ClydeStyle

Category: Change

  • Columbus Day should be put out of its misery

    We welcome October with a plea to the government to put an end to the big lie surrounding Columbus Day. Everyone already knows how far the truth was stretched to cover up the evil that this day represents.

    Even if some turn a blind eye to the offense of this federal holiday, others have already begun to replace the celebratory part of the holiday with something called Native American Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

    Originally, Columbus was credited as the discoverer of America despite the fact that millions of people were already here. Columbus made four expeditions to the Caribbean and South America enslaving and decimating populations paving the way for European colonization.

    The White House made a proclamation last year to the holiday, and sadly, it gave the true history of the holiday. In speaking about Italian-Americans, it says, “Things have not always been easy; prejudice and violence often stalled the promise of equal opportunity.  In fact, Columbus Day was created by President Harrison in 1892 in response to the anti-Italian motivated lynching of 11 Italian Americans in New Orleans in 1891.  During World War II, Italian Americans were even targeted as enemy aliens.  But the hard work, dedication to community, and leadership of Italian Americans in every industry make our country stronger, more prosperous, and more vibrant.  The Italian American community is also a cornerstone of our Nation’s close and enduring relationship with Italy — a vital NATO Ally and European Union partner.”

    Now, I agree with these sentiments regarding Italians, and there are other cultures that contribute to many positive things in America. However, I can make a powerful argument that African-American contributions far exceed the others, and despite having Republicans and Democrats make promises of change, Black people have continued to struggle.

    Columbus Day is a slap in the face. It needs to be a part of some museum where we put our troubled past away forever. I love the idea of celebrating the originals. And paying homage to the true innovative beings that dared to follow scientific theories to get to the New World.

    It is as if you can’t believe anything that was told to us in “American history.” With so many lies, it makes you wonder what else they are hiding.

  • Knowledge really is power

    The older I get, the more I learn what I didn’t know. So much information that was originally given to me is turning out to be false.

    The level of trust we give our original source is huge when they have not been vetted. Why would we trust like that? We trust as if no one has a reason to lead us astray.

    It seems that in America, our original history is so bad that we would be appalled if we knew the truth. That beautiful story about how the early settlers came over here seeking a better way of life, wrote the constitution, and started America didn’t quite happen like that. In fact, it was nothing like that. I won’t spoil the research for you, but you need to challenge everything.

    The most interesting part of all of this is that the truth is out there. It’s contained in resource books and professional journals. I read a professional journal that had an interview with Fredrick Douglas, and he was discussing the character of the man we know as Abe Lincoln. The title of the article says of Lincoln that he is a man, but not a brother.

    We were told he was this great emancipator who freed the slaves and strived to create an America where everyone was free. False! Not even close!

    Lincoln freed the slaves to win the Civil War and wanted to deport the slaves back to their homeland, knowing that they would never truly be free. He was always for the advancement of his race. He believed in reparations, and he made sure that every slave owner received $300 per slave for their troubles. That $300 in 1865 is the equivalent of $5626.21 today. Image how much that is if you had 50 slaves. Then, instead of taking your reparations and purchasing more land, these slaveowners kept the money and took the land the slaves had, and of course, the slaves couldn’t report this to authorities.

    Surely you have heard about the 40 acres and a mule phrase? Well, that was a reality for a few slaves until the white man showed up, seized the land and shot the mule, and burned your house down. No government intervention at all – thanks, Abe!

    So if knowledge is power, it is up to us to pick up a book, learn the truth, and act accordingly.

  • Politics as usual: They don’t really care about us

    Things are ramping up for the 2024 elections, and in every election year, politicians attempt to tell us what really is important. Their talking points start off with, “The American people want this…” Make no mistake, the elections are never for the American people. In a democracy, elections are used to make the people believe they have a say or control of what is happening in their country.

    Talking points work like worms against a fish. Politicians debate and talk about topics that interest the general population, but never are these things changeable. For example, President Joe Biden, who is the architect of the 94′ crimes bill responsible for putting millions of minorities in prison, went on the radio show The Breakfast Club and said if Black people did not vote for him, they weren’t Black. He talked about police shooting unarmed Black people was a problem; he talked about voting rights being a priority; he talked about the criminal justice system being a problem, but they didn’t make his radar once he was elected.

