IN DEFENSE OF CHRISTIAN ANGER

It has been brought to my attention that on past occasions my Facebook posts dealing with social issues have  been perceived as my being angry and, therefore, are considered not to be in keeping with my professed "Christianity," as though anger and/or righteous indignation are somehow incongruous with the Christian faith. I disagree. 

Hardly a celebrity, I nevertheless believe I have a significant following on Facebook, and most people would agree that the majority of my posts are lighthearted and hopefully are so regarded as being uplifting and void of overly-opinionated flights of voiced dissatisfaction. Still, I would be far less than honest with myself or with my followers if I didn't admit that on occasion  I do climb high upon my white steed and charge headlong into some topic of personal aggravation. So yes, I do allow my anger to come to the fore. Steadfastly, I make no apologies for that genuine emotion.

Whether by omission or commission of the observed offenders of my sensibilities, the character flaws that bring my blood to a slow boil are abject stupidity, incompetence, hypocrisy, laziness, arrogance, ignorance and occasionally a mismatched fashion assemble. (But the latter shall be reserved for a future rant...)

To suggest that a "Christian" must always abstain from the employment of anger or otherwise bear the slings and arrows of incrimination for failing to live up to the tenants and precepts of an always perceived gentile faith is, if you'll pardon my indiscretion, ludicrous. One only need to consult the scriptures of the Bible to discover that even God himself was not without wrathful righteous indignation when occasion and circumstance warranted. Dig into the New Testament  gospels of Mark and John and one will read where Christ Jesus himself became righteously angry at the observed defilement of the temple courts, wherein the money changers were unabashedly deriving an ill-begotten profit by selling animal sacrifices to the Jewish sojourners who had come to the Temple to ritualistic repent of their sins. So incensed (read: angry) was Jesus that He fashioned a "whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and (are you ready for this?) overturned their tables."  To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:15-16) With  no more than even a cursory reading of these verses, one would be in folly to suggest that Christ was more than just a little "hot under the collar." Let me be so bold as to suggest that Christ was angry and had every justifiable reason for being so.

So, let's abstain from the notion that a Christian is to suppress this most basic of human emotions in order to placate some misguided sense of Christian piety. Both God and his Son displayed anger when provoked to do so for justifiable reasons. And as humans, created in their image, we too are imbued with that same behavioral characteristic as well. Where this emotion becomes harmful and uncharacteristic of a Christian, or any rational individual for that matter, is when the anger spills over into spitefulness, vindictiveness, bitterness or a quest for unrequited vengeance. If in my past posts or posts yet to be published, I have slipped or may venture into the darker side of anger, then I stand accused as charged and offer my humblest apologies. 

But let's not falsely accuse me or any other professing Christian of losing their grip on their religion because they allow anger to color their opinions or quest for redress. I daresay that there was an undercurrent of angry dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church when Martin Luther pinned his ninety-five theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. I dare say that the Christians of the colonies were more than just a little angry on numerous historical occasions with the despotic rule of Mother England. The Boston Tea Party comes to mind. And I dare say that Martin Luther King, Jr. was not immune from a sense of anger and frustration as he marched repeatedly through the south to protest the deliberate and malicious subjugation of the oppressed black citizens of this nation. No, don't tell me that anger has no role to play in a Christian of conscience. The righteous anger of many Christians have and will continue to strive to turn the pages of history for the betterment of all mankind. Equal justice for all is some times best sought and acquired when the flames of anger and righteous indignation are ignited.  

A Path We Can No Longer Follow...

August 9th.  18 year old Michael Brown fatally shot in the middle of the street in Ferguson, Missouri. November 22. 12 year old Tamri Rice fatally shot on the playground of a recreation center in Cleveland, Ohio. Similarities: both were back youth. Both were killed by white police officers. The details surrounding both tragic occurrences continue to be debated, centering on who was right and who was in the wrong. After the smoke from the smoldering ruins of the burned out buildings of Ferguson have been lost to the winter winds and the stinging tears have dried from the eyes of the loved ones who morn the loss of young Tamri, the larger question remains: Who among us all do not bear some responsibility for these two tragic events occurring in the first place? If this larger question remains unanswered, this nation shall revisit far too often again and again similar tragedies of unnecessary loss of life.

