DENIERS GO AGAINST GOD

  
        Hurricane Sandy batters the East Coast, wildfires burn uncontrollable in Colorado, constant snow storms and flooding in the Midwest, destructive tornados in Oklahoma and in the south, devastating droughts in the southwest and list goes on and on. Is this the future that man is creating?  Does it have to be this way? Would GOD think this was okay or would he be outraged?  After all, man is destroying his creation.

          Religious people fight against gay marriage and abortion rights sighting scriptural verses that spell out that these acts are against GOD.  But at the same time, the bible states in the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth, Genesis1:1.   So, GOD created the earth and man is destroying his creation.  Where is the outrage? Are we worshipping the same GOD?

           I do understand it when the religious right says that the gay lifestyle and abortions go against GOD but at the same time, they can’t say those acts are against GOD while ignoring the first line in the same Bible. It plainly states GOD created the heavens and the earth.  No ambiguity, no misinterpretation, no foolishness.  Not protecting the environment goes against GOD.   

          Is there a list that enables man to determine what takes priority?  Is the environment on this list?  If it is not on the list, then why is it not?  Man continues to die in environmental tragedies throughout the world every day.

          Maybe we are committing suicide. There are fires that killed people. The polar ice caps continue to melt raising the sea levels and thus killing people.   The gulf’s waters are warmer resulting in more intense hurricanes that kill people. And because of the warmer water that now extends as far north as New England, there will be more hurricanes in New York City. And because of the warmer atmosphere, we can expect more devastating tornados in Kansas. Where is the outrage?   

          So maybe damaging the Earth is not a high priority. Christian Evangelicals and religious people fight to deny a woman’s right to choose. They fight to save gay people from internal damnation but suicide, they say nothing. A warming planet due to climate change caused by humans can kill us all.  Gay or straight, Christians or non-Christians, men or women, black, brown, yellow or white, everyone.  A warming planet will wipe out the Human Race far more that abortions rights or gay marriage will. But religious fanatics only see what is in front of them and refuse to see what humans are doing to the earth. Where is the outrage?

          Yes, women reproductive rights are now. Yes, gay people right to marry is now.  And yes, global warming and climate change should be now.  Consequently, religious people can’t see the looming catastrophe of global warming and climate change.  Did God give us humans the ability to learn and understand science?  As religious people try to stop a woman’s right to choose or a gay person’s right to get married, people are dying.  Humans are destroying God’s creation –the Earth. Therefore, do deniers of global warming and climate change go against GOD?  Yes.

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT

            Be thankful for family and friends, be thankful for good health, be thankful for life but be thankful for a president? What? From the day I was born in 1966, there have been nine presidents and I could only vote for five of them.  So, which vote has been a good vote?

            My first presidential vote was during the re-election campaign of Ronald Reagan.  One can say I wasn’t very knowledgeable but as a young African-American male, I was supposed to support the Reverend Jessie Jackson but I didn’t.  I always felt I was a conservative who carried a brief case to college classes. And as a business student, I was learning how to make money. Yes, Regan did some good things such as stopping rampant inflation allowing a big boom in our economy. But he did some bad things too, such as starting an un-necessary war in Grenada and trading arms for hostages which was against the law.

            Then there was George H.W. Bush.  How could anyone really to go against his “Thousand points of Lights”. Yes, I was caught up in it but my views were changing.  Bush got America involved in yet, another war by putting 500,000 troops in the Middle East to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Although the war was short, there are long-lasting effects including the rise of Al-Qaeda and Osama bin laden.

            Then there was Bill Clinton and the 1992 National Democratic Convention in New York City in which the late but great Barbara Jordan was the Keynote speaker.  You see, in 1990, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and at the 1992 convention, I saw someone who looked like me and she was wheeled onto the stage. She gave a dynamic keynote address which got me thinking even more about the Democratic Party. Although Bill Clinton took rights away from others with  ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ and Defense of Marriage Act, he knew those decisions were bad for America, and yes, he was playing politics. But like that famous Bob Dylan song ‘Times they are a changin’, change was in happening in America and in me. 

            Then in 2000, America elected George W Bush. I was now on the side of people; all people. President Bush got us into yet, another war that would cost nearly 4,500 men and women their lives and for what.  A young Secretary of State John Kerry in 1971 testified before the Senate Foreign Relations committee uttered these famous words “.  How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”   Well, we can ask Bush how do you ask a man or woman to be the last person to die for a lie. America’s change and my change were now complete.

            President Bush, also, gave the American people huge budget deficits, a poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina, a justification for torture of detainees in an unjust war and in 2008, and a banking crisis that is still negatively being felt still today.

