of Maryland. The differences are in many cases tremendous, and they point to the meager income, high unemployment, low home ownership and the high percentage of blacks and African Americans living in an apartheid mindsets compared to the state of Maryland. Going back to a fact and not a sociologist theory — poverty is the breeding grown for violent crime.  A no win situation.

Judgmental outsiders must dig deep into their souls while asking themselves: Are all demonstrators against police brutality thugs? Are all policeman void of being corrupt and heartlessly brutal? Finally, what role does the White House play in its continued display of brashness?

Henry Lee Faulkner

“Guidance Against the Odds” ©2016

bookmystory.net/NEWS-OR-REVIEW.html

One of the most important things for us to do as a nation is to prepare our children for their future, with the first decade of life being the quantifying period of their existence.  Hopefully, this blog will catch and subdue some of the angry souls who will read, searching for a point to argue.  This blog is non-fiction.  It’s about personal feelings, observations, and the “Cause and Effect” of what we do and say to one another.   Adults, at any given moment, are unsuspecting role models to our children, especially those in political power.  This blog is made, in essence, as if I am speaking to the Choir. Therefore, it is not intended to explain the already known, advise, or convert anyone to a particular way of thinking.  Its intent is for the altruistic and not the pugnacious personality to wit a continuous exchange of productive ideas would be impossible.   We all have our paths to travel, and we all must make, and be responsible for, our own decisions. This blog, like all of my previous blogs, is a continuing effort to put my spiritual beliefs in writing, reaching out to the soul of America for those individuals who prefer to talk with other people for interpersonal growth, rather than about people on the downside.

Metaphorically speaking, many of the citizens of this great nation have boarded a despicable bus.  A bus that is traveling on the road to nowhere fueled by brevity in 140 characters or less.   Although I believe morality is intuitively present in most, if not all of us, it is inconspicuously seated at the rear of the bus.

Several years ago, at the beginning of the Christmas season, while visiting friends and relatives, I observed a child, (who shall remain nameless) compiling a Christmas list of expectations, or so I thought.  I became nostalgic, caught up in the display of his enthusiasm. Being presumptuous of his age, I naturally assumed it was a letter to Santa.  My melancholy ended when the adults began to converse, finding it amusing, as I soon realized the child was in competition with his siblings and friends.  Behavior tantamount to gambling or counting chickens before they hatch. The boy was gathering names, making a list of expected gift-givers, and not the traditional wish list to Santa.

While I welcomed the child’s joy and wanted his happiness to carry through, it was hard to move past the feeling of submissiveness.  I wanted to say something about the possible arrogant, conceited, and boastful seeds I felt were being planted, a progressive avenue toward a prerogative feeling of entitlement.   Later, in the absence of the children, I was tempted to say something but refrained. I didn’t get the sense there could be a “Spiritual Partnership.”   Anticipating pushback, I remained silent.   Feeling, perhaps my words would create a platform for a verbal crucifixion. In other words, push back — Twitter style — in the flesh, with persecution for acting holier than thou.  In no way do I feel I have a submissive personality, but there are situations where silence is golden.  In essence, I went along – to get along.  Etiquette and the principles of meaningful communication, for growth in the spirit, have become diluted through the empowerment of instant and brief communications. As a child, I learned so much from my grandfather, who had no formal education, only wisdom through the word.  Many of his words ring so vividly now.   “God warns man against quarreling.”  Those are his exact words. Subversion is of no value except to the perpetrator and ruins those who listen, our children.

How many of us just go along to get along?  Likewise, how many of us take the rear seat and watch others influence the mentality and direction of the bus driver and the faith of our children?   How many of us see the trees, but ignore the embers to a potential Forrest Fire?  The fate of our nation and our children is at issue, with fear and hate in the driver’s seat. This is not my last blog.

Henry Lee Faulkner

“Guidance Against the Odds”  ©2016

https://bookmystorydomain.blog/ bookmystory.net, twitter.com/hlf442207, and Facebook.