Beyond the facts, proved or assumed, in both incidents, lie festering realities that at base comprise the basis for the conflict of the racial divide that is today prevalent in this country. Fear and suspicion. A broad unspoken societal fear and suspicion that neither the black nor the white race as separate and distinct entities can be trusted to have the best interest of the other at heart. That we are not in this journey of life together, striving for the same things;  peace, security and tranquility. At the detriment of the other race, we must first look first and foremost to protect and preserve our own self-interest. Out of this fear and suspicion grows a cancer of assumptions that left unchecked, unexplored, and undefined rips ever widening jagged holes in the fabric of our society.

Young Tamri had in his possession a toy gun that was modified to appear to be an authentic and potentially deadly weapon, capable of doing grave bodily harm. A two-fold question arises. Of lesser consequence is what was the underlying motivation behind the toy gun being modified to appear to be a real semi-automatic pistol? Of greater concern, is why Tamri felt compelled to even be in possession of the instrument that was a leading direct consequence of his death?  "Well, he was just a boy and this was just a toy gun." He is dead and the reasoning on his part must be explained and understood, fore the argument that he was just an immature boy playing some type of game for his own entertainment cannot fully explain the underlying root causes that resulted in his death. Stark unfortunate truth: He was a black boy in a predominately black neighborhood banishing what appeared to be a deadly weapon. The unintended triggers on his part that lead to his being fatally shot. 

Arriving on the scene are two Cleveland City police officers, they having received a radio call that there was an individual in the park displaying menacingly what appeared to be a gun, that might be "fake," but was still greatly concerning those who were witnessing the behavior. That individual was 12 year old Tamri Rice. The officers confronted Tamri and directed him to put his hands up. The officers reported that Tamri failed to follow their commands and instead "reached into his waistband" to retrieve what appeared to the officers to be a handgun. Two shots rang out, one of which proved to be the fatal stomach wound to Tamri..

The questions swirling around the aftermath of this incident are many. Was the shooting justified? Could lesser measures been utilized to avert the tragic outcome? Had this been a white youth in a predominately white neighborhood, would the two white police officers have employed the same tactics? Valid questions all. 

The police would proclaim, and justifiably so, that when confronted by an individual who appears to be an immediate threat to their life and limb, they are instructed to employ whatever measures necessary in order to avert the danger, up to an including the use of deadly force. Still a 12 year old boy banishing in reality a toy gun lies on the cold playground but mere hours from breathing his last. Any person in possession of a deadly instrument of death must understand that they have at their disposal half the power of God. 

Fear, suspicion and assumptions that need not have played a role in the deaths of either Michael Brown or Tamri Rice, but were simmering just below the surface of consciousness as ingrained learned generational behaviors that feed a cancer that has spread to epidemic proportions in the chasm of our country's racial divide. 

The symptomatic causes of this racial strife are many. The proliferation of guns in our society plays a major role in fostering mistrust between the varying segments of our populace. Did Tamri adopt the gang mentality that being in the possession of a fire arm proclaims powerful unassailable masculinity? That a gun grants immediate access to being respected? Why do some whites proclaim that possessing a firearm is a mandatory necessity for self-protection? Protection from what? Marauding black gangs? In the inner-city back on black crime is daily punctuated by the deadly use of guns. Rolling into these neighborhoods come the local police agencies, forearmed with the assumption that every black individual encountered is armed and determined to defy their authority. A charged atmosphere of  mistrust permeates the encounter. As a result youth like Tamri and Michael lie bleeding in the streets. Cooperation, understanding and the deescalation of events take a back seat to immediate irrational assumption. Guns, no matter who possesses them for whatever rationalized reason, do not promote the sanctity and worthiness of life, but to the contrary renders life too often as expendable fodder for the undertakers. 

An absence of equal access to opportunity to better oneself in our free enterprise society also serves as the fuel of mistrust and resentment within the black community. It is folly for white society not to understand and grasp the undeniable reality that by the mere color of our skin and by the mere accident of birth that we sit in the front row of opportunity. Indeed recognized and applaud-able strides have been accomplished to level the playing field for all minority ethnic groups to partake in the bounty of realized self-actualization. But there remains still far too many hurdles for many of our minority citizens to overcome. By being black far too often come with strings of added requirements to gain access to opportunity that white privileged citizens are automatically afforded. Until our society fully recognizes that all its citizens have an equal right to sit at the table of opportunity in all its many varying and encompassing facets, there will continue to be an out-crying and rebellion arising from our black citizens that see their present circumstances of existence as a desperate trap and their futures bleak and void of promise. 

