Be Careful What You Read

I usually keep my opinions on any socially prevalent issue to myself, out of respect for friends, colleagues, and relatives. My opinions is just that...an opinion. It's neither right nor wrong, but it does belong to me.

I can no longer stay silent as senseless slaughters happen all over this once great nation. Those in authority incite a divide that is quickly becoming a chasm. Mass hysteria reigns. People are unable to do the jobs they're paid for, and others protest because they think it's what they should do. Acts of graciousness and kindness go unreported, because they're not sensational enough.

I have many friends of different races, creeds, religions...and I can't choose whose life matters more...because they all matter. We all build in to each other's lives, daily, sometimes without even being aware we are doing so. Do I regret that white people held black people in the bondage of slavery? You'd better believe I do! Is my spirit shaken to its core when I see stories of children snatched in broad daylight, only to be sold in to sexual slavery? Yes! Am I horrified when officers, no matter their color, are murdered in the name of a cause that promotes hatred and divisiveness instead of promoting peace and efforts to combat senseless killing? You bet! This country doesn't need more killing! It needs more grace. More understanding. More accountability. More personal responsibility. Less selfishness. Less arrogance. More forgiveness. Folks...the people who are sworn to protect us from the actual bad guys are now targets. Are there bad cops? Yes. There are also bad doctors, bad lawyers, bad office workers, bad fast food workers...evil doesn't stay in one place. It spreads, like a disease. That's what this is, my friends. This is evil, on a rampage. Running willy-nilly, and wantonly shaking its wretched fist in our faces, egging on the worst in us, and suffocating the good.

A nation divided cannot stand. A long time ago I read a quote by Edmund Burke. I'll paraphrase it, and try to put a semi-modern day spin on it, "All it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing." If I don't stand up for what's right, then who? If you don't speak peace to those around you, then who? As a nation, we're sitting, waiting for someone else to start the turn of the tide. The tide only turns when one person stands up for the greater good.

When we die, our bodies decompose. Everything that is under the surface looks the same once hair and skin is gone. Regardless of skin color of the victims...we're killing our brothers and sisters, folks! And then, standing in the streets rejoicing over it. Or building walls of belligerence to keep out the few who try to stand and say stop the madness!

You might agree with me. You might not. The choice is yours. At some point, someone has to be bold, courageous, and determined. To do what is right, honorable, and noble, regardless of the cost. I will not pretend that I know what it's like to grow up black in America. Because I was born white. I don't know what it's like to be treated differently because of the color of my skin. But, I do know what it's like to try to face life with an attitude of gratitude. Every one of us has a choice to just accept others, or to start judging, based on skin color, ethnicity, religion, height, weight, social status...the list is endless! So, stop judging! What you judge by will most likely have nothing to do with who the person you're judging is on the inside. And, that's the person we should be looking at. Anything on the outside is extemporaneous. It can, does, and will change, given time. At the end of this journey, all we will have left is who we are deep inside. Let's start looking each other in the heart-take the time to really see someone's heart. Once we do that, everything else falls away because we're looking at the part of that person that's going to walk in to eternity.

Star Spangled Freedom

I'd be remiss if I didn't say something about the birthday of the country I love. This weekend, we celebrate our nation's freedom. We'll cook out. Watch fireworks. Get together with friends and family. Start vacations. Mow our lawns. Water our plants. We might even just sit and relax. All of these are part and parcel of what we, as Americans hold dear. We do these things because we want to-because somewhere along the line, a mom, dad, sweetheart, brother, sister, grandpa, grandma, spouse, child...has said goodbye unknowingly, for the last time to a person they love. Seen that person walk out the door, down the road, get in to a car, a bus, a van, a train, a plane...and they've never come back...at least, not alive. They get a box that holds a body, but not the spirit of the person they loved. They get a flag, a salute, a formal thank you-and they go home and try to figure out how they live their life now that a piece of it is gone. The person who is gone, went willingly, nobly, honorably, and was compelled by a sense of duty not everyone shares.
I'm a deeply patriotic person. I'm more grateful than I could even put in to words to have grown up in this great nation. It's not perfect, in fact it's far from it! But...it's my country. We're in the midst of so much political turmoil and unrest. Plainly insincere candidates vie for our votes, filling our ears with empty promises and meaningless words. Politicians are out to get what's best for them, personally, not our nation as a whole. In a world view, terrorists strike daily, tearing away at the morale of people just trying to live their lives. Making people feel a general uneasiness because no one knows when or where the next attack will happen.
And we Americans? We go about our daily lives, rarely cognizant of how much it's cost someone else for us to get up, get in the vehicle of our choosing, go to a drive through, and get a cup of coffee. I often wonder in what direction this great nation would head if people took just a moment, every day, to understand how thankful they should be. To realize that for the most part, we take this precious life we live, the freedoms we were born with, and the ability still to have a dream and live it out and make it come true-for granted.
If you served this great nation, and you're reading this blog...I salute you. I thank you, although thanks, while it's all I can offer you, seems woefully inadequate. This post is for you, and every single compatriot you served with or who went before you...and never came back because they gave the ultimate gift which always lurks in the background, but I believe seldom expected when one volunteers for duty. Freedom is never free. This country is built on the spirits, bodies, and lives of thousands of people you and I will never meet.  It's time for us to stop trampling the memory of those who so willingly gave all, and start living like their sacrifice matters! Old Glory won't seem so glorious trampled under the feet of those who want to dismantle this nation's history of freedom, democracy, and justice. No, we are not perfect. Never have been, never will be. This holiday, take a moment. We're in the dawn's early light. The gleam of twilight has just passed. Rockets angrily glare red, bombs burst in air, on the ground, everywhere it seems. But....she's still waving. Tattered, a couple hundred years old now, and spangled with 50 stars instead of only 13. It's up to us to prove that she still guides the land of the free, and the home of the brave.