5 Minutes

I woke up late for work this morning.  Well, later than I would have preferred to wake up.  My work schedule is really flexible.  However, I drive 90 minutes to work and 90 minutes back home.  Add 180 minutes on the road to a workday that fluctuates anywhere between 360-480 minutes per day, and you may understand why I do not like getting up later than I should.

What can I do though?  I cannot turn back time to wake up at 4:00AM.  So as 6:30AM rolled around, I finally rolled myself out of bed.  I showered, shaved, brushed my teeth, and dressed.  The time was 6:45AM by the time I finished.  If I left had left at that time I would then arrive at work around 8:15AM.

However, another variable comes into play to my time formula: the toddler.  Last night while I was away from home visiting with friends, my soon-to-be-2 year-old proceeded to terrorize my wife.  We are talking full blown WWE™ Extreme Rules© terrorizing.  Hand slaps to her face which caused her glasses to fly off, objects thrown, and complete temper meltdown were my son’s weapons of choice.  As I was in the shower this morning, he woke up in the same mood.

Finally dressed and ready to leave, my ill-tempered soon-to-be-2 year-old son came towards me reaching up with his little arms.  I picked him up and he proceeded to melt himself onto my shoulder as he draped his arms around my neck.  I looked at the clock, my wife looked at me and pleaded, “Why don’t you sit him a bit?”

I looked at the clock.  I looked at her.

“I’m late already,” I replied.  “What’s 5 more minutes?”

I sat on our glider and rocked him.  He turned to face the TV and leaned back against me; comfortable.  He was clam.  Maybe that 5 minutes was all he needed to make his day better.

What are 5 more minutes worth to someone?

Perhaps 5 more minutes of showing our love, our compassion, our respect to others would make all the difference in our world today.  Maybe if we took 5 minutes out of our busy life to eat a bowl of cereal with our kids than they would feel more important to us than a 9-to-5 job.  What if we took 5 minutes out of our time to buy Homeless Joe a cup of joe?  A meal? 

Would we make a difference?  Would 5 minutes make all the difference?

Society has us moving at such a fast pace reacting to this issue and that issue.  We become so focused on issues that most of the time are out of our control that we neglect to spend time on what really is most important in life.

Could you spare 5 more minutes?  Can I?

Stop reading this right now.  Turn your computer, your smart device, whatever you are using turn it off.  Spend 5 minutes with someone who actually needs you.

Until next time…

Love Did Not Win

We are living in an age of stupidity.  Truthfully, by our failure to look beyond the veil of selfishness, our very actions have retarded human civilization.

On 26 Jun 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 majority that all 50 states must recognize gay marriage.  Cheers and jeers broke out all at once across the nation, the world, on the streets, on social media, and anywhere else people could voice their thoughts.

“Victory,” LGBT supporters are shouting.

#LoveWins began trending on Twitter and Facebook.

Biblical condemnation shot down upon social media platforms spewing hell-fire and brimstone upon all who supported the decision.  Pleas for Jesus to return rose up again.  Conservatives cried about how this “nation of God” has now fallen into the hands of the devil.

Liberals fondled themselves with glee stating that equality had at last come to America.  The White House lit up in rainbow colors.  Supporters changed their Facebook profile picture to an altered image with rainbow colors.

VICTORY!

VICTORY!

All proclaim!

We have been deceived.

The SCOTUS decision was not a victory for gay people.  It was not a victory for equality.  It was a victory for the government.  Allowing the government in the past to define households by marriage was a small step towards being able to completely define marriage.  Now that the government can define something so personal; so intimate, what is to keep the government from completely controlling other personal and intimate aspects of our lives?

Truthfully, the whole marriage equality offense is a strategic smoke screen.  If the government can get us so riled up over an issue they and the media have propagated, than we will fail to notice the real issue. 

The government did the same thing with abortion.  Make killing innocent life about a woman’s choice and we will not focus on what the government is really trying to accomplish: population control.  In my Environmental Biology class this topic was assigned discussion.  The government is using the education system to indoctrinate us already with fascist, radical, and tyrannical ideologies.  The sad thing is this smoke screen is working.

True marriage equality would have looked like this:

• No government body; executive, legislative, and/or judicial, can define marriage of any kind; hetero- or homosexual;
• The government can no longer require couples seeking marriage to apply for a Licensure of Marriage;
• The government must accept the definition of household as the number of occupants in the house regardless of relationship; and as such: 
• Tax breaks as determined by household status either become null and void or consistent across the board.

