statueman's Blog

I'm sorry... I wish there had been a better way.  I wish we had an army of peace... an army of 10% under arms and 90% under humanitarian supply that we could have sent into Iraq and Afghanistan.  But we don’t have such an Army.  We have a military with hi-tech weaponry and youthful Americans who volunteer to serve this country for any number of reasons.  And we have President who got congress to support a move that many have re-considered as a mistake.  I don’t think it was... I don’t think any American service member has died in Iraq in vain.  I don’t think that any American service member that is now serving in Iraq is serving there in vain.  But I do think we’re making one very huge blunder…

As I watch the History Channel sometimes (I called it the Hitler Channel when it first came out) I’ve been very entertained by a show they produce called “Great Blunders in History”.  Now if I look back at the time where Saddam Hussein was thumbing his nose at United Nations inspections and re-write history without an invasion by US Forces I cannot help but think that we’d possibly be in much worse shape than we are right now.  It is possible that our resolve to help maintain stability in the Middle East while at the same time combating terrorist organizations toe to toe, boot to boot would have been seriously in question.  It seemed to me at the time that Saddam Hussein had beaten off the whole world and it would be business as usual until the day he died.  I couldn’t bear the thought of it at the time… how far was he from forming alliances and propelling yet another war with Israel and greatly effecting world trade and oil prices.  It didn’t seem to far fetched to me…

It was time to roll… we knew it… and we did.  Because we elected a recovering alcoholic nut for President who had the guts, the foresight and the will to let the world know that when it comes to terrorism… we mean business.  For my part though… I think we are making one huge blunder…

 

We as Americans of the United States need to establish a “Say and Do” foreign policy.  We need to tell Mexico that there will be no more illegal immigration coming out of their country into ours.   After an agreed upon period of time we should draft an Army… maybe one made up of all those illegal immigrants already here and we need to go to war over the blatant disregard for our border.  How many more deaths and kidnappings and illicit drug trading do we need to put up with?  How about a 5 year war using an Army instead of a 50 year police action using an agency?

For my part I think that this “Say and Do” foreign policy need’s to be enacted and ran like a war… funding it by the spoils of war and not just by taxation.   When violence is done to our nation then we can talk to the nation who is at fault after we have conquered that nation in a war.  We can enact diplomatic solutions that will benefit both nations after that we have killed and/or imprisoned those perpetuating the problems that require those diplomatic solutions.

 

Now… our huge blunder wasn’t going to war in Iraq and occupying their nation.  Since we disbanded the Iraqi Army one blunder is not putting enough American troops in the region to let Iran know that we mean business.   By now we should be amassing troops along the border of Iran.  Didn’t we all put nations arming and sending off terrorist to do their thing on notice?   Shouldn’t we be putting Iran on notice?

No… our great blunder is not in going to war in 2004.  Our great blunder is in not having one very large exit strategy that we enacted with a timetable announced as soon as the war was won.  We can only offer the potential for Individual peace and freedom in a nation… because truly-truly that is all we really have here in this country.  We should have a clear objective and clear statement that we as the American people make to the Middle East nations and indeed all the worlds nations.  We need to make a new Constitution that addresses foreign policy issues.  Not a constitutional amendment but a clear Constitution between the American People and the World on what will get a nation in serious trouble with us.   And what we will do after we invade and as we are pulling out.  Yes, it’s time we let the world know what parts of our constitution we will require of nations who want to have dealings with us in a simple… short… concise document that speaks to the next 100 years of American "Say and Do" Foreign Policy.

You know every once and awhile I check out the myfoxphilly site cause for a time I was blogging here with you folks and it got alittle heated over the police beating those suspects.  Then I tried to write from a more comedic viewpoint using movies and popular history and television... you know... those shared experiences that we can all relate to?  For my part though I do what I do with my blogging cause I got faith.  I'm not just talking about faith in Christ as our Savior but faith in people.  Sometimes it seems to me like some of us have lost faith in some folks in this country... some of those folks we've lost faith in do indeed seem to have lost faith in themselves... and to make things worse some of those who have lost faith in themselves have lost faith altogether.