    

We must all come to an understanding that the promotion of equality of the races is all of our personal concern. Silence in the face of recognized inequality shall serve only to fuel the fires of a thousand additional Fergusons. Being merely content and quick to ascribe blame for the consequences of such acts of lawless rebellions shall never address the true causes of such acts. They will continue to lie beneath the ashes of the burned out buildings and behind the tears of those who mourn the loss of their tragically lost loved ones. A new generation of citizens must be given birth and fostered by we who see and understand the folly of our current course. A generation that embraces from birth that education is the gateway to opportunity. That access to that education, regardless of race, color or creed, must be a quality education, equal for and to all. That privilege is no longer to be regarded as a matter or skin color, but an equal right of citizenship. If together we do not purposefully grasp each others hands in this quest for equality for all, the promise of America shall never be realized and the God ordained greatness of our nation shall be lost in the dust of history. 

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." - Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Simple Math... Simple Solution...

Confused? No need to be. Ignor what the media talking heads and double-speak politicians rattle on about the woeful state of our nation's degraded economy. Here, in the most simplest of explanations, is an "in your face" illustration of how totally upside down and mismanaged are our national finanaces.  

Illustration No. 1:

* U.S. Collectible Tax Revenues: $2,170,000,000,000

* Current Federal Budget: $3,820,000,00000,000

* New Debt: $1,650,000,000,000

* Current National Debt: $14,271,000,000,000

* Most Recent Budget Reductions: $38,500,000,000

Now remove 8 zeros and use the same figures to illustrate a household budget:

* Annual Family Earned Income: $21,700 

* Money the Family Spent in the Year: $38,200

* New Debt Added to the Credit Card: $16,500

* Outstanding Balance on Credit Card: $142,710

* Total Budget Cuts Made: $38.50

Got it????

Okay, now let's look at yet another eye-opening illustration of our debt crisis...

Let's say you come home from work one afternoon and discover that your entire neighborhood has been inundated with a flood of raw seweage, and your home has the foul mess all the way to your ceiling.

What do you think would be the MOST LOGICAL step to take to eradicate the problem?

Raise the ceiling or pump out the crap?

Your opportunity to place your hand on the pump handle arrives this November. To do nothing is to further guarantee that your children and grandchildren will drown in the crap we've left behind.

"Tain't Funny, McGee..."

"It's always fun to come to Florida because you never know what might kill you."  So proclaimed Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central's the Daily Show, where he appeared this past Saturday evening in Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall before a reported sellout crowd of 2,000 Stewart vapid devotees. (I've seen larger crowds of rubber-neckers at a car wreck, but that's another matter entirely.) "It's just a weird state (Florida). You have spring break, where you invite thousands of drunken frat people down. And if you feel threatened by them, you can kill them."  

Stewart, the bombastic, self-anointed king of satirical humor, was lamely attempting to ridicule Florida's "stand your ground" self-defence law, which is currently undergoing nationwide scrutiny principally as a result of the February shooting death that occurred in Sanford, Florida of 16 year old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed community watch guard. A much needed review of the nuances and specifics of the law as a result of that tragic occurrence need not be a subject for debate, but to diminish the importance of such a review by trivializing its life and death consequences with black satirical humor is in poor taste even for someone as prone as is Stewart's relentless pursuit to make fun of anything and anyone that do not measure up to his boundless ideal of self-righteousness and misplaced sense of intellectual superiority. 

Indeed there can be much truth gleaned from satirical humor, as the employment by editorial cartoonist have illustrated for decades. But there must a moniker of recognizable truth underlying the pointed jabs in order to hopefully affect a desired beneficial end result. To merely amuse oneself and supposedly others at the detriment and embarrassing expense of another is neither satirical nor funny. It is merely in poor taste.   

Shakespeare penned, "Jesters do oft prove prophets."  Stewart may consider himself to be a jester, but a prophet he is not. He is just an entertainer in a cheap suit looking for another moment or two of misguided adulation from a collection of malcontents who have nothing better to do on a Saturday night than laugh at their own ignorance.     

"America's Children..."

Which one of the following young boys would you claim to look like your son, Mr. President?

Would it be Nicholas Lindsey, who at the age of 16 fired his illegal weapon multiple times and murdered Officer David Crawford of the St. Petersburg Police Department on February 21, 2011? Maybe you can send him a card on his next birthday. He will be celebrating it in a Florida prison where he will spend the rest of his life.

