TO A FRIEND WHO TURNED OUT TO BE A TRUMP SUPPORTER

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

TO A FRIEND WHO TURNED OUT TO BE A TRUMP SUPPORTER

 . 

I recently met a guy online by the name of Howard, and we rapidly became friends. I won’t give his last name as I’d planned because we had also planned to write this piece together, but it turned out that, that wasn’t meant to be. 

. 

Howard and I are both widowers and we both loved and currently miss our late wives desperately, so it wasn’t a bit unusual that we immediately connected. I liked this guy upon first contact, and with the pain of our mutual loss in common, when we first spoke over the phone I felt like I was talking to a fellow traveler and someone I had known for years. 

. 

It turned out that we were also both passionate in our political views as well - I, a passionate progressive, and he’s just as passionate in his support of Donald Trump. Once we recognized our unusual situation, we decided to not only try to navigate it, but to try to turn it to our advantage by using our unique connection to get a better understanding of what motivates the political opposition. We recognized that we had an excellent opportunity to address the differences in our political philosophies without having to deal with the attendant hostility. We even spoke of collaborating on this article together, so I sent him these first three paragraphs in an attempt to try set the tone. 

. 

But it turned out that, that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. When I asked Howard to explain to me why he supported Donald Trump, he asked me to give him a couple of days to think about it, but he never got back with me with a response. So I decided to turn it around and I started writing him about some of the many things I found wrong with Trump, and asked him how he could possibly ignore them. I also sent him the video below, and evidence of alleged Trump and Russian collusion reported by a Trump administration whistleblower: 

. 

TRUMP LIED AND AMERICANS DIED https://twitter.com/i/status/1303834571176378376 

. 

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF TRUMP-RUSSIAN COLLUSION

. 

On 9/11/20 the Washington Post reported that “Last week, the director of national intelligence, Trump loyalist John Ratcliffe, told Congress that he would suspend in-person briefings on foreign election interference. This week, Brian Murphy, who until recently was a senior intelligence official at DHS, came forward with a whistleblower’s complaint alleging that senior department officials told him to falsify intelligence to play down Russian attacks and play up the purported threat from China and Iran. Murphy quotes acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf telling him that those instructions came straight from the White House.” 

. 

In response, Howard posted the following: 

.

“To all my friends here, I sit in a brown recliner and have my computer on my lap. It is quiet and I marvel at the sense of community I feel here. The sense of quiet confidence with a driving goal. To reelect the President. It is lovely. I have not belonged like this in a while.”

 . 

That told me two things – first, that Howard couldn’t tell me why he supported Trump, and second, that he had decided to ignore Trump's flaws - even his possible treason. 

. 

Prior to getting to know Howard I would have simply written someone like him off as just an ignorant fascist. But now I’m left with a dilemma – I know that’s not the case. I wish it were, because then I would have been able to simply dismiss him and move on. But now I can’t dismiss him – at least, not without knowing that I was being remiss. Because I know for a fact that Howard is not the least bit ignorant, and I’m confident that he’s not a bigoted fascist. So how then do I explain his seeming blind loyalty to Donald Trump?

. 

People like Howard, who are ordinarily intelligent and insightful people, yet, for some reason have a visceral attachment to a self-serving, bigoted, and corrupt politician like Donald Trump can’t simply be ignored, because they represent an insidious element within our body politic, and also a serious threat to our democracy. It’s not the people themselves that’s the problem, but the conditions that continue to create such people that represent a threat to our way of life. So to simply ignore what I’ve found to be the case here without examination would not only be reckless, but dangerously remiss, because it would be like ignoring a cancer that's quietly eating away at our society. 

. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that while many of the people who support Trump are indeed simply bigots, there are many, like Howard, who may not be consciously racist at all, but they’ve simply become accustomed to the relative comfort of a racist America. In the past, as they struggled through their lives they had the comfort of knowing that regardless to how challenging life became, they would always be protected from being at the bottom of the barrel. But that’s no longer the case. Now that they’ve seen a Black man become one of our most honored Presidents, a Black woman running for Vice President, and hordes of non-White individuals moving to the very top of our society, they feel both insecure, and under an intense threat for their own survival. 