    What Biden did is what every Democrat does: Their interest is not in helping minorities but in helping the base. Republicans are the same with favoring their base. The problem is the majority of the people in both bases are white!

    So then brown people continue to struggle with immigration and black people struggle with everything else. Doing things for the masses or serving you base doesn’t scratch the surface of the people for minorities.

    When I say minorities, I am talking about people in America who make under 80k per year. The best part of America is the ability to earn money. A sample of all races is earning money in America, but the overwhelming majority of Americans are struggling. I am specifically saying that there is not much being done to help their situations. Some temporary Covid protocols made a difference for a short while, but these benefits don’t compare to the benefits given to citizens in other countries.

    So after each election, politicians prove to the masses that they don’t care about us. We should begin hearing about the “big scare” that the democrats do every election year to cause fear among the people of the dangers of not voting democrat. The Republicans do they same thing on their side, and while the fear is increased, the benefits for the poor decrease. Don’t think this is a racial divide because it isn’t. This divides us by class.

    The greatest vote you can make to a politician is to contribute money to their campaign because that’s who will be satisfied with the win. Imagine if you are a politician and one constituent gives you $50, and another gives you $1000 per month. Who would you listen to?

    Until this system changes, the common man will always get the shaft during the elections.

  • American satire: The media’s usual vision for covering news

    In America, it used to be that Fox News would slant stories more to the conservative end, and MSNBC would slant stories more to the liberal end, and we could rely on CNN to land somewhere near the middle. Today, media coverage is extremely biased and used more as a weapon than a resource.

    The only exception is when it comes to race. Last weekend in Mongomery, Alabama, on the riverfront where ironically slave ships dropped off its cargo, the media told us that a fight broke out involving many people, and lots of arrests were made.

    Those are the details, and that would be fine if we didn’t know what actually happened. If Black people were the aggressor, the media coverage would have been something like: “Several gang bangers were arrested after starting a brawl on the riverfront.”

    What actually happened was that a security guard was instructing people to move their boat from the area where they docked it. Words were exchanged, and the patron punched the guard, and the fight began. Several people came to the aid of the patron, and in seconds, they had the guard on the ground, punching and kicking him.

    Onlookers were outraged and came to the aid of the guard. So the fight that should have taken place 250 years ago on those same docks took place then. The groups were, of course, divided by race. Since the aggressors were Caucasian, the Caucasian media just called it a brawl – like it just started like a fire. Caucasian aggressors don’t fit the narrative. When Caucasians do aggressive things, the language is cleaned up to make it less horrible.

    Most mass shooters have been white males. There is actually a psychological reason for that, but I won’t go into it here. The point is that you would never hear the media say, “Yet another Caucasian male has killed several students and teachers in a school, police baffled as to the reason.”

    For decades, the media has villianized Black men in news reports, and we hear it so often that it sounds normal. The videos of the Montgomery incident have gone viral, and memes regarding the event are everywhere.

    Many are asking the question, what would you do if you were there? What side would you have taken, or would you have stayed out of it completely? For many, this was more than just a brawl. It was more than just some strangers coming to the aid of a man in need. It was finally the response that Gen z and Under would rather have learned in their history books. It was the response that mirrored what many have said they would have done if they were present back in the Jim Crow south. Finally, Black people banded together and fought back.

    Will this make future incidents worse?

  • El Paso shooter gets 90 consecutive life sentences. For what?

    One of the many mass shooters in America recently went through sentencing for shooting up a Walmart, killing 20 plus people and wounding many others. We were outraged when we heard about it, and the usual things were said, like, is the shooter dead? Did they identify the dead? What type of weapon was used? Was he a formal employee of Walmart?

    Prayers and thoughts were sent out by millions who heard about the deaths and conversations began around the country regarding whether the death penalty should be brought back and when we would get stiffer gun laws.

    Chatter, then begins to die down until the next shooting kindles it back up. Finally, the El Paso shooter gets sentenced, and it took multiple days to do it. Our country is so juvenile when it comes to things like this. Although his court days are far from over, he was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences. Why? It’s almost like each sentence was a shot to his head, and the person with the trigger just kept pulling it to the tune of 90 consecutive life sentences.