Would it be Shawn Tyson, who also at the age of 16, shot two British tourist through their hearts who had mistakenly become lost in a Sarasota housing project in April of last year? Perhaps Shawn would also appreciate receiving a birthday card from you. Save yourself some postage, Mr. President, as both Shawn and Nicholas will no doubt become bosom buddies as they serve their life sentences together.

Or do your personal sympathies extend only to 16 year old Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed while walking unarmed through a gated Sanford Florida community in February? Perhaps your expression of kinship was prompted by the fact that Trayvon was the victim instead of the perpetrator in this tragic case, the shooter being, as the media was so quick to pass judgement, an over-zealous neighborhood watch "white Hispanic." Surely Trayvon's killing must signify and underscore a pandemic of white hate crimes against our nation's blameless and persecuted black youth? Surely that must be your motivation. Surely...

Surely your motivation can't be that you are blissfully unaware that "black-on-black crime" is escalating at a near incalculable rate among your African-American brothers and sisters. The 41 people shot in Chicago between March 16th and 19th, your home town Mr. President, must surely have been an anomaly. Ten people were killed, one of which was a 6-year old little black girl. Where's your heartfelt expression of at least sympathy if not outrage that this devastated Mother (not unlike Trayvon's Mother) held her bloody lifeless baby girl in her arms, never again to feel her tender kisses and warm embraces? Doesn't this dead little girl look like your two daughters and doesn't she deserve as much empathy and sympathy as you have lavished on Trayvon? Where's your sense of proportion, Mr. President? Where's your sense of priority? Where is your sense of "fairness" that you are so quick to admonish all Americans to adopt? Have you no concept of non-partisan leadership? Must you continue to emphasize those valueless differences that divides us rather than seek the higher more noble plane of compelling all of Americans to bring forth our better angels?

Perhaps you feel more akin to such infamous social malcontents as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Lewis Farrakhan, and Jeremiah Wright, who, at every opportunity of racial discord do not hesitate to deal from the full deck of racial cards to fan the flames of distrust and hatred of white society. Dare you deny that  indeed these "gentlemen" would look just like your brother, if you had a brother? Where is your bully pulpit fanfare for these "brothers?"

I ask, Mr. President, where is your sense of duty to be the President of all Americans, not just those who bear a striking resemblance to your ethnicity?  I have the answer. You don't possess the desire nor the motivation to be anything more than the dutiful son of your anti-colonialist father, who regarded America as the perpetrator of oppression.  You will not, cannot, nor do you care to see that our nation cannot survive as a house divided. You are a thinly veiled closeted bigot, Mr. President. Your teleprompter speeches may disguise that fact, but your off the cuff remarks confirms it. Your back brothers and sisters may continue to  regard this character flaw as a sign that you are one with them in their alleged oppression, but the rest of America sees you for who you are: an apologist for bad behavior, an opportunist to exploit racial division, and thus, sir, a bigot.

You sully the office of the Presidency. And you defame America.

Everyone Hum Along Now...

In 1967 when Paul McCartney penned the lyrics and melody for this song to be included in their The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Heart Club Band, I had just graduated from high school, was anticipating beginning my freshman year in college, TIME magazine had named my generation as their "Man of the Year," and I was otherwise preoccupied with any member of the fairer sex that possessed legs that began at the bottom on their feet and concluded with a winning personality at the opposite end.

"When I get older,

losing my hair,

many years from now.

Will you still be sending me a Valentine,

birthday greetings, a bottle of wine?"

Any meandering thoughts of what the future might have in store for me that stretched beyond the next impromptu gathering of my high school running mates dissolved into a youthful belief that my growing older was an eventuality that was best left unexplored.

"If I've been out

till quarter of three.

will you lock the door?

Will you still need me?

Will you still feed me,

When I'm sixty-four?"

I remember thinking, some few years later as I watched a Saturday afternoon football game on television, that as long as the athletes and cheerleaders on the screen didn't look any different in appearance than me, that I hadn't perceptibly grown any older. And then one Saturday afternoon...they did.

"I could be handy mending a fuse,

when your lights are gone.

You can knit a sweater by the fireside,

Sunday morning go for a ride."

"Doing the garden,

digging the weeds.

Who could ask for more?

Will you still need me?

Will you still feed me,

When I'm sixty-four?"

Now, some 46 years past my 18th birthday, my totally gray hair has at least had the hereditary decency to keep from falling out completely, although the hairline is most assuredly advancing like a thawing iceberg toward the nape of my neck. I collect social security rather than a steady paycheck. My wife and I recently presented our daughter in marriage and my son is the father of two delightful grandchildren.