.

And I can understand how they feel. It was one thing to see a young Black man like myself coming up back in the day, because I wasn't a threat, but it's completely another to see brilliant young, highly educated Black people like my grandkids coming up, because they are indeed more than capable of leaving many White folks behind. They have the confidence, education, and creativity to do it. Because they realize what we call "soul" is nothing less than creative brilliance straining to be unleashed, and it can be applied to much more than just music.

. 

That’s why “Make America Great Again” is such a popular slogan - because it recalls a time when America was great for White people and they were relatively secure. But the fact is, America has never been great in the sense that it’s been propagandized, and highly educated young Black people clearly recognize that fact, so now the chickens are coming home to roost. 

.

As I pointed out in a previous article, during the "Manifest Destiney" era (when Europeans came here and claimed that "God wants us to have this land"), and after being welcomed here by the Native Americans, they responded by presenting hosts with disease-infected blankets, and then brought in their army to eradicate them. So while we condemn the Nazis for killing 6 million Jews, American settlers killed as many as 10 generations of Native Americans in order to rob them of their land – and Trump is still robbing them of their natural resources as we speak. 

. 

MAKE AMERICA GREAT
AGAIN

In addition, they moved on to either kill or make the lives of millions of African slaves miserable. Then after slavery, there was the Jim Crow era in which millions of African-Americans were discriminated against, brutalized, and in many cases murdered. And during that same time, the nation was also involved in WWII where Japanese-American citizens had their property seized and entire families were placed in concentration camps. In addition, the United States dropped not one, but TWO atomic bombs on the innocent men, women and children of Japan - and since they were noncombatants, that made it THE MOST horrendous act of terrorism in ALL of human history. 

. 

But even then, “America the Beautiful” still wasn’t done - it went on to kill 3.1 million Vietnamese (2 million of which were innocent civilian men, women, and children), and then they did the very same thing to the people of Iraq (they were more compassionate with Iraqis, however - they only killed a million of them), and for no reason whatsoever, other than they didn’t like the cut of their jib. 

. 

So American history is the most blatant lie ever told in the history of mankind. In America's short 244-years of existence America has undoubtedly been THE most brutally evil nation in human history. While some enlightened Americans - both Christian and non-Christian - are still willing to fight for what America COULD be, the Trumplodytes are waging Holy Hell against even that - and ironically, the so-called “Evangelical Christians” are screaming the loudest, which speaks volumes about who they really are. 

. 

This is why Howard can’t tell me what he likes about Trump. While he craves the security that our brutal past provided White people, on a subconscious level he recognizes the price that was paid for White security in terms of injustice and immorality. That makes it impossible for Howard to explain what he likes about Trump without also embracing the truth about our past and what Trump actually represents, and right-wing Christians have the exact same problem. So instead of clearly stating what they really like about Trump, MAGA fans embrace their ambiguous slogan, “Make America Great Again”. That allows them to embrace White supremacy with a wink, but without actually having to claim it as their philosophy. But that’s exactly what America has always been, a hell-hole of White supremacy since its very inception.
.
But what Howard and his cohorts don't understand is, they're being bamboozled. As Trump's recklessly self-centered response to the Coronavirus clearly demonstrates, Trump and the GOP don't care any more about poor White folks than they do Blacks. Trump sees the poor, unwashed White masses as merely useful idiots to be used in his pursuit of self-aggrandizement, bigotry, and greed, and his all-inclusive bigotry also frowns upon poor White people of their motley breed.

So there you have it, Howard. Tell me where I’m wrong.

FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE SAYS TRUMP 

DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE,

HE ONLY CARES ABOUT BEING RE-ELECTED

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
.
Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

RELIGIOUS SELFISHNESS AND DELUSION

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

RELIGIOUS SELFISHNESS AND DELUSION

.

White Evangelicals are using a fraudulent morality to justify their evil bigotry, hatred, and gross immorality.

