THE
LONGER THEY CAN KEEP YOU MORE INTERESTED IN TRYING TO BE COOL THAN THE
REALITIES OF LIFE, THE LONGER THEY
CAN KEEP YOU ON YOUR ASS.
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MEET
THE YOUNG FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AND LOOK INTO THE EYES OF A REAL BLACK MAN.
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IN JULY OF 1852 - NINE YEARS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR - DURING A TIME WHEN THEY WOULD LYNCH A BLACK MAN SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WERE BORED AND WANTED TO PASS THE TIME OF DAY, DOUGLASS LOOKED WHITE AMERICA DIRECTLY IN THE EYE AND TOLD THEM THE FOLLOWING:
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"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour…" . Now, THAT'S what it means to be cool.
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Eric L. Wattree Http://wattree.blogspot.com Ewattree@Gmail.com BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND
INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like
me - it's just that God does.
Tim, I've known you for years, so I'm shocked to hear you say that Najee Ali has too much baggage to run for office. I realize there was no animosity in your comment and you’re simply stating an opinion, but I beg to differ. .
I realize that Najee has some issues in
his past, but I’ve had issues of my own, so I look at those issues a little
differently than most. I’m the son of a lifelong drug dealer, and between the
ages of 12 and 19 years old I spent more time going in and out of jail than I
did on the street. If it hadn't been for a Sgt. Foster, a White bruiser of a cop right out of central casting, my life might have been entirely different. Foster, who busted me for the first time when I was only12 years old followed my budding criminal career when he was a juvenile officer, and he continued to harass me as
he moved up the ranks – first he used to harass me on the street himself when he was a street cop, and
after he moved up the ranks he had his subordinates harassing me. . At the time I didn't know why he focused in on me, but
after looking back upon it, I think he was just fascinated by me because of my
father, Mac, and the fact that I was such a confirmed street urchin at
such an early age. At 12 years old I was dealing single joints at Carver Jr.
High School in the 7th grade. I walked through the door dealing, and that was
where I first came into contact with Foster. One of his officers busted me at
school. I overheard him and one of the other cops sorta jokin' about it. I
heard one cop say, "I couldn't believe it! This kid's up there at the
school getting rich dealing hand over fist. We busted him with 60 joints!"
They only busted me because they caught one of the other kids getting high and
he snitched on me. . As I got older Foster used to try to embarrass me on
the block. He once left a message for me on the street when I was about 16 telling the fellas to tell
MY FATHER, MAC, AND BROTHER, VIRGIL, IN 1966
me if I didn't have my ass up at the police station by 9 a.m. the next morning he was gonna beat my ass. The fellas got a big kick out of that. The way they related it was, Foster was up here lookin' for you, and he said, "If you don't arrest your own ass and report to jail by 9 a.m. in the morning, you ain't gon' have a ass by noon." I didn't like the way he was embarrassing me, but you know what - I was up there at the police station at 9 a.m. - on the dot. He also once warned me that if I didn’t get my brains blown out first, I was gonna to end up
spending the rest of my life in prison next to my dad. He told me that I was too young to be trying to hangout with my father's crew. But what he didn't know was, I wasn't hanging out, they were taking care of me while my father was away. They were there to keep my youthful stupidity in check. My father knew every move I made, and was able to block many of them (THE HUSTLERS).
. This went on all throughout my teenage years - when I was on the street. Then when I was 19 years old (an adult), I ended up getting busted for a very serious
drug charge, involving the possession of a large quantity of heroin, Seconal, and Mollies
for sale. Needless to say, I lost my case, so when I showed up at court for sentencing, with my record, I was
prepared to go away for a long, long time. And then Foster popped up in court. I
thought he came to gloat, because by that time he was a captain and the
commanding officer of 77 Division, and I didn’t even get busted in his jurisdiction. . So as I was waiting to be sent to the joint, when my case came up, Foster and the judge took me into
the judge’s chambers and Foster started telling the judge that I wasn’t really
a criminal, I was just stupid. When I started to protest about him calling me stupid, he told me to
shut up, and started telling the judge about my father (who had spent a lot of time in San Quentin) and how he busted me with a half can of weed when I was 12 years old.
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When he was done, the judge (who was a former Marine Corps officer) offered me a
deal. He told me he would hold my current conviction in abeyance and throw it out, and expunge my
entire juvenile record, if I agreed to go into the Marine Corps and I came out
with an honorable discharge. And of course, I jumped at it, because it meant
that instead of having to catch the “Grey Goose” to the joint, I could go home
and get high. But unbeknownst to me, that was the moment that completely changed my life. It
changed a lot of lives.
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As a direct result of that one moment in my life, I ended up going into the
Marine Corps, getting an education (when I went to court I was a high school
dropout), and as promised, when I got out I went before the court and that same judge expunged my record. So my life had completely changed. I was clean as a White fish. Thereafter, I married my late wife, Val, and we ended up having Kai and Lil' Eric. But I stayed in contact with Foster, and even used to go up to the 77th Div. and visit him from time to time. Then after I graduated from college he suggested that I might want to consider a career with the LAPD, and I was considering it, until Val asked me one simple question - "That sounds like a plan, but where are you gon' sleep when you get off?" So that abruptly ended that prospect.
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ERIC JR.
But the most amazing irony
of all was that my son, Eric Jr., who grew up listening to all these stories ended up becoming a Drug Enforcement agent in Washington State, and the reason for that was very simple – because he was
on a mission. He knew my story, and the
story of his grandfather, so he had an up-close and personal understanding of what drugs were doing to the Black community. But he didn't want to be a street cop, busting people who were just struggling to survive, he wanted to go after the people at the top of the food chain, so he went into the DEA. . Eric knew that if it hadn’t been for Foster, and that one moment that he stood up for me in court,
neither he, nor his sister, Kai, would have ever been born, because I would have been
in the joint - or at least, that's the way I like to see it, because as a writer I tend to be on the melodramatic side. But in actuality, he might have just closed his eye and threw a dart at a dartboard and hit DEA instead of FBI or the Secret Service (who he used to work with in the military as an Air Force Raven). But he did want to be a federal agent, because he was a big Buck Rodgers fan as a kid. . Capt. Foster lived to see Eric enter the DEA Academy, but he died just one month before Eric graduated and received his credentials as an agent. I remember as I was sitting there during the ceremony how much I wished Foster had lived just a little longer, because I'm sure he would have flown across the country to attend the ceremony, sick or not, because he would have known he was the reason we were there.