            Now let me think, is there something good that President Bush did for the American people? I’m in deep thought.  Give me some time.  I’m sure I’ll think of something.  Oh, if you are rich, you are richer.  And if you are poor, you are poorer.  If you are a soldier, you are fighting in a foreign land because of a lie. And if you dislike America, now you hate America.  Good job Mr. President!

            So because of President Bush, the American people now have President Obama, the first black president.  President Obama appointed the first Latina on the Supreme Court.  He speaks that we, the American people, is this together.  He speaks of fairness and equality. He is getting the American people out of the hole that President Bush dug for us

            President Obama often says “it’s the right thing to do”.    Then, Don’t ask, Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act went down.   He is fighting for immigration reform and gun safety among other things.  And if President Obama appoints an Asian American to a possible open seat on the Supreme Court, that will solidify that vote in the democratic column for a generation. And It would not be because of politics but because it’s the right thing to do.  
         
          Therefore, because of the horrendous policies of President Bush, he gave us the well thought-out polices of President Obama. Therefore, we have to give credit to a president who truly deserves our thanks. Thank you, Mr. President.       

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, REALLY

            I often wonder what life would be like if I didn’t have multiple sclerosis.  Would I have been a major league shortstop player because I had speed and a strong arm? Or maybe a NBA point guard because I could handle the ball and I had an outstanding jump shot?  Or maybe a NFL quarterback because I had pinpoint accuracy.  But the military was where I wanted to go.  I was ready to go into the U.S. Air Force Officers’ Candidate School after graduation from graduate school. After all, I would only be 24 year’s old.  

            Well, now I know. I would not do any of those things because the direction of my life changed on that lonely day in August of 1990.  After going though a battery of test, it was a relatively a new device called the MRI that confirmed the diagnosis. I had multiple sclerosis. There was now a reason behind why my hand totally froze while taking a final exam in graduate school. There was now a reason why I had double vision while stressed out taking any test.  There was now a reason why I couldn’t finish any task without trying to get my eyes to focus.  I now had answers.

            Even though I had multiple sclerosis, I soldiered on.  After stints at General Electric and the now the defunct accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, I took a job at a great place, Quixote Inc.  Although, I walked to Quixote in the beginning, as time past, it was becoming more and more apparent that I could no longer embark on this endeavor. Then it happened. One summer, coworkers at Quixote were determining who would play what position on the company’s softball team. I posed and gestured like I was a great baseball player, and well, coworkers immediately determined that I would be on the team. For me, this was mistake. Running was now impossible to archive. But with some lame excuse of a hamstring injury, I ended being the head coach.

            Now, I was determined to hide my diagnosis but hiding it would be costly.  I wasn’t retaining anything new and because I did not know what I writing, my writing became suspect.  It was the summer of 2000, about ten years into my diagnosis; the cognitive impairments were becoming more and more apparent.  At the now defunct WorldCom Inc., which would be my last job, I became the butt of my boss’s jokes. He mocked me with my colleagues. I was the guy with the Masters Degree who could not complete tasks that someone with a Masters Degree should be able to complete. Maybe it was time to come clean.  So I slowly did.

            I first told a female colleague and it relived a lot of pressure.  I felt I knew what a gay person felt when they come out. I always felt like I knew what women felt about their biological clock because I had a physical clock that was ticking.  After further talks with my neurologist in Chicago, it became apparent that I could no longer handle high finance or pursue a Doctorate Degree.  My working career was over and now I was on disability.

            I thought my life could not any worse but it did. My wife of ten years divorced me. And after some time, she decided to move back to her hometown of St Louis, Missouri with my sons. But after they were in St. Louis for less than six months, my oldest son caught a nasty staph infection. It ate away bones in his neck to the point that his neck was going to collapse.  The best part, or if you can say that, is because of my disability from multiple sclerosis, I was able to move from Chicago to St Louis and be with him. In his hospital room, I told him stories of my athletic experiences that made him laugh.  He was concerned that he would no longer be able to put his chin in his chest but I simulated in my scooter, how a person would look if they walked liked that and he laughed. I told him how basketball coaches insist players always keep head up and how he was now a natural to do just that. We laughed and laughed all night and every night in that hospital room.  Maybe I put him at ease or maybe I did not but I know because of multiple sclerosis, I was the last person he would see when he went to sleep and the first he would see when he woke up. 

            The First Lady is from Chicago and her father had multiple sclerosis.  I grew up five blocks from where the first family lives in Chicago.  They overcame many obstacles to get where they are, so did me and now I hope my son will.