Christians live in a delusion. There are innocent children dying of starvation all over the world this very second, yet, many Christians are on their knees begging God to help them pay for their Range Rovers. That’s flat-out selfishness. What makes them think they're so special? Think about that. They’re just being told they’re special in order to keep the money rollin’ in every Sunday morning, and God is sitting there watching them make lying, self-serving fools of themselves. Because God knows the truth - he knows that if they actually loved him over themselves they’d simply live a Godly life instead of always running around flappin’ their lips about it to anybody who's crazy enough to listen. Who are they trying to convince?

Your Bible says the following:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”- MATTHEW 6

I was raised a Christian and baptized by Black conservative evangelist, Rev. E.V, Hill, Sr. But I left the church after becoming so fed-up with listening to all the lying hypocrites that I had to either get out of there or throw up all over the pulpit. I had to make a decision, to either accept man’s lunacy about walking dead men and talking snakes, or to follow the common sense that God gave me. Well, I chose God, and then I walked out of that church never to returned.

I wanted to believe that nonsense, because everyone I loved believed it, but I just couldn’t - God had blessed me with far too much common sense. So again, as I said – I had a choice of rather to have "faith" in the lying word of man, and live my life trying to tell God a lie he hadn't already heard to try to get myself into Heaven, or listen to the mind bestowed upon me by God himself. So I chose God over man, and I walked out of the church a free man. I no longer had to pretend to believe in Voodooistic nonsense. The truth had set me free.

Since that time, I've done a lot of thinking about religion, and I've come to the conclusion that the world would be a lot better off if everybody would just live their beliefs and mind their own business. There are over 4200 different religions on Earth. So who's to say which one is right? I say none of them are. People simply believe what they were raised to believe, and then they spend their entire lives trying to shove their beliefs down everybody else's throat. That's why there is so much hatred in the world. Religion is the source of 99% of all the murder, hatred, and mayhem in the world today. Look at what's going on in the Middle East.

Life could really be simple. If you love God, just keep your mouth shut and live like it. I don't see what's so hard about that. I don't want nobody teaching my kids what to think about God while they’re at school, for example. When I was coming up, the very people who were running around talking about "Praise the Lord" were the exact same people who were lynching Black people - and the so-called "good Christians" weren't saying a word. And they’re doing the exact same thing today, letting people starve to death on the street, and putting children in cages, while they're buying preachers big houses and expensive cars in order to try to bribe their way into Heaven. I have no time for that nonsense. Such people are living in a delusion, and using the name of God to justify their selfishness. It’s a disgusting thing to watch.

The primary reason that so many so-called Christians can tolerate Trump’s many flaws is because they’re not really Christians at all. Yes, they're religious, but they worship selfishness and greed, not God. They merely use religion as an insurance policy. These people are afraid of death, so they try to hire God as a bodyguard. Thereafter, they try to bribe him into giving them a long and happy life by buying their preacher a big house and a new Cadillac, and in return they try to use God as an entity they can beg to provide for their needs, and who they can pray to for forgiveness of their many sins. That allows them to commit as many atrocities as they like and then simply ask for forgiveness thereafter – what great deal!

So their so-called “religion” has nothing to do with either morals, benevolence, or Christ. Jesus is just mentioned in passing in an attempt to keep deluding themselves into believing they have a so-called deal with God. But their true religion is based on selfishness, greed, and fear, and it’s actually a deal with the Devil.

That explains how Christians found a way to overlook slavery, managed the wholesale slaughter of ten generations of Native Americans, and found a way to justify the commission of any and all forms of evil that happened to be convenient to provide for their comfort. They’ve currently deemed it acceptable to demonstrate in the street to defend their right to be armed to the teeth with some of the most deadly weapons on Earth, and overrun state houses demanding the right to pass on a deadly disease to their neighbors, for example. Yet when a lying and self-serving demagogue takes children away from their parents and lock them in cages, all we hear from these precious children of God are crickets.

