Stuff I learned / re-learned. If you’re not familiar with any of these, ask me privately and we can chat. I am by no means an expert, just a student.
- 1970’s stuff to discredit Black Panthers. I’ve only heard it mentioned, haven’t delved deeply.
- Today’s social media – much more raw message, much harder to contain. This also means a lot less “marketing buzzword blitz” and you have to work to tune in to the message, or follow somebody you trust to parse it for you. Also means lots of information warfare can jack with the signal.
- Analogy of “There’s a house burning on the street”. All houses matter. Right now one is burning.
- Analogy of “All folks are hungry”. And one person has no food.
Some personal historical notes:
As a child in Liberia, there was a different kind of racism. Is it racism? Or does some other word apply? Cultural non-melting-pot? There were native locals, there were the descendants of freed slaves, the African Americans we had heard of but never met, all the white Americans whom we had met, the folks from other African countries neighboring us, the Indians, the Lebanese, etc. All these had different .. relationships? expectations? with each other.
I remember the first time I realized that my race-thoughts were wrong. I was hanging out with Charles “Flip” M. in Washington D.C. I said something about “those Americans” .. and Charles stopped me in my tracks: “We’re American”, and he might have also said Dog. He is Black.
I had never considered it before. The way I was raised, all Americans were White, and everybody else was just lucky if they got allowed in to eat a slice of pie. Possibly very delicious pie. Even now, as a naturalized citizen, that programming is strong inside me – at any point, “Spanish Inquisition” and I’ll be stripped of everything and thrown out on the street. So DON’T BUCK THE SYSTEM BOY or YOU WILL PAY something like that.
But what do I do about it now?
My spiritual path pays special attention to “What do I choose to create” and “Who do I choose to be Now.” So, take a sheet of paper, and make a grid. (Sorry, WordPress styling not so good)
| Topic | Initial programming | Intermediate | Current Thoughts/Action | Want to Claim |
This is a private exercise to share with someone you trust. But basically, i can put in, for a given topic – say, “who can be American”. What was my initial programming? And in the 2nd to last is .. based on my current actions and thoughts, what do I currently believe in / what “world” am I choosing to create around me. And the last one, that’s between you and God. But its what you would aspire to be.
For example, my second to last column was something like this: “Yes, its all fucked up, and its going to stay that way, because the folks who want to keep it that way have the power to do that and can rewrite narrative.” I kid you not, that’s the negative ass story I was telling myself.
And then people started protesting. And whether those protesting did the boat rocking or not, or others joined in and started throwing rocks at the boat, nevertheless, the boat did rock, and some acts started to get cleaned up. Maybe not all of them, but some did.
Which means .. I was wrong. My 2nd to last column was wrong. Dare I accept a new truth? Dare I write a different next column?
And then if you’re like me and you’re doing this electronically, change the font for all the old ideas and make them strikeout.
This way, when the old ideas come up — and they do, all the time — at least for me, I’ve put the old ideas and the new ideas next to each other, and I’ve revisited my decision of what do i want to create now, and I can gently forgive myself for the old ideas and surrender to God to water the new ones.
Hope that helps.
America is … for the people, by the people?
America is principles before personalities?
Does this relate to the sanctity of the law, putting law above individual people?
American Government is to serve the people, not to strike fear in the people?
American Government is a sham placeholder to police the world’s oil supply for the wealthy and silly things like people’s right don’t matter other than to placate the population?
American people is all the people, not just the wealthy?
American people includes the homeless? Or is it only those who agree to certain norms like street addresses and social security numbers and those who pay taxes?
What is your picture of America?
