ClydeStyle

Tag: Choices

  • Raise your hand if you voted for this?

    I love history! I love history because it allows me to stand in the present, take a factual look at the past, and in some cases, see exactly what the future will look like.

    This past and future vision has a caveat, which is whether or not we learned from and  acknowledged our mistakes. This is great given the fact that America never learns from it’s past and it never acknowledges it’s mistakes.

    We are now about four months into the second Trump presidency, and we have seen a calamity of executive orders that have harmed millions of people. From foreign aid funding being sliced and essentially killing humanitarian efforts across the world to thousands of layoffs of federal workers to the destruction of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to cuts in federally funded research programs at various universities across the country, all in an effort to somehow make America great again?

    Those against Trump’s plans seem to be waiting on others to step up and defend the American way. These “others” I speak of are those in the Republican party. Democrats are hoping for Republicans to have a conscious and stop Trump from destroying our country as we know it. They can not defend what he’s doing, and they are avoiding meetings with their constituents, believing the carnage will end soon.

    Funding for school programs that level the playing field and assist those who are struggling have been cut. Healthcare initiatives like vaccines for hepatitis B and the flu shot were sliced, and the mass deportation efforts have disrupted kids in school, workers for farms and other industries where migrant workers are now afraid to leave their homes for fear of deportation.

    The worst part of all of this is the fact that most American people are delusional about the Trump administration. It seems that those who believe it’s pure evil and those who think it’s the greatest are both wrong.

    As usual, the American government is repeating past mistakes. We are looking at fellow Americans being hurt by all these cuts with no regard to their well-being. We are waiting migrant workers living in fear every day of their worst nightmare coming true. We are seeing people’s lives devastated by Trump’s actions, and we don’t say much against it because it doesn’t affect us. After all, I’m not a federal or migrant worker. I have no use for social programs or welfare or DEI, and I don’t own a farm. There are still a lot of Americans that can make this claim, but for how long?

  • Our political parties have failed us completely

    Next month, our Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether former president Donald Trump is eligible to run for president given the 91 charges he is facing. The people are confused as to what is really happening because Trump is claiming he is immune from wrongdoing and that the charges are not valid.

    There would have been a time in our recent history that the Republican party would select a more presidential candidate. George Santos was booted out of Congress for all the lying and cheating he has done. How is Trump different?

    Would Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush approve of such a candidate like Trump? Further, with the danger of election interference by Russia and Trump facing a ton of debt, are we not taking a chance with him being vulnerable to more corruption because of his debt?

    Then there is current president Joe Biden. He might as well be 300 years old because, for some reason, despite the level of stress that comes with the job, would any former president agree with Biden continuing in this role? It is hard to believe that Bill Clinton and Barak Obama would agree that Joe is ready for another term. We know that both parties could support better candidates. But at this point, they can not be trusted.

    The two-party system does not work for this reason. They have lost the trust of the people, and that is probably the only thing that can be agreed on.

    So what is the country to do? This clear, good Ole Boy network in politics has betrayed us. The parties have lost sight of what the people really want. The majority of the people are tired of seeing money by the billions sent overseas, and we have millions of struggling people here.

    We are tired of wars and being involved in wars. We are tired of our government taking care of everyone else by us.

    Solution: All three branches of government need to be replaced. One huge election and nobody over 70 should be allowed to take any position. Our smartest and brightest people are between 40 and 60 years old, and we need to tap into that market. We need to have a greater balance of medical professionals, former teachers, business executives, and blue-collar workers in Congress. We should maintain a third of each. We need to pledge to take care of home first and settle our own issues so that we can reach out together as a country to help others, but not until we are good at home. Finally, we need to be as diverse as the U.N. white people should not dominate the branches. We need to embrace diversity and build a country that works for everyone and not just some.

  • Something needs to be done about education in America

    Ever since the agricultural age moved on to the industrial age, America has been dumbed down. The benefits of a democracy are that one person represents one vote, and if your voters are informed, democracy can be a beautiful thing.

    In our country, many votes are wasted because the people vote with feelings and not facts. We allow talking points to tell us how we really feel.

    I literally hate when rich talking heads try to tell us what the rest of America wants or is interested it. We can are about abortion, gun violence, police shootings, and gas prices, and nothing ever gets done. But with education, it seems as though there is a deliberate effort to keep our education weak.

    The Pew Research Center recently published our educational status to the rest of the world. The U.S. ranks an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science.

    Seriously???? Are we really saying that the best we can do is double-digit numbers? We can’t make the top 10? Top 5? Based on the resources we have, we are not even close to representing our potential. And I believe that is deliberate!

    We compare ourselves to ourselves. Our kids are ranked in the middle to lower range internationally, and this is just not acceptable. In America, 54 percent of adults have a reading level below 6th grade. On average, about 21 percent of Americans are illiterate.