There’s a simple reason why these so-called “God-fearing children of God” can justify all of these ungodly acts - because their religious beliefs are based on pure bullshit, and if they’re right about the hereafter, they’re in for a huge surprise. It’s no accident that that Evangelical Christians are some of Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters – because they’re among the most Godless people in America, and in the end they’re gonna be slammed into Hell so hard they’re gonna be bouncing off the walls.

I’ve always understood that fact. When I was raising my kids I had to tell my extended family not to bring that nonsense into our presence, because I didn't want them polluting the minds of my children with that Voodoo-inspired ignorance. As a result, I now have a daughter, a son, and 5 grandchildren who are ethical, and completely efficient and logical thinkers. Their lives are completely free of all manner of demons, goblins and "evil spirits". They see evil for what it is - ignorance. If you go up to any one of my kids or grandchildren talking about talking snakes and walking dead men, they'd look at you like you’re wearing a Voodoo doll around your neck, and I’m more proud of that than I am anything else I’ve accomplished in my life.

They were raised to believe that you do what's right because it's right to do what's right, not to try to get into Heaven or be rewarded in some kind of way. Living to try to "go to Heaven" doesn't make you a good person, it makes them selfish person; and that’s not loving God, that’s trying to get something for yourself. That’s what makes these people so easy to spot - they’re always either begging God to do something for them, or bragging about what he's already done for them as a reward for being so wonderful, as they applaud Trump for putting more children in cages. I mean, what people are  these who can’t see evil staring them in the face? Do they really think God is going to bless their hypocrisy!!!?  Oh, yes! These people are deluded.

.

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
.
Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

ABOUT TRYING TO BE COOL

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattre

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

.

ABOUT TRYING TO BE COOL

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.

.

MEET THE YOUNG FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AND LOOK INTO THE EYES OF A REAL BLACK MAN.

.

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:

.
"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.

.

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
.
Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

CONSERVATISM HAS PROVEN ITSELF TO NOT BE A PHILOSOPHY BUT A PATHOLOGY

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

CONSERVATISM HAS PROVEN ITSELF TO NOT BE A PHILOSOPHY, 
BUT A PATHOLOGY

The primary reason that so many conservatives are in love with Donald Trump is because he’s a perfect reflection of themselves, right down to the last flaw. While he doesn’t share any of their alleged “values” (Trump doesn't have any), but he does share their pathology, and they love him for it, because as President, he validates their belief that their flaws aren’t really that bad. But simply believing such a fantasy is a flaw in itself – it’s delusional.
.

Conservatism’s not a political philosophy, it’s a mental dysfunction that causes a person to desperately cling to past traditions and concepts that’s familiar to them at all cost. That’s how the so-called political philosophy got its name. Conservatives are dedicated to “conserving” all things that are familiar, and they consider anything unfamiliar as a threat. The primary reason for that is, more often than not, conservatives are not the most intellectual among us, and they're so untrustworthy themselves, that they assume everyone else shares that trait, so they consider anything requiring thinking outside of the box a possible ploy, and not to be trusted. That's why so many conservatives reject the the concept of climate change. They consider the concept an elitist conspiracy, and they consider anyone who went past high school, or who's arrogant enough to try to think, an elitist.
.
So, unlike progressives, who are analytical, fascinated by new possibilities, and eagerly embrace “progress”, conservatives are more inclined not to trust anything new. They’re more comfortable with the status quo. They rely on the minds of the past to guide them. That way, they’re not required to think.
.
That accounts for how so many of them can claim to be Christians while at

the same time lacking in any and all moral values. They don’t care anything about morality – if they did, they wouldn’t have slaughtered over 200 million Native Americans to steal their land, or enslaved over 12.5 million Africans to steal their labor, or engaged in 400 years of the most virulent forms of bigotry. They guided by The Doctrine of Discovery, which makes it morally acceptable to exploit anyone unlike themselves.
.
But they can't see that, because they’re blind to any facts that don’t serve their interests. So they tend to be autocrats by their very nature – they have to be to maintain the status quo and desperately avoid all manner of thought. Thus, it's not enough for them to control their own thoughts and behavior, they're not comfortable unless they can also control your thoughts and behavior as well. That's where their religion comes in - their claims of piety allows them to also claim that they’re controlling behavior is blessed and ordained by God. In other words, it's not so much that they choose to tell you how to live your life, but God chose them for the job.