. While I recognize that it's always a bad idea for a writer to write about himself, I thought I'd point out my own situation in order to relate it to Najee Ali. Although I've had my scrapes with the law, I think I would have made a much better cop than someone who didn't have a record because they grew up on a chicken farm in the boonies, because I've lived the life, and the same is true of Najee Ali. . Thus, the little scrapes that Najee has had with the law means absolutely nothing
to me, and it says absolutely nothing about who he is as a man – except, like me
and my son, he has a little more insight into the struggles and hardships attendant to being a
Black man in America - and that's an asset, not a liability. . So we should never say what a brother or sister,
"can't do." There's nothing in life that we can't do if we set our
minds to it. What some may call Najee's "baggage", I call specialized
knowledge. The adversities that he's endured in life only serves to make him more
rather than less. A brother like Najee doesn’t have to speculate about the
mindset of a young Crip or Blood, because he’s been there. So he's exactly the kind of
brother that we need in office - someone who knows both sides of
the street; who understands both our legitimate, and, underground culture. That's valuable knowledge that he'll be able to apply to whatever
path in life he chooses to pursue. Life is not about what a Black person can or
can’t do, life is about what we choose to do. .
So we've got to learn to stop selling ourselves short, and trying to define ourselves by the White man's standards, because the White man can't live up to the standards he sets for us himself. Donald Trump commits more crimes in one weekend than Najee has committed in his entire life. Think about it, Tim. Many people would have had something negative to say about you when you applied for the LAPD, but I'm sure that once you got in the organization you found that very few were living up to the standards that they demanded that you adhere to. Of course, I wasn't in your squad room, but I can make that claim blindly, because that's the life of a Black person in America, and over the centuries Black people have been indoctrinate into thinking of themselves just like White folks do - that somehow, we just don't measure up. . But Black people have got to learn to see though that game, because we do measure up - in fact, we more than measure up. That's exactly the problem that they have with us. They know that what we casually write-off as "soul", is nothing less than intellectual brilliance straining to be unleashed. We're the only ones who don't realize that. The White man learned that about us during slavery, and he's been obsessively concerned with that knowledge ever since. . When the White man first brought us over here in 1619, he thought he was merely importing a beast of burden. But as we began to adapt to his culture, he was shocked to find that our intellectual creativity was boundless, and we constituted a clear and present threat to his assumption of superiority. That’s why he passed laws making it illegal to teach Black people to read and write. He began to recognize that the very same intellectual creativity that allowed us to become masters in music and the arts, could also be applied to math, science, engineering, and politics. That recognition is what causes him to hate us so intensely. Thus, his racist attitudes toward us are not grounded in hatred alone, they're also grounded in fear. .
White bigots have been absolutely amazed by the power of Black intellect.
After suffering for generations from the ravages of smallpox that alluded all of his "great" medical minds and institutions of higher learning, an African slave introduced the knowledge of inoculation into society. That all but wiped out not only smallpox, but many other diseases in society. And in spite of their campaign to try to keep Black people uneducated, after the Civil War former slaves walked right out of the fields into the halls of congress. In addition, Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, not only became a valued confidant of President Lincoln, but became celebrated as one of the most sought-after lecturer and intellectual of his time. He was also one of the first intellectuals to address the issue of equal rights for women. He was slated to appear at a women's rights conference the day he died - and at the time of his death he lived in a mansion on a hill that looked down upon the people who had formerly enslaved him.
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So White supremacists tried a different tact to limit Black people that came to be known as Jim Crow, a tactic that continues to this day. Knowing that a man can never rise above what he thinks of himself, the Jim Crow era was dedicated to a campaign of making the Black man think less of himself. . They used two methods to promote that campaign. First, they did everything in their power to convince the Black man that he was inferior; and second, they placed stern restrictions on the activities Black people were allowed to engage in other than singing and dancing, and then they rewarded us for excelling in those areas, thus, outlining “our place” in society. That’s why, to this day, many Black people have a hostility towards the pursuit of knowledge. We tend to say of an accomplished Black man with high self-esteem that “He’s bougie. He thinks he’s White.”, as though accomplishment and high self-esteem are limited to White folks. That’s why to this day, many Black people shun the pursuit of knowledge and focus much of their attention on their ability to sing and dance. We’ve been distracted to the point that many of us consider that “our place”. We’ve been convinced that thinking "is a White thang."
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And I’m no exception. Ever since I was a child I’ve always liked to scribble out my thoughts. Before I could write, I used to draw my thoughts in pictures. I don’t know why, I've just always liked seeing my thoughts on paper. Then in my early twenties, after I got married, my late wife told me, “You, know, you’re not bad at this. You need to make this your thing.” I remember it like it was yesterday. I told her, “Sittin’ around tryin’ to write is for White boys.” Val was an Angela Davis-type sister at the time, so she just looked at me and said, “Man, you’re crazy. Do you think White folks are the only ones who have something to say? Go tell that shit to James Baldwin.” And she was right. So when I say we’ve been brainwashed over the years, I'm including myself. . We often use the word “brainwashed” as a pejorative term, but you don’t have to be dumb to be brainwashed. We’re all brainwashed to some extent in some area of knowledge. Brainwashing, or indoctrination, can be a subtle thing. It’s merely an attitude that we’ve accepted as true without taking the time to think it through. Like the belief that many of us accept that Jesus, who was born in the desert, was a blue eyed Scandinavian with blond hair. If that had been true they wouldn't have had to crucify him, he would have died of heat stroke, but many of us have been brainwashed into believing that nonsense. There are also a lot of us who still believe in walkin' dead men and talkin' snakes, because the White man taught it to us and we've never stopped to think it through. .