If the SCOTUS had done their true job as defenders of the U.S. Constitution and the third part of checks and balances, than the SCOTUS would have ruled as stated above.  They would have removed the power of the government to define something so personal and intimate.  They would have ensured that something so personal and intimate is best left to the individual.  Instead, they chose to burn the Constitution and ensure our government has more power than they have had before.

Before I end this blog I should write about the Christian reaction to this “landmark” decision.  I have read numerous responses by Christians and they have completely disgusted me.

One such response was from a woman stating that the SCOTUS is “rubber stamping the leftist agenda”.  Interestingly, this same woman was probably not complaining when the SCOTUS was pushing the Conservative agenda.  This person serves as a perfect example of the selfish child who is happy until she does not get what she wants.

Then I see the typical response of “what right does the Supreme Court have to define marriage”?  Legit question.  I covered already they should not have the power to.  However, the problem I have with the question coming from self-righteous American Christian is they were not complaining about government intervention when they were defining marriage according to their beliefs.

Which leads to the third response I have seen: “Only the Bible can define marriage.”  This would be a perfectly fine statement if 100% of the population in America believed in the Bible.  However, we are not nor have we ever been a Christian nation.  This is not Old Testament Israel in the days of God anointed kings.  America was never a theocracy.  Never!

It would be tyrannical to rule the whole nation from a religious perspective and thus enslaving everyone to the same religion.  Let me put it this way: how many of my readers who are Christians would want a Muslim to become president and force his religion upon us?

Christians need to wake up and divorce themselves from the real defilement of marriage.  I am speaking about the marriage between Christianity and politics.  This world will never change if you continue to look and sound the same as it.  These past few days have made me realize I cannot tell the difference between Pastor Joe and Sinner John.

From a Christian perspective, the two best responses I have read are:

•  We must pray for and love one another;
•   We need to turn the power button off of our computers so we are not enticed to debate.  Instead we should spend time with our friends and families to show we love them more than we love our own opinions.

From a supporter of individual rights I say this:

• LGBT supporters, this was not a victory for equality.  It was a defeat for each and every one of us.
• This is not permission to be indecent with lewd behavior.  It is not permission to force your lifestyle upon others.  Do not continue to act in such a way that makes you no different than those you have accused as oppressors.

This nation, nay this world is falling apart.  However, it has less to do with the increase of immoral behavior.  In actuality, it has more to do with the complete lack of respect, compassion, and love toward one another.

Until next time…

It Is All Dixie’s Fault

Unfortunately, we are living in perilous times where it seems almost every week a new tragedy is being reported.  From domestic terrorist attacks to school shootings and now this past week to another church shooting in South Carolina. 

What these all have in common, besides them being carried out by those who practice ignorance, is how the media spins these events to take the focus away from the real problem.  Instead they place the spotlight on something the media wants the people to believe is the real issue. 

Take for example the South Carolina shooting in a church which congregation consists mostly of African-Americans.

Allow me to take a detour real quick.  I despise identifying churches as a “white church” or a “black church”.  The last time I read the Bible, and I admit it has been awhile, we are ALL supposed to worship as one.  There is to be no racial divide amongst God’s people.  Perhaps therein lies the first problem.

Returning to the main road of discussion, the focus of the blame for this shooting has gone the usual route: 

·         Where did this shooter come from?  Seems reasonable.  We need to know the motive behind a person who would carry out such an act.

·         What were his parents like?  Again, somewhat reasonable.  Maybe his parents were poor parents.

·         Why do we not have stronger gun control?  Anytime a mass shooting occurs this old debate comes up.  My problem with gun laws is they inevitably take guns away from law abiding people.  Why?  Because the whole point of being a criminal is they do not follow the law. 

·         This is all the Confederate Flag’s fault.  Wait.  What?!

Major props to the media for coming up with something new and creative to play the blame game and spin people away from the real issue at hand.  Gun control debate is tired.  Let us talk about a flag which was used one way at one time but has become something else in modern times.  Let us focus on this issue and run it like wildfire and meanwhile no one is talking about the real issue.

After all, I am writing this blog entirely about the Confederate Flag being banned now.  I am not talking about the killer.  That is who we should be talking about.  However, because my Facebook is being flooded with those who are just lapping up the milk the media gives them, here I am writing about this ridiculous issue.