Sometimes like everyone else I just wonder what it is I can do to help.  For my part I think the answer is simple... so simple that we would... faith or no faith...just quiet down and ask our God or our conscience what we can do to make things better then we might actually get an answer.  Then of course it's either we act on it or we don't.  I think that for some of us it will be as simple as asking God if what we are thinking and saying about our fellow humans is the right?  Are we calling people animals and having no faith in them?  Are we thinking rightly about one another or have we got a mindset that is allowing the cycle of violence and neglect to continue? 

According to New Testament scripture "we all fall short" of the glory or God.  We don't earn the grace we recieve... none of us.  So what does it profit us to have an attitude that others don't want to change when we won't even change the way we're thinking about them?   If we claim to love the God we don't see how can we hate or otherwise lack faith in the folks we do see unless we think God did not create all humans in his image. 

Are some of us working so hard that we take the time to notice how everyone else isn't working as hard as we are?  Don't be that one who lets sound bite or tid bits of gossip or news form your whole opinion of a person or a group.  Don't be that one who idolizes one man over another since judging others is not good in either direction since everyone can let you down and everyone can suprise you. 

Be that one who takes the time to breath deep and instead of cursing that driver who cut you off says a prayer for them.  Be that  one who has faith that with God all things are possible and be ready to help do the impossible.  Be that one who has faith in yourself because you have faith in your God, faith in your family and faith in those who you have direct influence on and faith in your country.   Ask God today to show you something you can do, say or even just think that will give good faith for all the folks in Philly.

We all want to know what's going to happen next.  Sometimes we look to our horror scopes (misspelling intentional) and sometimes we look to our pastors and preachers and sometimes we call the psychic friends network or even look to our political leaders.

I'm tired of it... nobodies making accurate prophecies these days... and I mean the kind of 100 % accurate prophecies that those who sit and really listen to our original being "I AM" can and do give.  I mean that humble soul that like the one Milla and Lee Lee got to play who told the British that France will be it's own country within so many years and it happened.  And I'm not Catholic but I respect most of the saints they burnt and later cannonized. 

Anywho...

What I'm talking about is the tendency for folks in this country to idolize the wrong folks and then get suprised when they vomit.  Dr Dobson, Rev Hagee, Rev Wright are all equal examples of people in powerful positions who let their influence and authority over-ride their submission to well... God.  And can I judge these men?  Well... I can read and I've read many parts of the New Testament many times inorder to correct myself and assumed they were doing that too.   However what I'm finding is that maybe these hot heads are in the positions there in because most of us wouldn't know a man or woman of God if we tripped o'er them.

Most of us are looking for the End Times Prophet... the one who will accurately herald the return of the one none of us would have ever persecuted or put up on a cross.  But what's funniest to me about this is that those who think they would have never crucified a truely good person are elevating somewhat good people and perverting the humility that service to God should entail.  That's why we have so many competing prophets... and I'm here to tell you that it's your fault if you still believe in a prophet who has made inaccurate prophecies.

My prophecy is there are no real prophets of God speaking at this time.  We'd have to humble ourselves as a Nation and cry out to God for it to happen.   Alot of folks have a part of the truth but they arn't sharing and what's worse they are clinging to errors in principle or errors in practice.  We are lost as a nation and we are ripe for invasion from within from millions of illegal aliens who we don't seem to want to convert ...

Oh well...  So I'm seeking the End Times Prophet.  I won't pay him or her a dime unless they call me to walk with them.... then I'll give everything I have.  But if I'm just meant to listen then listen and obey I pray I do... but doubts always plague us when we're looking for the End Times Prophet and then find him or her... So we wind up back at Hagee's church paying $29.95 for prophetic theory...  excuse me while I scratch my ears.

OK so Ward, June, Wally and the Beaver are all sitting around the television today cheering on Doctor Dobson as he gave Obama what for on how he views this wonderfully free country as long as you're a christian.