So with regard to Najee, his script is still playing itself out, and we have no idea where it's going to lead – he has no idea where it’s going to lead. At this point he doesn't see himself as a politician, because he's a humble brother, and he probably harbors a preconceived idea of what it means to be a politician and hasn’t bothered to take the time to fully think through the ramifications of what he’s currently doing. But the fact is, he’s already a politician, he's just not getting paid, and doesn’t have an office with his name on the door. But he'll come around, and if I have my way, I'm gonna help him to do that. . We need to encourage talented brothers like Najee and not try to diminish them with negativity – and many of us tend to do just that. As I pointed out in a previous piece, although we often fail to recognize it, many Black people contracted a serious mental disorder during slavery, and it's been passed down through the generations over the years. It entails an innate distrust and disdain of our own people, a lack of focus, a seeming inability to prioritize, and the tendency to be disagreeable and hostile toward anyone who challenges the status quo. That attitude makes it next to impossible for Black people to come together and organize to improve our condition - and it also serves to insure the stability of this White supremacist system. So the White man has done his job well. He's successfully perpetuated self-hatred among a vulnerable percentage of dumb and weak-minded Black people - far from all, but more than enough to sabotage Black progress.
. Therefore, for exactly that reason, and regardless of what he says now, I'm going to keep on pushing Najee to formally run for office. Then, if he's elected, I'm going to continue to push him to run for even higher office, and to hire other talented brothers and sisters to help him carry out his mission. That’s the way a culture, and a people, move forward.
When Barack Obama was hangin' out on the block smokin' weed, who would have predicted that he would someday become a Harvard scholar and one of our greatest presidents? Very few, I assure you. But he did it. Presidential scholars voted him the 8th greatest president in American history -and he just left office, so his reputation is still growing, yet, they've already placed that brother up there among the founding fathers. Thus, Barack Obama is a living, breathing example of what we represent as a people. But as hard as it is to believe, we still have Black idiots running around trying to badmouth him because he wasn't Santa Claus. He was President Obama, not King Obama. It wasn't his job to go from house to house handing out gifts. His job was to create an environment conducive to our being able to go out and earn our own gifts - and the record will show that he did just that.
. Donald Trump and his band of bigots aren't obsessed with Obama's legacy for nothing. They clearly see in Barack Obama the threat that we represent to White supremacy. But we've been so brainwashed over the centuries that we don't recognize our own potential, and I'm convinced that's the case with Najee Ali. Some of our people badmouth him because they see him as just another “regular” like themselves. So they say to themselves, "Who is he to think he's good enough to hold office?" But any person who holds that attitude is only betraying what they think of themselves. Why shouldn’t a person like themselves hold office? Don’t they consider themselves capable of competence and worthy of trust? That attitude is a perfect example of centuries of brainwashing hard at work. . So, I decided to expand on my original comment and save it as this blog so it'll pop up every time someone looks up Najee Ali on Goggle. And I guarantee you that I'll be presenting it to Najee (or maybe I should say, Representative Ali) at some later date. You can mark my word on that, because I’m a product of the street myself, and I see the writing on the wall. . Thank you, Val. Rest in peace, baby. .
I was recently in a discussion with an individual who insisted that in order to be a
proud Black man I was required to love and embrace Africa. Now, I have no problem with Africa, the problem I have is with that narrow-minded point of view. I'm a realist. I don't believe in either group-thought, litmus tests, or caving in to the beliefs of others just
to be a part of a tribalist knitting circle. All Black people don't think alike - and thank God, because it's the uniqueness of our varied intellectual perceptions that contribute to our greatness as a people. So the fact is, while I take
great pride in my African heritage, I recognize that in the final analysis, that's all it is – my heritage, not my identity. . So, I am sick to death of some of our people trying to force their delusional ideologies down our throats about the meaning of Black pride as though it's some sort of cultural gospel - and it always seems to be the most undereducated among us who tend to spew that delusional nonsense. It's a form of street-corner religion and just as clueless. They're the flip side of the Trump crowd, who have a tendency to do more feeling than they do thinking. So, while I fully understand that no one man corners the market on either knowledge, wisdom, or intellect, I've concluded that we are in dire need of an alternative point of view about what it means to be a proud African-American, minus the tribalist bullshit. . The truth is, Africa is just another name on
the map to me. Yes, it's the cradle of my culture, and I appreciate that, but on a strictly personal level, I have no more connection with Africa than I do China. I have more of a personal connection to the Los Angeles General Hospital where I was born than I do Africa, but I don't love it either. It's just a hospital, and I don't love buildings any more than I do plots of land. . The people who like to spew this theory of African homage like to call themselves "woke". But the fact is, they're anything but. They're so desperate to escape the shame of slavery in their past that instead of exploring what it really means to be a proud African-American they're scouring the world in search of a false identity. Some of these people are so desperate to redefine themselves that they'll hear one speech by Farrakhan and the very next day show up in a bow tie. That's neither independent thought, nor Black pride - that's gullibility, and the tendency to delude themselves into trying to be something they're not. In addition, any man who is
willing to give another man's ability to think priority over his own is a
weak-minded fool, and a group of fools do not provide a strong foundation for a proud
and illustrious people. . We don’t need one voice and
one intellect speaking for millions, we need millions of intellects speaking
with one voice. That's what makes a people great. Following the thoughts of one man limits our intellectual potential. Since we all have unique and varied experiences, we all have unique areas of brilliance and unique perceptions into reality. So, we shouldn't waste that valuable resource by following the limited perceptions of one man. There's no such thing as a "Godologist", so we should all use the common sense bestowed upon us by God to become teachers as well as students. We should all learn from one another. So, any preacher, potentate, or so-called "leader" who thinks he's been chosen to speak for God is not only arrogant, but deluded. . So, I'm sorry if my attitude tends to offend some people, but it is what it is. Part of being an efficient thinker is not dealing in bullshit, so I’m not about to
diminish myself by trying to lie, or getting all misty-eyed over Africa just to make some dashiki-clad ideologue happy - a person who in all probability has taken on an African name and has completely skipped over the sacrifices of our slave ancestors as though they are something that we should hide in shame - so, who's the one who is brainwashed? I love my African-American heritage, while they've been brainwashed into being ashamed of who they are - and let there be no doubt about it, they're definitely a product of slavery, regardless to how exotic-sounding the new name they choose to give themselves. Are they ashamed of Frederick Douglass as well? Look in that brother's eyes and tell me what it is that they're ashamed of. . We're deluding ourselves by looking to Africa for our heroes. Douglass is the kind of brother we should be honoring. If we did, maybe we'd take more pride in who we are as African-Americans and do more to repair the Black community. Douglass, an escaped slave, stood before America eight years BEFORE the Civil War – during a time when they
would lynch a Black man for just looking them in the eye – and said the following:
. “What, to the American slave, is your
Fourth of July?