    What is the purpose of this? It won’t bring anyone back to life. It is not even equal punishment. And rehabilitation is definitely not an agenda item here. We’ll just toss out life sentences like coupons and hope that they satisfy the families of the deceased.

    This is madness. Of course, we need tougher gun laws. In fact, we need to eliminate guns from our society, but that won’t happen because there is money to be made selling guns.

    Until we begin to look at our crimes as a mirror and see who we truly are instead of acting as if those criminals are just “bad apples,” we will continue to lack the compassion it takes to heal and rehabilitate the under belly of our society. These shooters did not plan to be mass shooters in kindergarten. It’s not an excuse, but circumstances happened, and we could trace back through the lives of the shooters and find the points of trouble.

    Stricter penalties like death have proven to be abusive, and many die who are innocent, especially those of color. We need to change the narrative in America by acknowledging our sins and fighting injustice where it occurs. If not, eventually, we will all be killed in a mass shooter attack or be in jail for 90 consecutive life sentences as the shooter.

  • Judges Thomas and Alito are just the tip of the iceberg

    Life constantly proves that we are flawed. As a part of our moral development, we should seek to excel in integrity, goodness, truth, and character, but we have lost our way.

    If we can no longer expect our Supreme Court justices to be honest, how can we expect it in other courts? It seems that there is always a problem when people don’t speak out against injustice. We made that a habit in our country, and it still hinders us today.

    The only thing needed to start a revolution after slavery ended would have been for whites to stand up and acknowledge wrongdoing. If some would have just called it as they saw it because never is it ok to make people property.

    During the Civil Rights movement, our legislative, judicial, and executive branches had a golden opportunity to move our country light years ahead by simply speaking up for what is right! Today, there are horrible police practices that many police, if they were not guilty themselves, could denounce as evil, but they stand silent. Some of the districts that our children are supposed to be educated in are failing. Some of that failure is “teacher failure,” but no one is saying that. Prison conditions in America are deplorable, and very little is being done to change it. Veterans still don’t have all of their promised benefits, but again, we are quiet.

    It’s hard to name an area of interest that isn’t corrupt. Pastors in churches are taking advantage, and some are even getting paid to sell a bad version of hope. And even in the presidency — from Trump to Biden — there are major struggles with integrity and truthfulness.

    Sadly, it seems that we declared independence from the wrong things. Where we should have set ourselves free from lies, laziness, selfishness, and bigotry, we embraced these and would go on to forsake fairness, honor, moral virtue, and serving others. Our freedoms are not for the better but the worse in America. We are free to dishonor our constitution and look out for number one — self!

    There are more justices guilty. We will see more police brutality, bad teachers, and corrupt politicians. And unless there is accountability being enforced, America will implode from within. We won’t have to worry about foreign enemies destroying us. We’re killing ourselves.

  • Life with a twist…

    What if we were all born with severe handicaps? I mean, literally, each person born was blind, mute, and lame and as you grew older, you had to prove to God that you were worthy of being healed.

    Sounds crazy, right? To think that you could earn such things from the Almight God is absurd given that he never worked that way. But it does place a unique value on your right to live, doesn’t it?

    It seems people here have such a sense of entitlement and walk around like they own the planet. We don’t take care of it, but expect it to function normally despite our abuse. We allow dysfunction in such an unhealthy way. What makes it unhealthy is that we are not ignorant of the dysfunction. Instead, we allow it.

    Injustice is another allowance. We allow it until it happens to us. Things are unfair on purpose, and greed is way out of control. So, it would be interesting if we had a scenario of proving our worth. The handicaps would make us accountable to our abilities. I would have to be worthy of sight. Simply put, if all I’m going to be with sight is greedy, then I’m not worthy. If all I would do with my voice is cause mischief, teardown people, talk hate, and be rude, then I am not worthy of a voice.

    And then if I gain these items, at any time I could lose them again in folly. I thought of all this because I wanted to see if there was a scenario that would make the world a better place. The thought was that losing these precious things would bring our attention to our wrongdoing and would rehabilitate us. I thought this would be the proper motivation and would deter evildoers.