.

RUSH: ANOTHER DRAFT DODGER

We've just witnessed a perfect example of their "nothing-else-needs-to-be-said" hypocrisy, in that regard. While the Republican Party claims to be the ultimate patriots who love God and country with a unique dedication more passionate than any other group in the world, in spite of the fact that they swore before God, country, and on the very graves of this nation's founding fathers that they’d be completely nonpartisan in their judgment during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, after it was proven, without a doubt, that their hero used the founding document of this land for toilet paper, they simply said “We don’t want to hear any more”, and began to chant, “FOUR MORE YEARS!”. That proves irrefutably that the GOP's true convictions entail embracing whatever happens to be convenient for them at the moment, and that they’re completely willing to ignore God, country, or any oath administered to accommodate their own needs. Such people are dangerous, and much too reckless, self-serving, and immoral to be trusted with the reins of power.

.

REPUBLICAN SENATOR MITT ROMNEY

.
When viewed from an objective perspective, it becomes clear why conservatives love Donald Trump so passionately - they love him because they’re just like him - they're ignorant, deceitful, self-serving, narcissistic, and corrupt. And that doesn't constitute a political philosophy, that’s an American disability. So the bottom line is, if America intends to survive as a nation, rabid conservatism is a disease that urgently needs to be addressed, treated, and eradicated.

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
.
Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

ARE WHITE EVANGELICALS FOLLOWING THE LORD, OR HATRED, BIGOTRY, AND GREED?

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

. 

82 PERCENT OF WHITE EVANGELICALS SUPPORT TRUMP. ARE THEY FOLLOWING THE LORD, OR HATRED, BIGOTRY AND GREED?

.

I’m a passionate believer in God. I pray before every meal, and each night before I go to bed. But God blessed me with enough sense to realize that he communicates with us through common sense, that’s why he gave it to us. So, the so-called "Holy Scriptures” are nothing more than the superstitious rantings of 3000-year-old dead men who didn't know any more about God than we do, which is absolutely nothing. They were the Pat Robertsons of their day.

.

You don’t have to have “faith” to believe in God, you have an entire universe to attest to his existence. You only need “faith” to believe in the word of man, who’s created hatred, murder, and mayhem all over the world. There are over 4200 different religions in the world. If God had anything to do with religion there would only be one. Would a loving God subject man to such to such hatred, chaos and misery? I don’t think so. So you must ask yourself, are you worshiping God, or a book? And what do you have the most faith in, God, the common sense that bestowed upon you, or the word of man? I ask you this in the name of God.
.
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would show to Christ. And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” EPHESIANS 6:5

The scripture cited above scripture is complete nonsense, and it’s nonsense for a reason, because organized religion – ALL OF THEM – is social manipulation and designed to allow man to control other men. God created you with all that you need to live a Godly life. And God doesn’t make mistakes, so you don’t require a user’s guide written by other men. The user’s guide that’s referred to as “The Holy Scriptures” is nothing more than a device used by man to put his words into God’s mouth. He’s telling you what HE wants, not God. That’s why the scriptures didn’t prevent slavery, the slaughter of over 200 million Native Americans, or White Evangelicals now trying to convince you to worship Donald Trump. God gave you the common sense to know that snakes don’t talk. Listen to him, Black people. Get off your knees and on your job, or you’ll be victims for another 400 years.

LET’S TALK ABOUT GOD AND THE UNIVERSE

Our galaxy has over 200 billion stars, and the Sun is only one of them. It takes the Sun, along with Earth, and it’s other 8 hitchhikers, traveling at 828,000 mph 230 million years to orbit around our galaxy just one time.  Yet, our solar system, with its 9 planets, is only a microscopic dust particle in our galaxy, and our galaxy itself, in terms of the universe, is nothing more than a microscopic dust particle in space.
.