I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the
gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your
celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national
greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless;
your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty
and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and
thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, mere bombast,
fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which
would disgrace a nation of savages.”
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Douglass also encouraged President Abraham Lincoln
to establish the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a Black unit during
the Civil War that was organized for the specific purpose of exacting payback for
slavery, and his two sons were its first recruits. So why do we feel the need
to reach all the way back to Africa for our heroes? I’ll tell you why, because
many African-Americans suffer from a serious problem of self-esteem, and that, along with our failure to educate ourselves, are two of the primary dysfunctions that’s holding us down. . I guarantee you there are going to be some Black people
who are going to be intrigued by the title of this article, and then glance at
it and say, “Oh, hell, naw. I don’t have time to read all that.”, and then move
on to read a piece on twerkin’. That’s a major part of our problem. . Far too many of us consider ignorance a moral obligation of our culture. Any attempt to free ourselves from ignorance is considered "uppity", or "tryin' to be White." The reason for that is during slavery the only slaves who spoke anything close to proper English were the house slaves, and many of them had a tendency to look down their noses at the slaves who worked the fields. As a result, to this day, many Black people have a hostility towards literacy and the pursuit of knowledge. They consider it "un-Black." Even the phrase "Stay woke" is a perversion of the English language, but they think it's cool, because it celebrates the sound of illiteracy, or what they consider being appropriately Black. That attitude is destroying our children, and the Black community as a whole, because it shuns the African-American's most valuable asset - our intellectual creativity. . So, the fact is, I feel the way I feel, and I completely ignore the popular Black delusions about Africa. I consider it mindless dribble. I don't love any plot of land. I love people, not geography, and I don't know a soul in
Africa, so what is it about Africa that I'm supposed to love, other than a fantasy and the need to compensate for a lack of self-esteem regarding what it means to be an African-American? Absolutely nothing. . I’m not into
fantasies. I deal in reality, but for some reason many of our people are into playing silly little closed-minded games - you
know, the same kind of games the White man loves so passionately. Their attitude is,if you
don’t look, think, and act like me there’s something wrong with you. That's what keeps us divided and unable to work together and move forward. It's also narrow minded and bigoted thinking that betrays their ignorance and limits their growth. So while they're talking Africa, they're thinking exactly like their White slave master taught them. Thus, I don't even like to waste my time with such ignorance. They’ll say things
like, “If you don’t love Africa it's because you’ve been brainwashed by the White man. Every other culture loves their ancestral homeland, why don't you?” My response is simple - So do I, but my ancestral homeland is Watts. . But becausesuch people tend to be more ideological than thoughtful, what they don’t seem to understand is other cultures have a direct connection to the lands
of their various cultures. They have love ones,
experiences, and memories of the land that forges a connection. But the African-American culture is a new culture that’s
indigenous to the United States. We’ve had absolutely no connection to the
continent of Africa for over 400 years. So, to claim to have a passionate love for Africa is just a
flat-out lie designed to reap props in the hood. It's simply a form of "me too-ism" in a desperate attempt to be like other cultures. If these people's passion for Africa wasn't a lie, more of them would be living there, but you couldn't even banish such people to Africa. As they were being transported back they'd be kickin' and screamin' bloody murder. So, the real difference
between myself and people like this is, I don’t believe in lyin’ for props - I'm an African-American, I love living in America, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Period.
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I'm fully capable of being a strong and prideful Black man without lying about loving a place that I know absolutely nothing about, just like I can love God without caring anything
about religion. So the fact that Africa is just another place on the map to me doesn’t make me any less
Black, it simply means that I’m a strong, Black, African-American man who takes pride in my own cultural experience - slavery and all - and I don't indulge in delusional bullshit.
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Engaging in delusions about Africa like the one above is both a major
cause, and symptom, of Black dysfunction. First, it teaches us to be delusional and less than
efficient thinkers, and secondly, it sends a subliminal message to our children
that says there’s something inherently inferior about the African-American culture. It sends the message that we’re nothing more than tarnished and impure Africans, but that’s far from the case. In
fact, African-Americans represent the evolution of the Black man. So, we need to take more pride in who WE are, not Shaka Zulu, or scouring the Earth looking for a sense of false identity. . Like any other species in nature that’s faced with overwhelming
adversity that threatens their survival, nature steps in and provides them with
the necessary capabilities to overcome that adversity, or to evolve. So, the
fact is, the severe adversity of the African-American experience has caused us to evolve
into MORE, rather than less. . Having to deal with racism, injustice, and bigotry from the time we open our eyes in the morning until we close them at night has given us an intellectual muscularity. It's like spending every day at the gym - Every day, all day. It's given us the ability to deal with bigots while on autopilot and without even having to think about it. In my own case, it's gotten to the point where dealing with bigots has even become a form of recreation. So it’s simply up to us to recognize our ability, take pride in who we are, and begin to develop
our evolving capabilities instead of wasting our time twerkin’, partying, and engaged in other frivolous pursuits. Because what we
call, “soul” is nothing less than Black brilliance straining to set itself
free. . The White establishment recognized that fact when they had us in slavery. Initially,
they brought us here from Africa to be mules, but it wasn’t long
before they began to recognize our astonishing intellectual creativity, and ever since that
time the White establishment has tried to move Hell and Earth to keep that knowledge from us, and
to also keep it in check. That, and Bacon's rebellion, is what ultimately led to all of the oppressive
laws and traditions designed to “keep Black people in their place”. Thus, racism is not based on hatred, it's based on fear.
. So, while it is always good to stay in touch with one's roots, the
fact is, the African-American culture has long since ceased being purely
African - even though the continent of Africa will always define the core of
our being. But any connection that we may, or may not have had with Egypt, Nefertiti, and/or Cleopatra is tenuous and remote at best, at least, in a strictly
cultural sense. It's as though we're going around, hat in hand, desperately
searching for a piece of history to call our own. But we shouldn't place
ourselves in that position – it's undignified, pathetic, and wholly
unnecessary. . We must begin to understand that we are a new culture. We ceased being Africans
when it became necessary to adapt to the fields and ghettos of
America, and neither
are we simply Americans - we became something more than simply Americans when
it became essential that we become more than simple Americans for our very survival.