    Well, this year, in February, three Sudanese men were sentenced to hand amputation for stealing. This was the first time in almost a decade that the country’s courts handed down such a sentence. They do the same thing in Somalia and other countries, yet stealing still takes place.

    It would seem that God giving us intellect was for the purpose of giving him glory as a faithful creator. Instead, we have squandered our gift, and we’re set on a course to destroy ourselves.

  • Holmes in prison is poetic justice

    Elizabeth Holmes, the perfect unicorn

    Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was either brilliant or crazy when she quickly built her start-up company on a lie, raised billions, and now owes more than 450 million in damages and is serving 11 years.

    Her vivid imagination fooled thousands, and she went further than she should have. Why? Because of two things: White Privilege and greed.

    Nothing about her story was impressive. In fact, her claims were so outrageous that if you could imagine any other race saying the same thing to the same investors, you would quickly see how unextraordinary they were.

    College dropout. Discovered what? What about this quitter would have made wealthy investors not vet her and trust that she must be on the cutting edge of something that would revolutionize an industry? She had absolutely zero knowledge of this field and no skill. What an insult to the egg heads currently spending years trying to do the same thing.

    She was the unicorn every greedy, wealthy person dreams about. Ground-floor level of new technology. And her whiteness made her believable!

    The bottom line is that on paper, she was a complete fraud who had done absolutely nothing to get the trust given to her, except she was the right color. Greed was also a contributing factor and works as a blinder – the men she hustled were fools, and the old saying is true: A fool and his money are soon parted.

  • Have gun, will travel

    This phrase from the 50s is all about being ready to do anything. There was even a show about it back then, but the makers of this show would have never imagined that their callous attitude about the use of guns would be trumped by the views held currently about gun use.

    I wonder how many folks believe the founding fathers were thinking of automatic weapons when they wrote in the constitution for us to have the right to bear arms?

    What is more scary is that in recent months, there have been some really senseless shootings. There have been people shot for going to the wrong house, getting in the wrong car, standing around doing nothing, and going to a sweet 16 party. It seems as though the school shootings, church shootings, and other mass shootings are old news.

    Have we gotten bored with shootings?

    And then, Congress can’t seem to find the courage to solve this very simple problem. The answer is not as easy as changing gun laws or even outlawing certain guns because there are too many guns available.

    If we take the position that we all have to die of something or you feel that as long as it is not your kid getting shot, then who cares? It is easy to see how votes can be purchased for a price, and the NRA has deep pockets. Their average spending is around 3.2 million per year, buying the votes of senators and other law makers.

    The level of hypocrisy has to stop. Clearly, the answer will not come on a federal level. It has to take place state by state. Local organizing is the answer, and the time to do it is now. Have political power, will travel!

  • The power of our integrity

    The division we face in this world is directly related to our integrity. Let me explain. Integrity is the state of being whole and undivided. Our divisions come from a response to what is happening and the blaming of opposing sides.

    For example, Republicans are convinced that President Joe Biden is bad for America. A growing population believes the Republicans are holding back our country. Depending on what side you fall on, you will pick up the disagreements where they left off. You will be outraged because they are. You will play out their thoughts with your aggression as we saw at the insurrection on Jan. 6.

    Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It’s moral uprightness. You see, this allows me to maintain my moral integrity even when my favorite party goes rogue.

    Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ran on a platform that promised to improve our criminal justice system. Now they could still do something but the fact that it’s not even being discussed is disappointing. Further, under this administration, we are doing more for Ukrainian refugees than we are for American citizens who are struggling. Congress recently passed legislation that allows Ukrainian refugees to collect social security benefits — to the tune of more than two grand per person in the household.

    Social security is a system that the beneficiaries have paid into over time. This would mean that our hard-earned dollars are going to help them and not the folks that it was intended. And neither party has solved the problem of making sure all eligible veterans receive their benefits. There are too many who are homeless.

    Integrity is the element that should stop a person from grabbing a firearm and harming innocent folks! If you cannot look at the various arguments without losing your cool, you have an Integrity problem.

    What Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to do with the civil rights movement was take people with integrity to look at society’s problems systemically and find nonviolent ways to solve such problems. He was quite successful in doing that.

    Today America needs an integrity check and begin to solve its problems in the best interest of all people. If not, we will destroy ourselves from the inside.