There is so much running through my head, feeling helpless as most Americans should feel in these trying times, as I am drowning in obscurity, struggling with the “Us versus Them” syndrome of public indulgence. Like the President, I take to Twitter to share my thoughts, taking care not to attack another human being by calling names as to their principles or beliefs. Recently, I commented on a tweet by @JudgeJeanine in her use of the word snowflake in her description of a significant portion of the American population. My growing concern is with her language, likening it to a fire-spewing dragon following an oil tanker. Therefore, when you want your followers to jell and believe in you to infinity, add a joke adjective to your commentary. Like a dog whistle, in politics, the adjective serves as an adhesive, the gum, the bonding agent of we versus them. It’s a rhetorical strategy, attacking a person’s character, motive, or some other attribute rather than discussing the substance of the argument itself. No doubt she would call me a snowflake if my beliefs conflicted with Her’s. Nothing is funny about the 22 years of my life in the military with an oath to defend Judge Pirro’s right to free speech. “Loose lips can sink ships.”

The seeds of dysfunction are planted, germinating, and becoming normalized. The human nature of defensiveness sets in, and partisanship becomes deadlocked. We are in a pickle. The only ones who can change these spontaneous discourses are “We the People,” not the headliners of demagoguery. If we, the people, actually believe in The Preamble to the Constitution, we don’t attend church to learn the art of degradation.

  Henry Lee Faulkner, Chief Navy Counselor, US Navy Ret.

bookmystory.net

Guidance Against the Odds ©2016

Like a dysfunctional family…. We are on “A Long Road to Nowhere………………..”

We are reactionary rather than preventative.    ……. We are a society predicated on fear and hatred, with mistrust of thy neighbor, now a dominating factor in our daily lives.   The decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire would be the perfect indicator of where the direction our country is heading.  The causes and effects are glaringly many, with politics at the top of the list.  The Roman Empire’s ruling body lost the strength to exercise effective control thru the weakening of the economy, the incompetence of the emperor, the religious changes of the period, the inefficiency of the local civil administration, and racism.   Finally, there was an increasing threat from “barbarians” outside Rome.  Sounds familiar?  Notwithstanding all the same indicators, we fail to smell the smoke nor see the irony of Aesop’s fable “The Four Oxen and the Lion” and the idiom “United we Stand, divided we fall.”

I read a story a few years back about the fact that African Americans consume more fast food than any other race in America.  Also,, in that same time frame, there was a Nielson report, indicating that African Americans watch more TV than any other group.   Now, what does this have to do with the long road to nowhere?  This a fair question, which leads to the idiom “opinions are like posteriors; everybody has one.” But through rationalization, to accomplish an objective, the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions are likened to the rising of the oceans, the erosion of our shorelines, and climax change. So, settle, we hardly even notice. This leads to polling/surveys.   Surveys or claims of a survey can be taken on any subject, depending on how the question is worded to get the required results.

The early 1950’s, it was my adolescent years. Fast food was a foreign idea, and the TV was a reward for not causing my parents any problems.  Sitting at the dinner table at 4 o’clock was an unwritten family tradition.  There was only one television in the house, located in the living room or what was called the front room.  I preferred laying on the floor right under this marvelous box, in order to rotate the knob between channels 2, 11, and 13.  Only three channels, but still unknown to me, there was powerful subjective imagery with subliminal influences, with  “Superman,” “Amos and Andy,” and movies about “Tarzan, King of the Apes among my favorites.

I felt happy as an adolescent, not being conscious of the fact that I was blessed but, at the same time, being mentally programmed.  Blessed with parents who had searched for the American dream.  A dream of a better life on a “Long Road to Nowhere.  Their unadulterated courage,  migrating from farm life to Baltimore, in the early 1930s, was a mental strength I can still now not imagine.  It was a shot in the dark for them,  none other than playing the lottery at a million-to-one odds with their life.  A time in American history, when there was no Middle class. A nebulous concept, being either rich or poor.  Jim Crow was hanging in the balance.  A time when segregation was a distinct and dominatingly transparent way of life for a substantial number of America’s citizens. World War II was over.  In 1944 the GI Bill provided returning veterans with money for college, businesses, and home mortgages, which gave way to the beginning of a class of Americans between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots.  1944 was the year of my birth.