We are a brand new culture - a culture conceived in pain, delivered into
turmoil, baptized in deprivation, and weaned on injustice. And since adversity
is experience, and experience translates into knowledge, we don't have a thing
to be ashamed of. The uniquely pointed adversity that the African-American has experienced makes
us more, rather than less. We are a culture that is only now in the infancy of
its development. For that reason, we cannot hope to compete, lie-for-lie, with the
more ancient cultures relative to history, since our history is only now being
written. The African- American culture is a culture of the future, not the past,
and for that very reason, we don't have to try to compete for historic
greatness, because we're writing our history today.
. But the fact that we are a new culture doesn't mean that we are anything less
than the older cultures; it simply means that our greatest contribution to man
lies before us. So we don't have to look back to antiquity to find a source of
pride, all we have to do is study the life and times of our parents, our
grandparents, and that generation of African Americans born between the turn of
the century and WWII. . In less than 50 years, the Black people of that generation went from
housekeepers and flunkies to the boardrooms of multinational corporations. In
less than 50 years, they went from playing washboards and tin cans on the side
of the road, to becoming some of the greatest musicians the world has ever
known. In less than 50 years these people have gone from the defenseless and
nameless victims of public lynchings, to laying a foundation that led directly
to Barack Obama becoming the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth - and
that is a chapter in history that is verifiable.
.
The most cursory glance demonstrates that there is something unusually unique
about this new culture. While social scientists have indicated that all
minority cultures must assimilate, dilute, and subordinate themselves to the
dominant cultural soup, there is clear evidence that the African-American
culture has had a much greater impact on the dominant culture than is the
reverse.
.
Members of the dominant cultural group under fifty years of age have more in
common with the African-American culture in terms of attitudes, style, and
personal taste, than they have with their own grandparents. Black music - Jazz,
Blues, Rap, Gospel, and, yes, Rock n Roll - is the predominate music, not only
in the United States, but in the entire world. Every time a Rock group steps on
stage, they sing a tribute to nameless slaves moanin' in the fields - and just
to turn on a radio or television set anywhere in the Western world, is to pay a
tribute to Duke, Bird, Miles, and Diz. . In addition, the United States of America has honored only four men in history
by declaring the day of their birth a national day of celebration -
Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, widely accepted by many as the father of all mankind; President
George Washington, the father of this nation; Christopher Columbus, the man
credited with discovering the Americas (along with the native Americans who
were already a part thereof); and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose
forebears were brought to these shores in chains.
.
That says a lot about that humble black man - and it says just as much about
his people. In spite of the fact that Dr. King began his life burdened by the
inherent disadvantages of being blessed with black skin in a Jim Crow environment,
his words, his intellect, and his deeds so inspired the heart and soul of
humanity that America saw fit to set aside a day for this nation - this world -
to thank God that he was allowed to walk among us. His was a soul with such
strength that it served to lift the rest of mankind to a higher level of
humanity. That's not only a testament to one black man's ability to pull
himself from the dust of his humble beginnings, it's also a testament to the
capacity of his people to meet the test of greatness - and that's a history
that is verifiable.
.
And we must also take pride in our own personal journeys, and realize that in
our own journey through life, history is also being made. You don't have
to be a world conqueror to have an impact on the history of mankind; you simply
have to make decisions in your personal life that helps to enhance and move
your people forward towards their appointment with destiny - and every time you
face life's obstacles with courage and perseverance, you meet that challenge.
After all, you don't make decisions in a vacuum - every decision that you make
in life becomes a public decision. People are watching, your children are
watching, and if you nurture your children properly, they will make the
character of your decisions an indelible part of the public record.
.
Thus, the character that you reflect in your daily conduct carries the seed
that your children will carry with them for generations. For that reason, I
don't regret one moment of my youth that I spent stumblin' through Watts on
whatever drug happened to be convenient. Those years were part of a personal
journey that stands as a monument to who I am today. Of course, I related those
struggles to my children as stumbling blocks to be avoided at all costs, but
they were also related as examples of perseverance, and the determination to
overcome the obstacles in my life, and by overcoming those setbacks, it allowed
me to relate those experiences with just as much pride as the White culture
relates the experiences of General Patton to their children. George fought his
battles, and I fought mine, and as far as my children are concerned - as far as
I'm concern - one was no less heroic than the other. . So I don't let others dictate to me what I'm OBLIGATED to think in
order to prove who I am. That's group-think, and group-think is not thought at
all, it's a sheepish accommodation to the beliefs of others. So, anyone who
resent the fact that I don’t think like they do can go to hell. I have better things to focus on, like how am
I gonna move forward right here, and right now. I consider anything else a petty
and frivolous waste of brain power. . Some people tell me that if I don’t know anything about Africa, I should take
the time to become informed. My response to that is, why? I'm not an anthropologist. I'll leave that to people who are interested in such things. We only have so many seconds here on Earth.
How is wasting those seconds learning about Africa going to benefit me when I
can spend that time learning more about math, physical science, or epistemology? I could
become the world’s greatest authority on Africa and still be on my ass. On the
other hand, if I put that time into becoming the world’s greatest mathematician,
that’ll get the world’s attention.
.
I tried to get that point across to many of my brothers when we were in college.
They simply wanted to get a degree, any degree, but I already had a young family, so I was there to gain useful knowledge.
So, when they asked me why I wasn’t taking classes in Afro-American history (a quick and easy way to gain credits), I
told them that struttin’ around in a dashiki spewing tales of the illustrious history
of the African diaspora may make them superstars in the hood, but in the long
run it’s only gonna lead to making them the most enlightened brothers in the
welfare line, and my prediction turned out to be right on the money.
. So, while taking pride in our heritage is undoubtedly a good thing, the realities of
survival in American society makes practicality a far superior pursuit. But due to our natural tendency to be
entertainers, and our need to impress upon others the pride we take in being
Black, many in the Black community have yet to recognize that fact, and that’s
why we’re struggling.
.