Here we go again... first they call him an appeaser like ole Wilt Chamberlain (or was it Neville)... then they try to take him out for not taking government campaigne funds(a brotha that don't take welfare how dare he)... now they gonna really get him for not accepting the fact that this country is mostly christian and everybody seems to know that and accept that but Barack Hussein Obama.

Here we go again...  crying out that the typical leer jet liberals are going to march us into another world trade center cause republicans do war right.   Only now ole James Dobson is going to sit this election out cause Mc Cain ain't as conservative as he thought.  Wow... John may be craftier than even the Obama camps giving him credit for.  Nothing saying Dobson knows that to... it is, after all, an election.

Yeah... hold on... the beaver is asking me if I'd like to go outside and play catch.   Well, I love the Beaver, he's a good boy and Ward and June are such nice people who usually look alot more deeply at what's going on in their country... sometimes they even ask me what I think and I appreciate that.  "Oh no... wait a second Beaver... Wally!  Eddies here!"

(So in a nut shell... Senator Obama challenges christians to make their arguements according to reason and not just according to scripture.  This is a very novel approach to an old arguement and he's going to win it.  Dobson is looking like an offended Hannity and is showing why Republicans don't want to talk to anyone without asking unaswerable questions.  Alan Keyes, the black republican who ran against Obama in the senate race questioned Obama's christianity and this is still a personal attack on Obama's beliefs.  Republicans had their chance to groom a black presidential candidate but it looks like the secular humerist family guys happy gay baby democrates stole their chance.   Republicans tried to legislate morality since conversion was too hard and time consuming.   Conservative Evangelicals need to get a clue... survival might require revival and that within and not without since Dobsons message is sure falling on deaf ears outside of his own followers.  After all it's hard to focus on a family when dads in jail and momma's on drugs and the only job offers coming are from the guys on the corner.   Boy that's a big nut shell.)

"When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job, or your home, or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies – to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and mastered.
We learn, at the last, to look at our bothers as aliens, alien men with whom we share a city, but not a community, men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in a common effort. We learn to share only a common fear – only a common desire to retreat from each other – only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done is too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in this land of ours. Of course we cannot vanish it with a program.
But we can perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek – as do we – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely this bond of common faith, surely this bond of common goals, can begin to teach us something.  Surely we can learn, at the least, to look around at those of us of our fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again." Robert F Kennedy, April 5, 1968

One day when I was watching "Oh Brother Where Art Though" a solution to one of the problems facing the United States of America came to me in a waking vision.  The following blog explains that vision.

Are you concerned?  Are you fearful for your country and it's future?  If there is one problem that is contributing to what ultimately will threaten the future peace and prosperity of this nation what would that problem be and how would you address it?

I think one such problem is the economic and social state of many African American communities in this country.  And I'm speaking specificly of communities populated with the descendants of former United States of America's African slaves.  I am not talking about the new immigrant African American communities. 

Here are some psychic solutions for the problem of continued African American slave mentalities and resentments in the United States of America.

Solution Number One

   Outlaw and irradicate institutions in this country that have a history of civil rights abuses against ancestors of former United States of America's slaves.  Any institution that murdered large numbers of African Americans in this country and is still protected under the laws of free speech and religion need to irradicated and outlawed.  These organizations should be named and their rallies stopped, their property confiscated and the groups or families perpetuating these organiztions and unwilling to denounce named organizations be promptly exiled.

(Note:  This not to exclude any organization of any anti ethnic persuasion of any type that has a history of murder and civil rights abuses.)

Solution Number Two

  Open the coffers of the Faith Based Initiative funds and let large numbers of religios and secular charity organizations mobilize a Philantropic Army immune to legal prosection with the express purpose of transplanting whole inner city and/or problem area communities with training and counselling and economic empowerment zones.  A new domestic Peace Corps if you will utilizing recent college graduates (student loans repaid).  Please note that many organizations who are successful at doing this already exsist and merely expanding and implementing things they cannot now afford to do would see drastic reductions in crime and unemployment in less than 10 years time.