In 2013, I was on the steps of turning 70.  All-in, after chasing and capturing that proverbial American dream.  A home and higher education meant that I had arrived … or did it?   2013 was a dubious year.  I found myself reflecting, concentrating excessively on that “Long Road to Nowhere,” which my parents had taken.  Now a grandparent myself and watching my grandchildren grow into puberty, poverty is a fear in my subconscious.  It’s daunting.  Not because they aren’t happy, healthy, and well taken care of, but because of the virtual existence of a colony.  “A Colony In A Nation” by Chris Hayes in the most powerful nation on earth.  A colony where one’s life could be changed or snuffed out in an instant.  A colony, waiting in the balance for my grandchildren and millions of unsuspecting children, just because they are not white.

In 2013, “A Colony in A Nation” had not been written, but  my reflecting was the catalyst in the writing of my book, “Guidance Against the Odds.”  The overt controlling elements of the pre-60s era have long passed, but there persists in me a feeling of repression.  A subliminal hindrance transcended through osmosis programming.  For years, I had put faith in the “American Dream,  shielding myself constantly from what the naysayers of society implied as to what African Americans suffer from society. 2016 has resurrected the surface tensions of the 60s, at a time when divide and conquer politics are exacerbating racial strife and economic inequality. There is a need for a profound awakening of justice-loving people united in a coalition, powerful enough to reclaim the possibility of democracy. “The Third Reconstruction” by the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, a modern-day civil rights champion. Outlines in his book how he helped to start a movement to bridge America’s racial divide, which has come to be known as Moral Mondays.

Two Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

The Abstract:

To some, it’s theoretical; to others, it’s conceptual, but to many, the long road to nowhere is anchored in the abstract or the metaphysical. The natural nature of the human mind.

Henry Lee Faulkner

Guidance Against the Odds ©2016

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has criticized an agreement between the city of Baltimore and the Justice Department to overhaul the city’s police department.  A Consent Decree that could perhaps set the stage for change, possibly reversing the Causes and Effects of Apartheid Baltimore Style: the Residential Segregation Ordinances of 1910-1913, the first of its kind in the United States.

There are many among us who delude themselves into believing that we live in a post-racial society.  With each passing day, it becomes profusely transparent that this is a farce.  Negative attitudes towards minorities have exacerbated substantially, with many thanks due to those who misuse religious principles to gain political power.  Also, there are those who infuse fear through the megaphone of the media backed by big money.  i.e.

Joe Walsh‏ verified account  @WalshFreedom

At 1:02 pm on 26 Oct 2016 he posted:

“On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket.       You in?”

With over 3,000 retweets, almost 6,000 likes, and over 8,000 replies; what is this but a dog whistle?  At the same time, my web page   http://www.bookmystory.net/Baltimore-My-Baltimore.html  may never see the light of day.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he has “grave concerns that some provisions of this decree will reduce the lawful powers of the police department and result in a less safe city,” Is it a crystal ball or political ploy?  Surely it is not from the experience of restrictive economics and impoverished living.

“In daily life we assume things.  But, if we would on closer scrutiny, TAKE DOWN OUR VIRTUAL WALLs we may find our assumptions to be full of contradictions.   If we endeavor to search for truth and certainty, it is only natural that we start using our life experiences, the prisms from which we have no doubt developed our mindsets over time.  In one’s infinite wisdom, there is no way possible, without personal contact,  one can tell another’s life experiences; therefore prejudgments come into play.  Acceptance or not by whites, racism is an underlying factor in everyday life for many African-Americans.  Judgments are natural, but when these judgments are put into play brings forth challenges and at worst, demeaning consequences. 

White House press secretary to a reporter:  “I’am sorry that discuss you,” “You’re shaking your head,”  “At some point you’ve got to take no for an answer.”  It is not necessarily what you say, but the demenor in which you say it.  Recalling a similar exchange by the president with the same reporter.

“The Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution aside, the human rights of my ancestors and most other Black families’ ancestors were ripped away and violated in a virulent form of moral and political hypocrisy. The result was that racism became part of America’s national heritage that we refused to even teach about in school.” “The Presidency In Black and White,” by April Ryan.