Black pride is not about lip-service regarding how much we love Africa or subject
to any other kind of litmus test, it’s about intellectual development,
independence of thought, and the confidence and strength of character to be
your own man and avoid feeling the need to cater or kowtow to the beliefs of others –
Black or White. . Thus, what it means to be a
strong Black man is having the insight to understand the importance of
knowledge, the strength and independence of thought to become your own hero,
and the confidence to never allow anyone to remove your cape. . Neither scholar nor the head of state,
The most common of men seems to be my fate; A life blistered with struggle and constant need, As my legacy to man I bequeath my seed.
. More fertile, more sturdy these ones than I, This withered old vine left fallow and dry; The nectar of their roots lie dormant still, But through their fruit I'll be revealed.
.
And that, is verifiable. Eric L. Wattree
God created us to love. Then man came right behind him and gave us religion, which taught us to hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like ourselves. For that reason the very same man who is a devout Christian in Georgia would be a devout Jew if he'd been born in Israel, a devout Muslim if he’d been born in Iraq, or a Buddhist if he’d been born in China.
.
This is a very important fact to take into account, because it clearly demonstrates that in spite of what the many self-serving preachers and theologians try to say, religion is not from God, it's merely a form of cultural indoctrination by man in order to control other men. Clear evidence of that is the fact that 81% of White evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in spite of the fact that he's been married three times and bragged about grabbing women's genitals, all of which is diametrically opposed to their professed Christian values. Yet, for years I've heard these so-called “anointed men of God" recite the mantra that “I was called by God to spread his word.” But obviously, as these polls suggest, they consider "God's word" whatever is convenient for them at the time.
.
So I've always been suspect of such men, but unlike them, I've never considered myself to be a part of God's inner circle, so I never thought it my place to directly accuse them of lying - at least, out loud. But I think the world is currently in such dire straits that it's time to seriously examine the contention of these men. In that regard, every since I was a child I've always wanted to ask such people (generally men) two questions - first, what makes them think they're so special that God would choose them to speak on his behalf, and secondly, how did they know it was God calling and not simply their desire to make a dollar without having to go to work like everybody else?
.
Thus, it has always been my view that most of these "men of God" share three things in common - they're arrogant, they're presumptuous, and they're less than trustworthy. They're arrogant to assume they know what's on God's mind; presumptuous to think he needs their help to carry out his will; and they're less than trustworthy to even make such claims. I mean, would God choose Pat Robertson to speak on his behalf? Somehow, I don't think so.
.
WOULD GOD CHOOSE PAT ROBERTSON
TO SPEAK ON HIS BEHALF?
God doesn't need man's help to either spread his word, or to express his will, any more than he needed to anoint a "holy pigeon" to teach other pigeons that it's his will for them to fly. He incorporated both his will, and his word, into everything he created at the moment of creation just as he willed the Sun to shine and the billions of galaxies to hurl through space in search of the center of the universe. So if God didn't need man's help to create the universe or to send our galaxy of over 200 billion stars hurling through the emptiness of outer space, he certainly doesn't need the help of a mentally challenged preacher to teach us how to live our lives.
.
The fact is, the so-called clergy is more of an impediment to living a Godly life than anything else. Just imagine how much more Godly this world would be if we didn’t have Christians, Muslims, and Jews killing one another over their varying interpretations of "God's will." When I was in the Marine Corps I found it completely ironic that we had military chaplains praying for God to help us kill more of "them" than they killed of us. Thus, these people are so delusional that they think they can actually draft God to help them in their fight to steal oil from the Middle East.
.
BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN
So what we often refer to as "the word of God" is nothing more than man's attempt to control the lives, votes, and bank accounts of other men. Therefore, if we take the time to look closely enough, we'll find religion at the very root of all of the murder, hatred, bigotry, and destructive mayhem on the face of the Earth. Think about it - virtually every war and act of terrorism throughout the world is based on religion, and there's a very good reason for that - because the very purpose of religion (ALL RELIGION) is to promote man's selfishness, greed, and false sense of superiority. That's why the primary pitch of these so-called "anointed men of God" is that they're God's best friend, so unless we want God to do something horrible to us, we have to pay homage to them with our money, loyalty, and through our absolute and unwavering "faith" in every form of idiocy that spews from their mouth.
.
To the average person with common sense, the idiotic demands that these "men of God" make as a requirement for "everlasting life" is immediately recognized as complete lunacy, but what's so unbelievable about it is how effective preachers have been in convincing so many highly educated, and normally intelligent people, to embrace their nonsense. Even my own brother, who I've always considered a pretty smart guy, told me, "You're gonna be sorry about what you said when you have to face God." I couldn't believe it. Since when do we have to be sorry about speaking the truth and not being a fool? Do Christian values impose a moral obligation upon us to be absolute idiots? Unfortunately, they do - that's what they're designed to do. That's why Christians are often referred to as "sheep," and the Lord as their shepherd - but since the Lord is not around, the preacher steps in to take his place. There's a phrase to describe that technique - it's called "mind control," and that's why the word "faith" plays such an important role in Christianity. Christians are required to have unwavering faith, not in God, but in what they're being told about God.
.
A perfect example of the hypocrisy inherent in this epidemic of backward-thinking can be seen in the fact that women are virtually NEVER allowed to lead any church or religious cult, because
"Will you get up off your knees and quit
beggin' - I did my part when I
gave you a brain, fool!"
as we all know, God doesn't speak to women - it's God's will that they just keep their mouths shut, stay in their place, and do what these "anointed" men tell them to do. In fact, in many Muslim countries it's against the law for women to even drive a car or rent an apartment without being sponsored by a male - even if that male is their own son. They're treated like children, in spite of the fact that women gave birth to, and raise these young men and boys who are require to "sponsor" them.
.
But if you're a Christian, before you begin to smirk, you need to take a look at your own "faith." According to what we see in the Bible, the Whiteman reigns supreme in the eyes of God. In fact, he occupies a status just beneath that of God himself. The Bible says, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.” - Ephesians 6:5. In other words, when Black people allowed themselves to be freed from their "masters" after the Civil War, they committed a sin. Just like the Confederacy, the Bible considers the emancipation of Black people in the South the theft of private "property."
.
Frederick Douglass had the following to say about Christianity and the jackleg preachers of his time:
.