I could go into the real history behind the Confederate Flag.  Why bother though?  No matter what I say about it being not a flag about preserving slavery but instead about preserving state rights, there will be those liberal die-hards and Abraham Lincoln loving, self-righteous eagles who will go on the offensive to retort me. 

I could say the Civil War was fought because the Union did not like the South being economically independent of the North.  However, a country cannot get the backing for a war because the government has their panties in a wad about economics (that is until George W. Bush became President).  So President Lincoln became the precursor to FOX News and spun a little web about this being about freeing the slaves.

Do not misunderstand me.  The slaves needed to be freed.  No person should ever live their life indentured to another human being.  No person should ever be treated as if they were some mindless animal.  No person should ever be used to gain success for another person and not be adequately paid for it.  However, the Civil War was not about that at all.  Do your own research though.  I am not going to spoon feed you.

The issue I have with the call to ban the Confederate Flag because it “represents racism” is when are we going to ban the Stars and Stripes?

I can already hear the guns cocking, the pickup trucks roaring to life, the eagles screeching towards my house, and chewing tobacco being spat in my direction for asking such a question.  Before everyone in this so-called nation of God attacks me, allow me the chance to explain myself.  Not soon after the American Revolutionary War which separated us from British rule and after our government was instituted, the original flag waved across the land as troops were sent to forcefully move Indians off the land they had occupied long before America ever became an idea.  If they did not move peacefully then the newly created American Army executed them.  All this while the Founding Fathers were quoting the Bible.  If the Confederate Flag represents racism, then does not the Stars and Stripes represent genocide?  Treachery?  Deceit?

This occurred soon after the formation of the American government but our history is filled with numerous times the Army being sent to kill Indians time and time again.  Treaties were made between the government and the tribes only for the same treaties to be broken.  Read about the Sand Creek Massacre as an example of this deceit.  Time and time again, while killing and forcefully relocating Indians, the Stars and Stripes flew.  If committing mass genocide was not enough, the American government instituted assimilation training to completely eradicate the Native American culture.  All the while the American flag, Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes flew.  If we are going to ban the Confederate Flag because it supposedly represents racism, then why are we not banning the Red, White, and Blue when it clearly represents mass genocide, assimilation, and racism itself?

I love Old Glory.  As I write this I remind myself I need to purchase a replacement flag for the stand I have outside.  I am not writing this to say we need to burn the American flag.  I spent twelve years defending it in the Army.  However, I do believe in common sense.  I do believe in truth.  I do believe in calling a spade a spade and challenging the idiocy perpetrated by our government, the media, and those who follow along.

I brought this point up on Facebook but I will bring it up here for those who are not my Facebook friends.  It is funny to me, but also annoying, that American Christians will cry for the banning of the Confederate flag because of the implied negativity of the symbol, and yet Christians wear a symbol upon their neck or hang it in their church and/or homes of a device used for torture and execution.  I am referring to, of course, the cross.  I wonder how many people living today have ancestors who were hung on the cross and sentenced to a cruel death.  Perhaps these people should demand the cross to be banned as well. 

I should bring this point up now that comparing the Confederate flag to the Nazi flag is illogical to say the least.  The Nazi flag is a clear symbol of hate, genocide, and ignorance.  It was designed by a man whose sole self-appointed purpose in life was to exterminate an entire group of people.  Though I can point out how the American flag was carried into Indian land as they were killed and/or forcefully relocated, I know the flag does not represent the original message of this country.  I also know the original intent of the South to secede was not to keep their slaves.  Therefore, in my opinion and based on common sense the Confederate flag cannot represent racism.

The word racism keeps popping up in my writing.  That should be the focus.  It should not be about banning the Confederate flag or banning General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard.  The focus should be on racism.  What can we do about it?  What can we do as human beings to eradicate it?  How can we bridge the gap? 

Until these questions are answered, or at the very least attempted to be answered, then no amount of banning symbols will amount to anything.  Until we quit separating ourselves in how we worship, how we love, whom we love, and whom we call brothers and sisters, then racism will continue to strive.  Yes, we should note our differences.  Our differences make us unique.  Different cultures make a beautiful rainbow of the human race.  However, our differences should not divide us.  They should bring us together.

Until next time…