Philosophically speaking, if I were seated in a public library, sitting in a chair, at a table of a particular shape, on which I see sheets of paper with writing or print. By turning my head, I see out of the window buildings, the sky with clouds and the sun. I believe that the sun is about ninety-three million miles from the earth; that it is a hot globe many times bigger than the earth; that God slung it there. It rises every morning and will continue to do so for an indefinite time in the future. I believe that, if any other reasonable person came into the library, they would see the same chairs and tables and books and papers as I see. When they would look out the window, they would see buildings, clouds, and the sun. Their belief as to how the Sun came into existence may differ, but the Sun will always be a certain entity in its existence.  However, as an African-American sitting in a public library and a white American comes upon me…….. The possibility of two worlds colliding may well be inevitable.  One life built on stereotypes taught and the other residing consistently in the subconscious in the reality of a racially divided nation.  The learned enigma in superiority within the personality of the one individual can never be completely camouflaged and will always ignite the natural intuitive instincts of the “lived” indignities of the soul in the other.

Human-made attitudes, displaying itself “Against the Odds” within the “Entity of the Mind.”   The Mind, just like the “Sun” an infinite creation, not measurable by any mortal.   Mindsets, definitively and defensively postured, dwelling just below the surface. Waiting like a fox in the night, spontaneously erupting, reinforcing the memory of the elephant in the room; emitting disparagement to any possibility of Spiritual Partnering.  “Spiritual Partnering:  the freedom  given by the Soul to the personality to demonstrate the love of God.”

        Henry Lee Faulkner 

                 “Guidance Against The Odds” ©2016

 

 

 

When the president says, at the conclusion of an interview, “Look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not. You know. Say hello to everybody, OK?”

This is the height of conceit. Every service man or women who have served with pride has placed their lives on the line thru the oath they’ve taken by putting the country first, not themselves. I can not be quiet Mr. President when I feel dishonored. Your job is to unite us, not give us arrogant remarks.

I recently finished reading a book called “Hit Makers” by Derek Thompson, and on March 1, 2017, I came across this cute picture from News 6 TV out of Richmond, Va., with the following:
“This morning, Jax and I were discussing his wild hair. I told him that he needed a haircut this weekend. He said he wanted his head shaved short so he could look like his friend Reddy. He said he couldn’t wait to go to school on Monday with his hair like Reddy’s so that his teacher wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. He thought confusing his teacher with the same haircut would be hilarious. 
 Here’s a picture of Jax and Reddy from their Christmas program. I’m sure you all see the resemblance. 
 If this isn’t proof that hate and prejudice are something that is taught, I don’t know what is. The only difference Jax sees in the two of them is their hair.”

This story really touched me. At the age of six, in 1950, I lost my best friend because of segregation. His name was Bernie. Some things stay with you for life. In 1998, I was in my Internship to complete Substitute Teacher training, and the unthinkable happened. A first grader, with the ears of his classmates, asked me a question. ” Are you a…..? And then the “n” word came out. It has been almost twenty years, and I still can see the seriousness on his face.

This blog is for the intuitive thinkers of the millennial generation because it is hard for middle age people to change. “Hit Makers” is recommended if there is a concern for future generations. The partisanship on issues, the bully mindset, and fear-mongering is a culture that needs to die a quick death. Hate is still being taught in back rooms at the breakfast table and by the cowardly displays of vandalism at Jewish centers and grave sites around the nation. “Hit Makers” gives an insight into the psychology of why people like what they like and the cultural chaos in social networks. I did the audio version, bookmarking notes that stood out. The following is a synopsis, in my view.

There is economic value in cultural differences in the social network. There are ways to engineer words and in the repetition to get people to believe almost anything. The architecture of the human mind is ancient, with the basic needs to belong to escape and to aspire. To understand and to be understood are eternal, but there comes anxiety in learning something new, giving resistance to change. We share bad news with friends but only good news with friends on Facebook. Millions of people compete for attention on social media, at times using the bully pulpit to get a reaction and attention, no different than the hate enthusiast that operates in the sneak of the night. Memory was once civilization’s library, with half the world unable to read or write as late as 1960. Now our minds are full of someone else’s alternative facts.

I pray that Jax and Reddy are still friends when they reach my age. It was the summer of 1949 when Bernie and I became friends. He would always welcome me with a smile. We started school the next year, and the smile went away. We never spoke again.

“The Melting Pot” needs some attention.