(Note;  These organizations will be racially integrated and help all those in poverty who have a downtrodden mentality or stigma place upon them.)

Solution Number Three

  Re-write and unify  law enforcement Standard Operational Procedures for all States and put every Law Enforcement Officer, Institution and Court System under research survaillence by creating racial cases and assessing once and for all if our own legal system is perpetuating racial injustice in this country.  Nothing wrong with alittle ethical retraining of those in the legal justice system is there?

(Note; Some of these organization may have to be disbanded and temporarily replaced with National Guard Units.)

Ok so... that's just off the top of my head in 30 minutes ... but I've watched... listened too and paid enough attention to know that the seeming absurdities you've just read are not without merit.   This need not happen with the spilling of blood if a clear majority of us agree that certain institutions and operational procedures need to irradicated and disposed of peacefully and yet with extreme finality. 

So there you have it... Oh Brothers where art thou?  Do we keep singing Enie Menie Miny Mo in this country or do we get behind those misogynistic Soggy Bottom Boys and sing "Man of Constant Sorrows" along with "You are my Sunshine" as we run the real root of our problems out of town on a rail?

It's good to be back in L.A.!  But after a mere 14 days back in the Southern Illinois in a small town outside of St Louis Missouri I've discovered that my love for Los Angeles has returned after being absent for many years due to some unreasonable fear of living in a largely populated metropolis.  I would call it Metrophobia but apparently that's a fear of poetry... must have been a cityboy that came up with that...

Anywho... While I was in Alton/Wood River Illinois I decided to blog at myfox St Louis and my picture was even placed on the blog page a couple of times!  I kind of like the picture of me cause it hides the fact that I have no chin.  And the image presents an aspect of humor that I try to maintain most of the time.  Not all issues are humorous and I think one of our mistake as a culture is to find humor in everything.

Last Anywho... Now that I'm back in Los Angeles blogging with a most famous group of myfox bloggers who are known at the other myfox blog sites around the nation I just wanted to say I missed you guys.  We have here at myfox Los Angeles blogs a more personal touch then most other myfox blog sites.  Many times here you'll actually get a chance to conversate a bit with the reporters that work on the local news.   From what I've seen this happens here more than the other myfox blog sites with the exception of myfox philly.

Something about writing to folks that you might see on the street that day gives me a boost inside.  I find this blog thing to be very theraputic... and an article in some science journal backs that up... oh heck let me google that... Yes, yes my father showed me the article in "Scientific American" entitled "Blogging--It's Good for You" and I won't post a link so google it if you're interested.  Already this morning I'm feeling a bit better... had horrible jet lag from having to spend the night in the Denver Airport due to bad weather so of course, no hotel spif.

I never thought I'd say it's good to be back in Los Angeles.  So my fellow bloggers and staff of Fox News LA who may be reading... please know that you guys are a big part of the reason I feel that way.  Please also have a look at the blogs I wrote at the myfox St Louis and do post some thing in them if I interest or anger you.  After all... it's theraputic.

Ok so I've been here in town visiting with family.  Tried to stay awake during the new Indiana Jones movie with a childhood friend.  Looked up an old girlfriend and got some letters I wrote 25 years ago.  (Man... talk about a troll...)  And have had many interesting moments with my father who suffers from Parkinsons.

I grew up in Alton for awhile... a few years here and a few years there.  I've have, bar none, more bad memories from here then any where else I've ever lived and I've lived in places not a few.  Folks around these parts seem to be so focused on race still to this day in a way that is evident in these blogs.   This focus on race is always blamed on the next guy or the other race person.  From what I've seen in these blogs and in some conversations some folks can hardly believe it when I tell them I'm conservative republican and that I support John Mc Cains bid for the presidency.  I cannot support Senator Obama, and I do like the man to be sure... but I have a problem with anyone who would actually lend any support to planned parenthood where 13 million abortions of African American children are reported by the Centers for Disease Control to have happened since 1979.  Also as a veteran I have much respect for Senator Mc Cains views on how we should be behaving as Americans especially when it comes to issues of torture.