To make sense of the distances we’re talking about, on January 19, 2006 we launched the space probe, New Horizon, for the planet Pluto in our own solar system. It was the Fastest man-made object ever launched from Earth.  It sped through space at 36,400 mph. That’s 24 times faster than an AK 47 military rifle bullet. Yet it took New Horizon until July 14, 2015 (9 years, 6 months) to reach Pluto.
.
Thus, if the Earth was your house in Los Angeles, Pluto would be a flea in San Diego, and Alpha Centauri, the closest neighboring star to the Sun, would be an elephant in China - and that's just within our galaxy. There are over 200 billion stars, equally as far away from one another, in just our galaxy alone, and there are more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on every beach, every desert, and every ocean floor on the planet Earth – and that’s just in the observable universe that's still expanding in every direction at the speed of light (186,282 miles per second). Yet, man thinks he can tell other men about God.
.
Man is way too full of himself.  In terms of the universe, man is trillions of times less significant than a colony of germs under a toilet seat in Uzbekistan. It’s only man’s incredible arrogance that causes him to think that we’re important enough for God to even remember who we are. After all, does God remember every germ that he created?  So every time I hear a preacher preaching “the gospel” I have to laugh. I ask myself, "Will you listen to this fool! I wonder does he actually believe this nonsense!!!?"
.
Do you believe that God sent Jesus to all the hundreds of trillions of worlds in the universe? Or do you believe that we're so special that we're the

OUMUAMUA: WHAT IS IT?

only speck of dust in the universe with life on it? Both assumptions are ridiculous. It may seem like we're alone, but the only reason we don’t see other beings is because even if they lived right next door to us (which they do), even traveling at the speed of light, it would take them 137 thousand years to get here, because the next closest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri, is over 24 trillion miles away.  So, think about that – in order to just drop in for a cup of coffee they would have had to leave home 135 thousand years before Jesus was born, and they won't get here for another 133 thousand years - and again, that’s just our closest neighbor!
.

So, whenever I think about the universe that God has created, it helps me to place the concept of God in perspective. The limited intellect of man is much too puny to even conceive of the nature of God, and much less, know what's on his mind - that explains atheism. But that alone gives me more than enough reason to worship him. I worship God for what he’s done, and what I can see, not because of the superstitious rantings of 3000-year-old dead men - and that's exactly who wrote the so-called "Scriptures". They were no closer to God than we are today. They were the Pat Robertsons of their time, and just as clueless. These same men claimed that the universe revolved around the Earth until Galileo proved them wrong - and then they placed him under arrest for educating them.

Thus, for exactly that reason, I feel absolutely no obligation to force myself to believe in walking dead men or talking snakes, nor do I feel any obligation to get all dressed up every Sunday morning and pay to be screamed at for two hours. And there's another important benefit - I don't have to be bothered with Bible-thumping lunatics. 
.
So, whenever I want to commune with God – and I do quite regularly - I simply pour myself a drink, sit out in my backyard, and gaze out at the night sky – and I can do that for free, except for the price of a shot of gin. 

.

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
.
Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

AL SHARPTON: THE HAPPY NEGRO

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY
.

AL SHARPTON: THE HAPPY NEGRO 

.

I hate the video below. While Sharpton is out partying in the street, Trump supporters are arming themselves to the teeth. This nation is in the most dire straits that it’s been in since the Civil War, and this guy is out dancing in the street, the epitome of the happy negro. The behavior of Al Sharpton – this so-called civil rights leader – sends the exact wrong message to the people. It says that everything is cool, don’t worry, we’ve got this, everything’s under control so let’s party.

.