    I get it. If we were to fix the education system, then those who stay in power and are greedy would not be allowed to maintain their status. We need a healthy prison system so that the small percentage of people who hold stocks make money. The rich also need the poor as you can’t maintain one without the other. So, the education system has become a pipeline for poor and disenfranchised folks.

    The revolution can’t come fast enough!

  • Beware of Christian nationalist: They are working for the wrong God!

    The New Year is upon us, and this is an election year. There are so many scenarios that must play out for the New Year.

    Will Donald Trump go to prison? Will President Biden win the election? Will Congress change power? Will we be at war? Will Covid die out? So many unanswered questions.

    But this group called Christian Nationalist threw me for a curve because I wasn’t sure what the group stood for. This is basically a political, not religious group, that wants to change laws based on their own personal interpretation of scripture.

    Their version of Christianity involves hate. They believe they are superior and, therefore, should benefit from the pleasures of America where other races should not. Imagine if the people creating laws hate Jews or Mexicans or Black people. Imagine laws made to oppress or deport.

    The saddest thing is that these folks actually attempt to know scripture. They think that they can bring their own context to scripture outside of the cultural, historical, and context it’s already written in.

    It’s bad enough that these people claim Christianity, but oppression the kinsmen of the one who is responsible for Christianity. Out of all the things to watch in 2024, you know to be aware of this group trying to represent you in Congress.

    We can not afford to allow feelings to Trump truth. There is an absolute truth, and it is worth pursuing. Politicians have always relied on the stupidity of America to pull off these foreign agendas and harm those not in power.

    The most important thing for us to embrace in 2024 is the election and the defeat of those who have lost sight of what a true democracy is.

  • Good intentions are all about helping others

    So I’m relaxing at home in the Midwest and it’s cold, but like normal the anticipation of the holiday sets our mood. I was just thinking about all the wonderful food traditions that my family has. We eat the typical food shared in Western civilization.

    We had a very traditional Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinner will shape up the same way. I enjoy these times, but I can’t help but think what things would be like if the food manufacturers weren’t trying to make a profit, but we’re trying to make us healthy and live longer, how much better off we’d be?

    I grew up believing that I knew what a healthy breakfast was. In the 70s, we were told that it was your favorite cereal with toast juice and milk. In the Midwest, Coney Island restaurants introduced us to a good, hearty breakfast and I. The same decade that breakfast consisted of two scrambled eggs, hashbrowns or grits, choice of bacon, sausage, or ham and toast, all for $1.99. And don’t forget the cup of coffee!

    The intentions of breakfast during that time got its origin during the industrial age. You see, back then, people would eat leftovers from the previous nights dinner. This was fine for farmers, but not for factory workers who had to stand for long periods of time in the same place with all that heavy food in their stomachs – it gave them indigestion.

    So, the solution from the “powers that be” was to create a breakfast that was more dense and lighter than our leftover dinners. So they filled us with sugary cereals, gave us the incredible, edible egg, and gave us swine.

    Then, that breakfast gave us diabetes, hypertension, gout, heart diseases, and some cancers. Did they know? Did they care?

    We didn’t need high fructose corn syrup, and it has turned out to be worse than swine. It was part of the great food engineering age where manufacturers created food that would trick our bodies into eating more. Intentions?

    All I’m saying is if good intentions led our decisions, then as a country, we wouldn’t be so sick. We are sick because companies found a way to make money off of it.

  • Tragedy strikes before the holidays exposing our mental health issues

    About a month ago, a mayor of a small town in Alabama who also happened to be a cross dresser was exposed by a local news station, and as a result, he committed suicide.

    The mayor, who was affectionately known as Bubba Copeland, was also the pastor of First Baptist Church in the town. He was quoted as saying that his wife was aware of his transgender status and that he did it to relax. He felt this was normal behavior and that he had a right to privacy. He was correct!

    What weighed far more heavily in this case had to be public opinion. For whatever reason, it must have mattered to him how people would judge him. This behavior doesn’t even make the news if he’s not the mayor and if he’s not a pastor. If he was the mailman, this would not even be a story.

    I’m bothered by the pain this has called His family, church, and others who cared about him. The fact that the judgment doesn’t end at his death and that he seemed to have taken the easy way out and left his loved ones to mourn and deal with his choices.

    It is very difficult when you feel you have to live your life in the expectations of others. Shame on us for putting people through that. Shame on us to have expectations on any other than ourselves. How do you hold someone to a standard you don’t hold yourself to?

    Does as pastor or mayor position come with the cost of expectations and why? What right do we have to expect? Before he was a pastor or mayor, he was a person. The exposure of his personal private activities robbed him of his personhood and was completely irresponsible. As a result, he is gone because he could bear the judgment. If this is OK in America, then there lies the real problem.

  • The sadness of Veterans Day still looms

    Every year at this time, I get sad. I’m sad because I know that there are millions of veterans without benefits. We spend so much of our national budget on weapons of mass destruction and maintaining a strong military, but we’re not making good on our promises to the men and women who risked their lives.

    Neither political party has addressed this. You can see homeless vets, vets on drugs, and more struggling with debt from medical complications.