But getting back to Senator Obama lately I've been trying... in vain it seems... to point out to the right wing nut jobs and ultra conservative "white" super christianites that they do the Republican party a disservice with the way they are criticizing Barack Obama.   In fact ... from my lite skinned african often mistaken for white American perspective I can see why most self respecting educated successful and yes "conservative" African Americans in this part of the country could in no way ever even consider joining what I think is the more enlightened political perspective for this countries future.  And that perspective on how to solve the problems facing this country that I think is more enlightened, more responsible and true to personal responsibilty over government interventions it the perspective of the Republican Party.

But back to 13 Million African American Abortions since 1979 and all the planned parenthood clinics in the ghetto's between the store front church's and the liquor stores.   To me that's an issue that makes Reverend Wrights incessantly played sound bite and now the new sound bites with the Priest preaching in his church seem insignificant.  And I'm sorry but I also don't think Universal heath care is a good idea either.  Spend money on health care by bolstering education across the board... from grammer to masters.

Anywho... I thought I might be a prophet but instead I'm just a prose man with a hope that we can indeed one day be open minded enough in this country to have an other than amer-anglo-euro president.  But it seems to me that in no uncertain terms the critics of Barack Obama are out of touch with the reality of the politically incorrect racist presentations of the conservative cause.  One would think that those with a valid perspective wouldn't do anything that might invalidate it in the eye's of those it might help the most.  Shame on you for being so short sighted... or perhaps the plain fact of the matter is that the people that care the most about the plight of  a segment of our population are the ones euthanizing it.

I believe in my country... I love my country but I reserve the right to critcize my country without condemning my country.  But I also see the need to respect and consider the perspectives of others on how to best handle the challenges we all facing as citizens the United States of America.  We have the best system of government the our world has ever seen...  but in some of our potential we lack resolve or the ability to agree on how best to proceed.  Reverend Wright has a perspective... Sean Hannity and Bill O'Rielly have a perspective... Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee have a perspective... Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs have a perspective... but little ole blogger me Peter Skinner aka statueman I also have a perspective... and from my view unless the fringe elements of the republican party who are either closet racist or just willfully ignorant and illiterate in their so called political incorrectness don't learn to present their points of view with some degree apparent compassion then Senator Obama will have them  to thank during his State of the Union address.

From my perspective Senator John Mc Cain had the most qualified perspective to lead this country at this present moment in time.

So with that, I bid you Saint Lousians and surrounding areaites adieu.  If you're a democrate, take a republican to lunch.  If you're a republican... be sure to chew you're food well and don't talk with your mouth full and listen, listen, listen before you speak.... as you may actually have something valid to say once you've actually listened.  It's back to Los Angeles for me!  Where the issues are all in black,white, brown, yellow and bronze... Now theres a perspective!

OK that's it... first Huckabee and now Hillary have made comments about Barack Obama possibly being assasinated.

If it had been Colin Powell running for president I have hard time believing some of the same nonsense that's going on now would not be going on with his campaign.

This country is heading for a train wreck because a black man is a front runner for the presidency.  My poetic impression was that it will be Mc Cain by a landslide...

From my January 2007 blog "A Muslim for President?" (Check Archives)

"OK, so here's my poetic take on it. Don't worry, Senator Barack Obama will not become the next president. Hillary won't either. We will elect John Mc Cain and the vote will not be split he will win decisively. However the war in Iraq will escalate and we will be embroiled in a border war with Iran before the year 2009. At this time Senator Barack Obama will go to the middle east and broker a peace treaty that will be widely accepted as one of the most ingenious idea's since the Declaration of Independence."

OK so I'm just fooling around a bit... but these issues coming up now I think show that Obama has every chance of becoming president. 

So first Huckabee and the chair shooting comment and now Hillary,

"Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, she said: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race."