Send me a postcard,

drop me a line,

stating your point of view.

Indicate precisely what you mean to say.

Yours sincerely...wasting away."

In the happy and contented company of my beautiful and devoted wife of twenty-nine years, the lyrics of the song have become more than just a merry little song to whistle in accompaniment. They have become my song. So, for all those who I have been most fortunate in making your acquaintance, who are my dearest friends, and who took a moment to wish me a Happy Birthday on this particularly special birthday, I say...

"Give me your answer,

Fill in the form...

'Mine forever more.'

Will you still need me?

Will you still feed me,'When I'm sixty-four?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Yet Another Media Injustice...

THIS YOUNG MAN NEED NOT HAVE DIED.

Let me emphatically repeat the statement so that there can be no ambiguity: "THIS YOUNG MAN NEED NOT HAVE DIED."

Take note that I didn't say, "This young BLACK man, or African-American young man, or "boy." I said, deliberately, "young man."

Unless the readers of this opinion have been sequestered under a pile of rocks for the past week, the national media has elevated the story of the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin into round-the-clock, opinionated coverage. Thus the nation's conscience has become inflamed by this senseless tragedy, even though a full accounting of the "facts" of the incident have yet to be fully vetted. Unless one's blood boils with the bile of vigilantism, there are truisms in this case, as it is true of all disputable incidences, that must be analyzed fully in order to arrive at irrevocable evidence to support or refute the contention of the individual who discharged his personal weapon, as he is allegedly proclaiming, in self-defence.

What is at the crux of the widespread outrage that has quickly evolved into racial disharmony is the fact that the counterpart to this tragedy, a Mr. George Zimmerman, was not immediately arrested at the time of the incident by the Sanford, Florida Police Department. This cited failure to act expeditiously by the local authorities is being perceived principally by the nation's black community as a deliberate attempt to thwart the principle of equal justice under the law because the victim is "black" and the perpetrator is "white." It is at this precise flash point where the very idea of "equal justice under the law" gets tossed unceremoniously under the bus.

Article after article in the print media and news story after news story in the televised news media makes the deliberate and totally unnecessary declaration that Mr. Zimmerman is a "white" Hispanic. Such a distinction is not only pointedly inflammatory, but it is purposefully inaccurate. Why make such a distinction at all other than to knowingly further propagate an escalation in the simmering cauldron of racial discord. Why not just report the verified facts as know at any juncture in time and refrain from pointed headline editorializing so that the wheels of jurisprudence can be re-railed and an unvarnished verdict of guilt or innocence can be ultimately obtained?

Such employment of blatant prejudicial reporting can only serve to embolden the more radical social justice personalities who will invariably utilize incidences such as young Martin's death as a bully pulpit from which to garner yet further much prized camera face time and notoriety. Whereas we are a nation of laws instituted to protect and serve all citizens regardless of race, color or creed, such biased and sensationalized reporting invites an open door through which the self-important publicity pimps such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Lewis Farrakan interject themselves into a racially charged environment that initiates additional escalating threats of violence as exampled by the New Black Panthers placement of a $10,000 bounty "for the capture of Mr. Zimmerman." I would hope and pray that the good people of Sanford do not want, do not need and do not welcome this type outside lawless agitation in order to bring focus and justice to the fore in this matter.

What the media of all stripe should be tirelessly championing is an adherence to the laws of civil discourse, that societal calm should prevail as Florida Governor Scott, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the F.B.I. conduct a full and unbiased investigation into the death of Trayvon, and that no stone be left unturned in determining if the Police Department of Sanford is indeed operating under the unlawful assumption that crimes involving its black citizens warrant no credence in the equal employment of their departmental resources. Given these circumstances under which the wheels of justice will be permitted to slowly grind to an ultimate judgement, it seems highly improbable that Mr. Zimmerman will long avoid the stark reality that the death of Trayvon by his hand will escape punitive retribution.

The people of Sanford are rightfully demanding no less, as well should all law abiding citizens of this country. What we citizens of America do not need and should be demanding is the immediate curtailment of a Fifth Estate that has given itself free rein to manipulatively shape the news rather then merely reporting unbiased and noninflammatory fact. Being the guardians of freedom is not a carte blanche license to sell newspapers or bolster ratings if truth be the sacrificial lamb on the alter of corporate profit. The American people are not lemmings. Treat us thusly at your own peril.