So, why should Black people care what people think? The way people profile us is extremely important. It can have an negative impact on a young Black person's ability to get a job, or whether or not a cop blows our brains out during a traffic stop. Bigotry is not simply based on the color of our skin, but the hostility that bigots harbor towards our cultural traditions and our way of life. So there are many components to bigotry. It's just like the attitude that Black people have towards White people. We don't hate all White people, we simply dislike White people who have traditions that we don't approve of. Every White person from the South is not a bigot, for example, but hearing a Southern drawl tends to turn many Black people off. That's due to the profile we have of them in our minds. We make assumptions about them without even knowing them. That's exactly the way many White people profile us. 
.
My late wife used to tell me, I don't understand why no matter how wrong you are, you never get a ticket. It's simple. On the one hand, I don't show any hostility towards the police, and on the other, I don't suck up to them either. I simply talk to them like I would talk to my neighbor, and they respond to that vibe. 
.
But with respect to Sharpton, one lady told me, "Relax. He's just having a good time!" I can understand that, but if he wants to have a good time, he should do it at home, not in public. Since he professes to be a Black leader, he should carry himself like one, with dignity and class. He needs to remain cognizant of the fact that many people are already under the impression that all Black of people's intelligence is confined to below the neck. So it's important that we defeat that impression, and as a so-called Black leader he should be in the very forefront of that battle. 

.

If he genuinely cared about Black people, he’d be sending out videos shouting, “Fire!” instead of videos featuring him boogying down like a geriatric teenager. Once again, he’s sending out the exact wrong message. He should be hard at work preparing the people to face the worst situation they’ve ever faced in their lives, because the demographics clearly indicate that this is White supremacy’s final stand, and they know it. That’s why they’re pulling out all stops - they’re stacking the courts with bigots, building walls to keep non-Whites out of the country, the Supreme Court is making it legal for the GOP to gerrymander and demand voter I.D. and then closing down every public office in the minority community where the required I.D. can be obtain, and at the same time, they’re purging Black people from the voter rolls in droves, and that's just to name a few of their devices. So, those are the things that Sharpton should be putting out videos about, yet, he's out there dancing. There’s a phrase for what he’s engaged in, it’s called, “Fiddling while Rome burns”.  He's just waiting around for another atrocity so he can grab him a headline.

.

That’s why we can’t trust many of these so-called “leaders” – their judgment is clouded by their own self-interest. He’s more interested in gaining applause by showing the people that he can “get down” than he is in addressing the urgent issues of those very same people. Jesse Jackson betrayed that very same kind of selfish attitude when it looked like Barack Obama was going to be successful in his run for the White House. Jesse was overheard saying, “I’d like to cut his nuts off”. If Jesse’s concern was actually for the people instead of himself he should have been delighted that a Black man was going to become President of the United States. And I won’t even get into Tavis Smiley and Cornel West’s envious asses – by the way, where are they now that we need someone to badmouth the President? I guess they’re comfortable now that a White man is back in office.
.
We wouldn't even know who Al Sharpton was if he wasn't such a headline chaser. He's been a distraction for Black people for years. Yes, Black people should get out and demonstrate grievances, but we need to spend more time educating ourselves. So, what turns me off most about people like Sharpton, is he claims to be for Black people, but he's really out for himself. He'll ride an issue as long as it captures the headlines, and then he’ll walk away once it grows stale. A true Black activist would be using these issues to emphasize the need for Black people to learn to out-think the White man.
.
Black people need to make knowledge the new "soul". The very same creative intellect that created Ray Charles and Areatha Franklin can be put into distinguishing ourselves in math, business, and the sciences. So the time for dancing is over while Trump is still looking for a match to light the ovens.  It's time to start stimulating our minds, instead of shaking our asses.

.

The only way the Republican Party can survive is by dumbing down the population, so that provides Black people with the perfect opportunity to level the playing field. While the GOP is busy dumbing the rest of the population down, Black people should be focused like a laser on becoming the most knowledgeable people in the country. That way, the only way the nation can survive is to get Black people to run it. That’s the technique the Jews used to ensure their equality. Today, this nation couldn’t survive without Jews – or at the very least, without being severely hobbled.
.
Black people need to keep in mind that the White man wasn't able to enslave Black people because he could beat us up, we were enslaved because he had a knowledge of gunpowder that we didn't possess. So we were enslaved due to ignorance, and the only way that we're gonna be able to free ourselves is through knowledge, and giving priority to shaking our asses is not going to provide that knowledge. No one has ever gained freedom through shaking their ass.