"The church of this country is not only indifferent to the . . . [bad treatment of] the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the . . . [defender] of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent . . . [preachers], who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world . . . [as] Christianity."
.
In addition, the Catholic church - which was responsible for compiling the "Holy Bible" under Pope Damasus I - refuses to allow women to become priests. That suggests that women are inferior to men. So if the pope is truly suppose to be advancing the will of God, somebody must be a bigot, either the pope, or God himself. So if we agree that God's not a bigot, that's prima facie evidence that the pope is lying about advancing God's will. What he's actually doing is perpetuating man's bigotry toward women, and if that's true, we then have to ask ourselves where else is God and the truth slipping through the cracks?
.
IF IT WEREN'T SO SAD IT WOULD BE A JOKE
And yes, I referred to the world's greatest religions as cults, because anyone who believes in walkin' dead men and talkin' snakes is, by definition, a part of a cult. After all, how is what Pat Robertson and T.D. Jakes preaching any more credible than Voodoo? The fact is, it's not. They all believe in zombies, so they'll never be able to convince me that being stupid, ignorant, and superstitious is a part God's will - and, to my brother I'd like to say, I'm prepared and more than willing to argue my case before God himself in the hereafter.
.
So while I'm a firm believer in God, it's for intellectual reasons that I can defend, not because I believe in Voodoo, talkin' snakes, and walkin' dead men as a matter of blind faith - and I neither require, nor expect, God to do magic tricks for me in order to prove his existence. In fact, why should God care whether or not man believes he exists? If we don't believe in God after observing this wondrous universe around us, it simply means we're stupid. So there's no reason for God to be fixated on us. In terms of just this galaxy alone, man is about as significant as a germ under a toilet seat in Ozbekistan, so I doubt very seriously that God's walking around worried about whether or not we believe in him. We're simply not that important, and the mere fact that we're under the delusion that we are clearly demonstrates that we're on the mother of all ego trips.
.
So whenever I hear these preachers, witch doctors, and soothsayers talking about God like he's their next-door-neighbor, I have to scratch my head and ask myself, "What kind of idiot is this?" And what's even more amazing is how they can look you directly in the eye and spew the most outrageous kind of nonsense, and then act like you're crazy if you refuse to believe that Moses commanded the Red Sea to scoot over and get out of his way. So no wonder man is suffering. Many of us are just as backward and superstitious as we were when we were living in caves - yet, I'm suppose to have faith in these men as God's valued confidants!!!? I don't think so. Even if I was so "God fearing" that I tried, I'd be lying, and God would know it.
.
FIND EARTH
And we're just looking in one direction of one galaxy in a universe that's filled with hundreds of billions of them just like it.
Our galaxy alone is over 100,000 light years across, and has over 200 billion stars that are light years apart - and there's over 10 TRILLION galaxies in the universe just like it. If you go and look out at the night sky (as I do every night as part of my personal spirituality) some of the light you see, just from stars near by, left its respective stars traveling through time and space at 186,000 MILES PER SECOND (7 1/2 times around the Earth in one second), for over 100,000 years before Jesus was born just to hit your eyeball, and our galaxy is just a dust particle in the universe. There are thousands of billions of galaxies just like it, and billions of times more distant - and the universe is still expanding in every direction at the speed of light. There are a billion times more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on every beach, desert, and particles of sand beneath the sea - and yet, man claims to know what's on God's mind!!!? That's utterly ridiculous. So for me, "God" is simply whatever force that was responsible for creating what we refer to as "nature," "reality," and/or "the universe" - period, and case closed. It's not my place to try to read God's mind, or define his nature, and I'm not arrogant enough to think I can.
.
THE “HOLY” BIBLE
THIS IS WHAT RELIGION IS ALL ABOUT, BUT SINCE GOD TOOK THE TIME TO BLESS ME WITH A BRAIN, DOESN'T THAT SUGGEST THAT IT WAS HIS WILL FOR ME TO USE IT, AND NOT SIMPLY HAVE "FAITH" IN THE WORDS OF OTHER MEN?
The word "faith" simply means that you've chosen to believe in what some other MAN has told you instead of what God has done. Nobody can speak for God, so your so-called "faith" is an agreement that you've entered into with man to ignore the common sense that God gave you and intended you to use, and replace it with what another man tells you. Thus, your "faith" is not in God, it's in man.
.
The Bible that Christians Worship today was compiled and “blessed” by the Catholic Church, not God. At the time, any book that disagreed with the Catholic Church was banned. What Christians call "The Holy Bible," and what preachers run around thumping, wasn’t even compiled until almost 400 years after the death of Jesus. So everything in it is hearsay. In terms of years, at the time the Bible was compiled they were twice as far away from the life and times of Jesus Christ as we are away from the life and times of George Washington today. So in reality, they didn’t know fact from fiction any more than we know whether or not George Washington actually chopped down a cherry tree:
. "For the first 300 years of Christianity, there was no Bible as we know it today. Christians had the Old Testament Septuagint, and literally hundreds of other books from which to choose. The Catholic Church realized early on that it had to decide which of these books were inspired and which ones weren't. The debates raged between theologians, Bishops, and Church Fathers for several centuries as to which books were inspired and which ones weren't. In the meantime, several Church Councils or Synods, were convened to deal with the matter, notably, Rome in 382, Hippo in 393, and Carthage in 397 and 419. The debates sometimes became bitter on both sides. One of the most famous was between St. Jerome, who felt the seven books were not canonical, and St. Augustine who said they were. Protestants who write about this will invariably mention St. Jerome and his opposition, and conveniently omit the support of St. Augustine. I must point out here that Church Father's writings are not infallible statements, and their arguments are merely reflections of their own private opinions. When some say St. Jerome was against the inclusion of the seven books, they are merely showing his personal opinion of them. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. However, A PERSON’S PRIVATE OPINION DOES NOT CHANGE THE TRUTH AT ALL. There are always three sides to every story, this side, that side, and the side of truth. Whether Jerome's position, or Augustine's position was the correct position, had to be settled by a third party, and that third party was the Catholic Church. . "Now the story had a dramatic change, as the Pope stepped in to settle the matter. In concurrence with the opinion of St. Augustine, and being prompted by the Holy Spirit, Pope St. Damasus I, at the Council of Rome in 382, issued a decree appropriately called, "The Decree of Damasus," in which he listed the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments. He then asked St. Jerome to use this canon and to write a new Bible translation which included an Old Testament of 46 books, which were all in the Septuagint, and a New Testament of 27 books"
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080928064041AATOZUD).