Well... we've seen it all folks.  A truly bipartisan moment in American politcal history.

I've been to all kinds of Christian Churches in America.  One idea that came into my mind as I sat in an all (or mostly) 'white' church and then in an all (or mostly) 'black' church is that wouldn't it be great if one Sunday they switched Choirs?

I don't know how to bring Americans closer together but I do know that music sung by the human voice is one of the most shared and positive human experiences we all can relate to on a spiritual or hear felt level.

In my travels I've also been to Asian and Latino Christian Churches and thought it best not to finish this without mentioning them.  I've never been to an Islamic Temple or a Jewish Synagogue but they too are Americans and I think it best to mention them as well.  Oddly enough I remember the idea today as I watched a PBS broadcast of 'Celtic Women'.  I was living in Wood River at the time and remembered thinking about buying a ticket to see them in St Louis but couldn't quite fit them into the budget.

Perhaps it's one idea that might bring us all closer together.  Not a time of politics, race or even religion but a time of celebrating life through song and gratitude for what we all share no matter what... a beating heart.

The Choir Exchange Program.

I happened across this little girl singing on Simon Cowell Britians Got Talent.  Connie Talbot, a six year old girl who her parents say sings in her sleep.  Her audition on Britians Got Talent is beyond amazing and the youtube to date has been viewed a whopping 17,941,981 times.    

 

Man I love republicans... I'm a black man and a conservative and you can call me Uncle Tom all day long but I love republicans and I will tell you why.

Cause most of them got a book that I like to read... only I try to read it twice as much as they do and leave off with reading to much else when I want an insight into how we should be acting on the world stage.  (Though the Art of War by Tsun Zu is pretty good.)

Anywho... I love republicans!  I love um!  Cause when somebody does something they disagree with it's so easy to make reference to the good book so you can show them where they are screwing up.  Take ole Hagee for instance, God forgive me but I know that the last time I checked... prophets judge an area or a community and tell them a disaster is on the way if they don't change... But not ole Hagee... he's the one who tells folks they lost their house to a flood cause they're evil.  Seems to me that if God had told him to tell folks that he would have told them before they lost their house.

Let's see... Califonia just passed Gay marriage... hope we don't have a big earthquake cause then we're really gonna get it from Hagee.  And Mc Cain will probably win and after that Hagee will run for president and win cause folks will think he did warn us and Snake Plisken will have to go into the Los Angeles Island prison and save President Hagee's daughter...  Bet you thought Snake was dead didn't you?

And did I tell you I love republicans?  Cause I do... I really do and I love Jesus and I'm against Planned Parenthood and think we need to rethink abortion on demand and we need to fight crime and drugs and illegal immigration but when did we go to war with a religion?  Look... if we're going to do that then let's do it right and take all the volunteers to the crusades that want to go and we can secure Jerusalem for anybody who wants to live there to live there in peace.  We can become the last nation on earth to go on a Crusade to the Holy Lands with soldiers from every religion.   Then maybe in  10 years they'll be a Chinese woman and an Irish Transvestite facing off in the US democratic primaries in Syria. 

I think if Jesus was here today he'd tell the parable of the good Muslim.  Folks in other nations judge us by the fact that we are bought and sold on the fear mongering of our leadership when there are peace loving folks all through the middle east who are willing to die for that peace and freedom.  And some of these are Christian Arabs and Christian Palestinians (and secular folks too) are praying that cooler American heads will prevail and quite with the incessant prophetic interpretation and start with some real live good ole American prophetic action.  Maybe we should have waited until Saddam did something before we invaded.  Maybe we should just wait until something really horrible happens ten times as big as 9/11... But we didn't and that's why I love republicans.  We got boots on the ground "Over There" so now it's time to talk but nobodies doing it cause like the first Bush said... we suffer from a white adult male intelligence community.   And we would have done so well to put the Iraq Army to work but like idiots we disbanded them and guess what soldiers go and do when you fire them?  (We used that German Army pretty well though...)