.

In addition, being primarily known for engaging in frivolity is why nobody takes us seriously. When a young Black person goes to be interviewed for a job, I want the interviewer to say, “I want to hire this person, because Black people are known for their brilliance”; not, “naw, if I hire this guy he might distract the other employees by trying to start a Soul Train line in the lunchroom” - and the latter is exactly how many people view us. We simply don’t have an image of professionalism, and Sharpton's spectacle in the video below is contributing to that. We have an image - whether deserved or not - of disrupting the workplace, and coming to work with our head so bad from partying the night before that we can barely perform our job.
.

I was a union rep for 20 years, and one day a brother came up missing from his assignment. I couldn’t find the guy anywhere, so finally I checked the parking lot and found him in his car asleep. I woke him up and told him he’d better get back to his assignment before they realized he was missing. He looked up at me and said, “If there’s two things I can’t stand, it's niggas and flies.” So, I left him there. This went on for a few days, and finally management noticed that he was missing after being unable to contact him by phone. Eventually security found him and he was placed up for removal. Then when he came to me, hat-in-hand. I told him I’d do what I could, but not to get his hopes up, because it was an open and shut case. But when we met on his case, management wanted to compromise. They wanted me to agree to a 14-day suspension of a guy in another case. The guy they wanted to suspend wasn’t guilty of anything, they'd just trumped up a charge because they didn’t like him. But they said if I agreed to the compromise, in return they'd simply have the sleeper sign a Last Chance Agreement. I refused, so the sleeper was fired.

.

Thereafter, sleeper didn’t even want to take responsibility his own actions. He called me a sellout and everything under the Sun. He claimed that I turned on him to save a White boy – but, again, the White guy wasn’t guilty of what he was charged with - I didn't turn on him for a White boy, I turned on him in pursuit of justice, and justice is blind. Why should I make the White guy suffer for the sleeper’s irresponsibility? The last thing I heard about the sleeper was he'd lost his Cadillac Escalade, all his women and fine clothes, and he was living on Los Angeles' Skid Row, but I didn't feel a thing.
.
The point of this story is, long after the sleeper was gone, his behavior tarnished every Black person in the unit. Every time I represented a Black person before management they would bring up the sleeper – and I mean, even 3 years later!  I had to ask them several times, "What did the sleeper have to do with the current case!!!?  But their attitude wasn't lost on me, and that attitude was, "You're all alike". So, I often wondered how many deserving young Black men were refused a job because one brother wanted to party and get his head bad all night and sleep on the job during the day. 

.

Admittedly, while the situation is much different, the issue is the same. It’s all about not reinforcing the White man’s racist image of us. How dare Sharpton be out on the street shakin' his ass and profiling us? He’s supposed to be a Black leader! So, if he’s out on the street being frivolous and undignified, what message does that send about the rest of us? And what makes it even worse is he’s out there boogyin’ while innocent Black people are being murdered on the street by rogue cops all across this country. That’s why the White man's attitude is, "Aw, don't worry about it. They'll get over it. Their dumb asses will be back out on the street Twerkin' in a week." So, we've got to get serious, become more professional in our conduct, and stop profiling ourselves as happy negros.

.

Image is everything. After seeing this video, when Sharpton tries to address a serious Black issue, his image in this video is going to be in the back of the White man’s mind. So who’s gonna take him seriously? I know I can't. If you're upset over the conditions that Black people are suffering, you can't turn your outrage off on a whim. I go to bed upset, and I wakeup upset - and I'm never in the mood to get out on the street and shake my ass. Can you even imagine Martin Luther King or Malcolm out there shaking their asses like that? Their careers would’ve been over. So while Sharpton might have garnered a little applause from the people on the street, all he's actually done was help the White man profile us as frivolous children who shouldn’t be taken seriously. 

.

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
.
Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content