When polemic was borrowed into English from French polemique in the mid-17th century, it referred to a type of hostile attack on someone’s ideas or beliefs.    The word traces back to Greek polemikos, which means “warlike” or “hostile.”    Calvinism and Arminianism are two systems of theology that attempt to explain the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the matter of salvation. Calvinism is named after John Calvin, a French theologian who lived from 1509-1564. Arminianism is named for Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian who lived from 1560-1609.

Since the 16th century,  Calvinism has held to the total depravity of man, while Arminianism holds to partial depravity.  Why I Am Not an Arminian By Robert A. Peterson, Michael D. Williams, and  Why I Am Not a Calvinist By Jerry L. Walls, Joseph R. Dongell

What I believe, living in the land of the purposively free, is my business, granted by the First Amendment, a fundamental principle of our modern democracy. Tom Brokaw marked his 50th anniversary recently on NBC, looking back on his memorable milestones. He said that throughout his career, race relations in America had been the issue that most troubled him. He often wondered if he were black or his skin one shade darker, would he have gotten all those chances.  “We need to find a way to talk to each other,” he said, a statement I’ve heard all my adult life.  Finally, he also said: “The problem is from the ground up.”  His statement made me think of Dr. King’s words about the appalling 11 o’clock hour in America, which is the most segregated hour of the week, Sunday mornings.  Race and religion, metaphorically speaking, are America’s Pandora’s box.

 We openly debate gay rights, women’s rights, the right to life, etc., seemingly to no avail. And as soon as race becomes front and center, there’s a more tremendous pushback.  “Black Lives Matter.” (No!  All lives matter became the kickback.)  Of course, all lives matter.  Furthermore, when it comes to religion, to a certain extent, it becomes taboo across denominational lines.  In retrospect, as I write this tweet, I may be opening up my own Pandora’s box.  But, at some point, some things must be said.

There’s food for thought. Whether we believe or not, according to the myth, Pandora opened a jar releasing all the evils of humanity.  Two of the evils no doubt, were the bully mindset and the mouth that induces fear through a bully pulpit.  The Native Americans were savages; blacks will rape your women, let’s intern the Japanese.  Now it’s the people of Mexico and Muslims.  People that can be visibly identified. This promotes fear, coupled with stereotyping, and acerbates race relations.   In 1998, planning my years for after retirement, I studied to become a Substitute Teacher. During the week of my internship at a school with little to no blacks, I was asked by a first grader, “are you a, and then the “N” word came out.  This is profoundly trickle-down racism from fear or embedded hate.  Children only repeat what they hear and what is deliberately taught. 

Believe what you may in your faith, but my faith teaches me that we all are here with a purpose. In 2013 I was inspirited by the actions of my grandchildren to write a book, not having an inkling of writing experience.  All in all, in my way to be an example in their lives, you can do anything you put your mind to doing. I started to feel and later began to believe after my book was published it was my real purpose in life, a predetermined destiny.  In my epilogue, I wrote my perception. To the Millennial generation, I asked them to look at the issues of the times while encouraging them to vote, not knowing the outcome of the upcoming election. I wanted my book “Guidance Against the Odds” to become a lesson plan for the conversation of race relations.  In that light, I chose to forgo the extra cost of my publisher for promotions,  using the money in a direct mail campaign.  Colleges and Universities, Libraries, and Churches of various denominations all across the nation.  Even sending letters directly to Ministers and magazines.  Out of all the postcards, letters, and e-mails, only one acceptance, with a few thanks but no thanks. Substantiating to me Tom Brokaw’s feelings about race and Dr. King’s words about the 11 o’clock hour.

Baltimore County Public Library of Maryland excepted my book and placed it on its shelves within three weeks.   As a believer, I believe that God gives us miracles to show us his love. **I happen to live in Baltimore County.**  The poem at the beginning of this tweet, in fact, did happen. It could have been a dream; I don’t remember waking up.  “Miracles We Have Seen” by Harley A. Rotbart, MD. It would be a good read, especially for the skeptic and the bully minded.  Dr. Rotbart was featured on an episode of Dr. Oz.

“There is nothing to fear but fear itself,” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural address.  The meaning of which is:  nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear-mongering (except for personal gain) which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance, i.e., the polarization of our government.  I say to America the plug needs to be pulled, de-energizing the negative current separating us by race and religion.   Where there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can not hurt you. (African Proverb)