We got to get a grip... there is a way to fight this war that will help all of us but if we don't get out of this amer-euro bred everybodies a nut case but us mentality then 9/11s gonna look like a picnic.  Nixon sat down with China... Reagan sat down with Russia... and I might have to overlook Planned Parenthood so that Obama might sit down with Radical Islam... thought I'd rather Mc Cain did it but at this point I don't think he'd get anywhere.  Maybe it's a good thing some Americans think Obama's a muslim.   But I love republicans... don't get me wrong...  But if we gonna bless Isreal inorder to be blessed maybe we should update those teachings to the new testament and ask God to bless Iran and Hezbullah and Syria and France and Ireland and...

When I was growing up in small town southern Illinois I found out that I was the first black man in a lot of things in that town… all before the age of 10.  I was the first black man in many white folk’s houses.  I was the first black friend of many boys my age and by default the first black to ever sit down to dinner with their families.  As I grew up I was constantly asked if I considered myself white or black and it took me quite some time to understand the question.  Oh I had plenty of black friends and was soon known for getting the black friends and the white friends together though that was easier said than done.

 

It’s sad because the town I lived in hasn’t changed much.  The same racial tensions my age group experienced has been conveniently but decisively passed on to the next generation.  Also my area is still the victim of much false Christian teaching equating color with character and interracial marriage with national security issues.  Now I am a Christian and a conservative republican fundamentalist style one at that but I reserve prophecy for future and not past events.  So to say that the mongrel hordes are coming is well… too late… might want to start heading back to Europe.

 

You see I was born with the civil rights amendment in 64 and at the age of 3 in 1967 the law against inter-racial marriage was taken off the books and of course Sidney showed up for dinner.  Soon after a charming but not too educated white couple started sing “Those were the Days” and were quickly followed by a black couple singing “Moving on Up”.  But before that Uhura kissed Captain Kirk and TV stations got bomb threats and I tried to write myself into the Star Trek plot but Gene told me it was too soon.

 

So here we are… one grown up mixed kids impressions of very mercies of God at work in a country he was blessed to be born in.  God Bless America land that I love stand beside her and guide her with the light from the lamp up above!  So now we hold these truths to be self evident that people can and should change in order to form a more perfect union and insure domestic tranquility.  But how can we re-habilitate what was never habilitated to begin with?  We gotta learn to be crazy about one another and not just go crazy on one another.  Do we really need a book to tell us God is Love?  Do we really need laws to make us a civilized society?  Do we really need churches to show us how we de-segregated but never integrated?  Well… yes, yes and no.

 

What the next step is I don’t know…  But we better find out… Cause we can’t go on pretending to be color blind when the big pink elephant in our living room is more than just a drug and alcohol problem.  We can’t keep pretending to know the answers when they present no solutions.  We can’t keep on doing the same things the same way and expecting different results.   We can’t keep on shaking our heads and throwing our hands up in despair when bowing our heads and holding hands in hope and prayer might just get us the help we need.

 

Philadelphia you are the birth place of my… of “our” freedom and the apple of the eye of each and every American Citizen and peace and freedom loving folks everywhere on planet earth.  Rocky Balboa perhaps said it best after his fight in Russia (Rocky VI) when the crowd went from booing him to cheering him on…“If I can change, and you can change, everybody can change.” 

Richard Pryor did alot through his humor to promote understanding between us... I laughed so hard at some of his humor that it hurts me to remember the pain his humor hid sometimes.  What a wonderful gift he shared with us all... Especially, and correct me if I'm wrong, when the old man at the picnic in the park in "Which Way is Up" was looking around from his lawn chair complaining that someone had stolen his piece of chicken.

These racial issues are going to stop when we start to honestly look at why things are the way they are. Enough with the color blind song and dance routine... enough with the Bill Cosby, Al Sharpton, Rev Wright nonsense.  When did we all get to be such experts on the issue?  Did you notice there's no shortage of us who think we know why things are the way the are?  Some of us are all that and a bucket of chicken.