            Today, I no longer work or drive so money is an issue. I live alone in isolation.  My ex-wife and I are friends and that relieves stress.  She brings the boys by to see me but I have to depend on her.  I’m in St Louis and my family is in Chicago and my boys are not old enough to help me. Yeah, I can’t walk or play basketball or even attend basketball games my boys are in but I’m alive.             

            So am I bitter?  No.  Do I wish I didn’t have multiple sclerosis, you bet.  But I have accepted it and moved on.  It is what it is. I would not wish this disease on anybody though. Now, I look for breaking news on treatments and potential research. I spend my days writing in my blog or just writing. Along with my brother, I write screenplays that I hope one day, someone in Hollywood may show some interest in. But there is a positive thing associated with this dreadful disease; I was there in my son’s time of need. Can anyone really say it’s a wonderful life?  Well, I can.

GUNS

Guns don’t kill people; people kill people as the National Rifle Association would say. Yeah, people with guns kill people. Take away the guns; it would be a lot harder for people to kill people.

LAST NIGHT, AMERICA WON

LAST NIGHT  NOV. 6TH 2012. . .

The winners . . . .

Women’s reproductive rights

Marriage equality

Climate Change

Civil rights

War opponents

Social liberalism

A vision of diversity

We are in this together

. . and whatever you can add

The losers . . . . .

Bigots and Racists

Religious zealots

Non-believers about Climate Change

Birthers

War proponents  

Social Conservatism

A monolithic vision

You are on your own

. . and whatever shouldn’t happen

Last night, America won with the re-election of President Obama

 

SHOULD OBAMA BE PLACED ON MOUNT RUSHMORE?

 I know a sitting president cannot be placed there, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start thinking about it.  Why you ask?  

1)       George Washington was the first President. Obama is the first black president.  Clinton aside, Obama actually is black.

2)       Abraham Lincoln is credited with freeing the slaves. Obama enabled gay people in the military and country as a whole to live freely in a country that is still struggling to see them as equals. 

3)      Thomas Jefferson helped write the U.S. Constitution, a document about freedom and liberty. Obama is living by that document by allowing young immigrants to live with freedom and dignity in the only country they know.

4)      Theodore Roosevelt busted up big industrial trusts and set aside land for conservation. Obama is defending people against companies that are "too big to fail", and he is an environmentalist in the vision of Teddy.  

And among other things, Obama passed a national health care program that other presidents have been trying to do since Teddy Roosevelt, pursued and killed America’s real “Enemy Number One”: Osama bin Laden. And finally, Obama saved the massive American auto industry and thousands of well paying jobs when others said let them go bankrupt.

Need I go on?  

Therefore, I ask -- is it time to start thinking about it?

TO BE DISABLED OR BLACK IN AMERICA

 

             I often think about what it would like not to be disabled.  But then, I think about what it is like not be a black man.   You see, I’m both so I can compare the two from a position of experience.

            Born in Chicago in 1966, I thought the hardest thing was to be black or African-American male in America.  Having grown up in the Hyde Park and the University of Chicago neighborhood, yes, I do remember in route to Kenwood H.S., walking past a home that would later be the Chicago home of the future President of the United States.  

            Years later, the Travon Martin shooting in Florida happened.  Was he profiled because he happened to be in the neighborhood?  He had a right to be there but that didn’t matter.  I had a right to be in Hyde Park but that too didn’t matter. I, like Travon, were youths just trying to get where we were going. Oh wait a minute, we are black.

            Now, I am disabled and in a scooter.  Yes, the scooter gives me some independence but its nothing like being able to walk.  But I ask myself would George Zimmerman have profiled me if I had been in a scooter?  Would Travon have been profiled if he was in a scooter?

            I now notice things since being in a scooter.  No one feels threaten by me.  White men don’t have to worry about me stealing their women – the sexually strong black male – is no longer.  White women don’t clutch tighter their purse because I’m near.  Police don’t stop me anymore because now they probable say to themselves, he don’t fit the description and besides he couldn’t have done it.

            Had Travon been in a scooter would George had profiled him?  Would Travon be alive today had he been in a scooter?  Would George have drove past dismissing him?  Would George’s self defense claim been totally ridiculous? Yes, I can’t play basketball or baseball with my sons.  Yes, I won’t make it to all their track meets because of the double vision. Yes, I can’t have long walks on the Lakefront with my sweetheart.

            I can’t do those things any more. But now, I won’t be shot because someone feels threaten. I suffer from multiple sclerosis which is the same thing that First Lady’s father suffered from. Yea, I’m in a scooter but I’m alive.  George would have dismissed me.  There would have been no confrontation. Looking at what happened to Travon and as long there are people like George Zimmerman around, I ask myself:  Would I rather be disabled or a black male in America?  RIP Travon.