. SO THE POPE HAD SPOKEN, AND THE ISSUE WAS SETTLED. THUS, WHAT CHRISTIANS REFER TO AS "THE HOLY BIBLE" IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD AT ALL, IT'S THE WORD OF POPE DAMASUS I.
.
So if you're waiting around for Jesus to come back and "save" you, you can forget it. Dead men don’t come back. That’s why God blessed you with a mind, so you could handle your own problems. So believing in the Bible and believing in God are two different things. To believe in the Bible is to believe in the nonsense of man, where believing in God is to believe in the common sense that God bestowed upon you, which man claims is the Devil trying to mislead you. Therefore, going around worshiping man’s nonsense is the source of our misery, not our salvation. Just look around you! If God blesses those he loves, based on the suffering that Black people have endured for the past 400 years, one would think he must hate our guts. But that's not the case. We're suffering because we've been taught to fall on our knees instead of getting on our job. God blessed us with the most powerful computer of any species on Earth, but instead of using it to move forward, we're wasting it analyzing football games, worshipping other men, and writing rhymes calling the very womb of our culture "bitches" and "hoes" - and then, we don't understand why we can't get any respect. We're the only group on Earth who denigrate our own mothers, sisters, and daughters worse than we would any dog. That's the very definition of self-hatred, so why should anyone else respect us if we don't respect ourselves? And here's how we got that way:
.
The Conversion
"Come here nigga and let me teach yo crazy, animal ass about the Lord. The first thing you got to learn is to Love thy Neighbor . . . especially me."
.
"Yes sir, Massa. Why would anybody not love you, Sir? You so good to me, Massa. Anybody don't love you needs to have dey ass beat real good, Massa."
.
"Shut up, nigga. I'm talkin'."
.
"Listen, you been blessed already, and you don't even know the Lord. The Lord made it where you don't have to worry 'bout a thing. I feed you, I put clothes on yo nasty ass, and I give you a shed to sleep in, and all you have to do is whatever the hell I tell you to. Do you know how blessed you are?"
.
"Oh, indeed I do, Massa. You take good care of me. I's so happy."
.
"Now, listen real good 'cause dis impotant. God said, thou shalt not steal from me, thou shalt not kill (unless I tell you to), thou shalt not stick another coon's wife (unless we tryin' to make some mo niggas), and nigga, whatever you do, thou shalt not even look like you want to stick a white woman, or we gon lynch yo black ass. You here me, nigga?"
.
"Oh yes, Massa. We know dat! But Massa, I thought you said thou shalt not kill?"
.
"Dat means people, fool - real people! Dat don't go for niggas. God wants us to keep you in yo place."
.
"Dat's right, Massa. We sho gotta keep niggas in dey place. No tellin' what a happen if we let dese niggas git loose. God so smart."
.
"I said shut up, nigga, and listen to the word."
.
"The next thing you got to learn is, whatever happens on this plantation is God's will bein' done. And if you listen to me, you'll get to live like I do when you die and go to Heaven."
.
"Live like you, massa? A nigga ain't got no business livin' dat good. What a Po nigga like me gon do with all this? You know I ain't got sense enough to run nothin' like this."
.
"Just shut up, nigga!" When you dead you gon get some sense - the lord gon give it to you. The Lord can do anything, even give sense to a nigga. And he gon give you all the other niggas you gon need to help you in the fields, too."
.
"Massa, you so good to me! Thank you for tellin' me all dis. I'm gon be a good nigga - the best nigga you ever seened. Look, I'm gon pray for you right now, and thank the Lord for givin' me so good a massa."
.
"Shut up and get up off your knees, ya dumb nigga! The fields need tendin'! You pray to the Lord on your own time. God don't won't you talkin' to him when you s'pose to be workin'."
.
"A couse, Massa. What I been thinkin'? I's so dumb. I don't know why you put up with me, Sir."
.
"How many times I got to tell you to shut the hell up, nigga?"
.
"Yes Sir, I's a shuttin', Massa. I's a shuttin', right now."
.
"Now get yo ass out there in that field and let's get some work done around here . . . Oh, and Toby, have yo woman meet me in the barn. I need to tell her 'bout the Lord too."
.
"Yes sir, Massa."
.
"And another thing, Toby, if my momma come a lookin', tell her I'm playin' in my tree house."
.
"Why you gon go fibbin' to yo momma, Mr. Tommy? She knows you like to sit wit Lou Ann."
.
"Just shut up, nigga, and do what I said! And tell Lou Ann to wear that pretty dress I like, cause we gon be talkin' 'bout the Lord, so it's gon be like chuch."
.
"Yes Sir, Mr. Tommy." . . . . "Whaaaaaaat a friend we have in Jeeeeesus . . ."
.
So that's how Black people - and many poor White people - got where we are today, and we're gonna stay there until we learn to get off our knees and start thinking. God helps those who help themselves. That’s why your preacher has a much bigger house than you do - and he worked a whole lot less to get it.
.
.
Finally, there are only three commandments, and you don't have to read a "holy" user's manual to find them. You were born with this knowledge:
.
1). Live the best life you can.
2). Help others whenever you can.
And most importantly,
3). Mind your own damn business.
.
That came directly from God. It’s called common sense.
.
AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. 81% OF WHITE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP
.
Eric L. Wattree http://wattree.blogspot.com/ Ewattree@Gmail.com Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA) . Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
Strive To Become Your Own Hero... Then Let No One Remove Your Cape.
BIO
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s been a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and is a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/). He’s also the author of "A Message From the Hood."
Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.
Am I a hater, you ask? You're damn right I'm a hater. I hate injustice. I hate hypocrisy. I also hate demagoguery, apathy, and the stupidity that allows it to exist. Hater? Absolutely. I'm a big time hater. I hate what I see happening to this country, and I hate watching the development of a culture that embraces ignorance with a stupid sense of pride. So yes, I am indeed a hater, but not only that - I'm a hater with a very low threshold for bullshit, so step off.
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