When we look at the area's in our own sphere of influence what do we see that we are or aren't doing that keeps this problem alive?  I think that one reason may be the patronizing know it all statementst like I'm reading alot in these blogs can be an indicator of why Philly is the way it is. A closet racist is still a racist even though they don't see it in themselves. If you're one of those prone to accusing black folks of reverse racism then own up to being a double reverse racist because it's insanely circular to keep looking for the racist.  If you're one of those black folks who's consistent in looking for the closet racist then you probably are the reverse. 

Do you want to know one reason why affirmative action didn't and will never work?  The closet racist is told they must higher the minority so they found the most unqualified candidates they could and then made the case that these unqualified candidates only got the position because they were a minority.  Want to know why minorities from other nations do so much better than American slave descendants?  Because they actually brought suitcases and bank accounts with them and lend heavily to those of their own that didn't.

But here we sit... us US Americans complaining like an old man in the park that "somebody stole my piece of chicken!"  But the fact is we have no idea who stole our  piece of chicken we just know that the only ones in the park is us.  And it's time we all came together and stopped complaining and accusing and started taking up a collection and frying up some more chicken.  Then we come together an organize some games for the kids and  letting them know... as if they didn't already... what fools we've all been acting like and promising to give them all equal treatment and no more Romeo and Juliet scenarios or genetic excuses for hating one another.

So here we go... cops may go to jail and I hope that the judge and the jury are given wisdom to find out not just who but why.   I pray that the city of Brotherly Love would have a revelation, an awakening that will spread through out the country.  Mostly though I plead with all extremist thinkers to rethink their positions on these issues and look more closely at what they are calling facts.  The earth is not flat... so let's go get some more chicken and see if we can get our grand fathers to sit down and talk.

You ever want to write something or do something that would change the world for the better?

I was sitting outside getting some fresh air and thinking of all the problems we have in this country with our legal justice system.  Then I thought of how incredibly effective the integration of the Uniformed Military Services are... I thought of some of the wonderful articles on Military History I read while I was working in a training and doctrines command and then I thought of the one thing that stuck in my head as being one of the main reasons why ours is the best military on the face of the earth.  That one reason is that military historians interviewed everyone within the scope of a mission to see what went wrong and what went right.  So the officers could not hide from the observations of mere privates.  No prestige is taken into account... just hard cold overall facts that show how, from top to bottom, to increase operational effectiveness.

Then I got to thinking about those Philly cops who beat those suspects... about that man who spent time in jail and wanted a lying prosecutor to go to jail because he claims the man lied... about the other lawyer who said that no one would want to work in our justice system if that prosecutor is sent to jail.  I got to thinking how wonderful it would be if we approached our justice system the way the military historians approach operational procedures.

It dawned on me that what is legal needs to line up with what is just and that in so many instances we have operational procedures in our legal system that don't allow that.  What if we approached our legal system with blanket amenesty inorder to take a more accurate historical record of what we are doing that is working and what we are doing that is not working?

So that's my psuedo educated theory...  Justice is no easy word to define and illegal may not necessarily mean unjust.   The domestic foot soldiers we have in our police forces need our suppot.  And lately I've been very saddened by the fact that I cannot support the unjust actions of police officers who beat three young men they believed shot and killed one their fellow officers.  But isn't this just the sort of behavior we've come to accept and even expect in this country?  We can make movies about the problem but can't seem to find any solution.  For my part I submit that there is a solution already there that we simply refuse to implement.  And that solution I say with pride can be found in how our own military historians go about the task of improving our war making abitlities.

Remember the movie "Glory"?  It fills me with pride to think of a unit of African American Federal giving their lives for this country... the movie I'm sure filled many people with pride.  We fight for a greater cause in this country.  One of the only sentences I remember from basic training when I was in the Army was when my black captain and company commander said, "Welcome to the United States Army... The most successfully integrated organization on the face of this earth."  And I believe that there is alot to be learned from our Military that would translate well into our legal system to create a more Just and integrated American society where  what is illegal is so because it is unjust.