    Meanwhile, our government, still trying to fight the good fight, is helping other countries  like Isreal and Ukraine while our folks struggle.

    It seems that in the 21 century, we would err on the side of people and rather have a scenario where our veterans are overpaid than under.

    This problem seems so easy to handle, but because our veterans are not useful to our cause anymore, we have thrown them away.

    What’s worse is that there is a divide among the veterans between the ones receiving benefits and the ones who don’t. How can they be a band of brothers on the battlefield, but once we get back home, it’s every man for himself?

    I don’t celebrate Veterans Day because of this. I wish the nation wouldn’t be celebrated either until we have corrected this atrocity!

  • It’s all about trust — we don’t have anymore

    America lacks trust.

    We don’t trust our government, strangers, our neighbors, some of our friends, and definitely a few family members that don’t make the trust cut! We are skeptical of everything. We have been betrayed by the media, our jobs, our healthcare system, and some of our loved ones.

    As a result, we question everything. True and false ride together now, and we can’t tell them apart. There used to be a thing called “benefit of doubt,” which has become obsolete.

    Politicians, preachers, police officers, and partners can not be trusted. So where do we go from here? The enemy of my enemy is not even my friend anymore.

    When a system gets violated, like in this case where we have been bombarded with constant lying, we can’t act like it didn’t happen. We can’t just get over it. Someone or something has to be held accountable.

    If we started to hold each other accountable then we would have to overhaul the government, the Healthcare system, the FDA, the military, criminal justice system, food manufacturers, automakers, churches, all charities, big pharma, all chain restaurants, the stock market, universities and schools (public and private), Entertainment and sports, and the media to start.

    Imagine living in a place that was set up for you to succeed. The baseline lifestyle for everyone was attainable with a little hard work. We eliminated the need for prisons, crime, and killing with education, support, and advancement. Could there really be a place where everyone wins? Is it only in my dreams?

  • The art of making sense

    We seem to have a problem in our country with making sense, and it has nothing to do, per se, with not knowing. It I wrapped in the choices we make.

    You have to actually work harder to not make sense. Making sense entails processing truth in a way that demonstrates you understand it. Then, you can actualize with it or apply that truth to life. There are several things that hinder this process. Jealousy, envy, bias, hatred, prejudice, misunderstanding, revenge, and strife are some of the catalysts that prevent us from making sense.

    In recent years, we have struggled to make sense of the “me too” movement. Although it was horrible how women have been treated in our country and how they have been used as sex symbols, in pornography and in other ways to pleasure men, we took no responsibility for that. In a time when many women gave in and used sex to get what they wanted, men could not tell them a part from their counterparts who had were not will to play. Then, men decided that it was just easier to drug the woman and get what you wanted from her.

    It said that in this country, women were still treated like chattel, and many allowed themselves to be. It’s as if women liberation hadn’t existed. Women’s lib made the same mistake the Civil Rights Movement did, and the Gay Rights Movement is making. All three should have not been asking for equality, but a seat at the table. They needed to get on the ground floor of decision-making so that their interest could be guaranteed. All they did was trust that their oppressors would start “acting right” because of the movements — senseless.

    So all three groups are still fighting for the promise of equality they are already supposed to have. Had they gotten a seat at the table – meaning then needed representation in government. And they would have to be placed there because a biased country wouldn’t vote them there. We may have even had to expand Congress to 535 members, but those spots could have been reserved for these interests groups. Clearly, it makes know sense to trust your oppressor with fairness. If that were in them, they would have stopped on their own.

    Trust needs to make sense. Do you trust a rabid dog? Do you trust a fox not bother any eggs while he’s hanging out in the hen house? Would you let a pedophile watch you kids? Would you let a stranger hold your purse or wallet?

    Can you see and understand the truth when it comes your way? Water is always wet. Boulders will always be heavy. Fresh coffee is hot. Humans are flawed. Greed greatly hinders many good things in America from happening.

    Am I making sense?

  • Reparations solution: Itemize

    There has been much discussion over the last few years regarding reparations, and as more people begin to understand the necessity of giving reparations, how to administer it will be the next conversation.

    What I have learned over the years is that nobody believes Blacks have been treated fairly, but nobody takes responsibility for the infractions. We have definitely turned a blind eye on the injustices and disparities created in our society.

    Also, people are still debating about slavery being the main reason for reparations, but I don’t believe anyone should be getting reparations for slavery. The reason is because there are at least 10 other reasons to do it.

    I won’t take the time to go through all of them, but we’ll look at a few just for kicks and grins!

    First, the Federal Housing Administration (FDA) was supposed to help all Americans get loans for housing. They had many payouts over the years but didn’t make their first payment to a minority until 1971 – that’s a 41-year problem because the FHA was established in 1930.

    Second, the police all across America have been predatory to Black males. This is easily proven by the unfair number of tickets, arrests, and conviction rates compared to other groups.

    Third, the real estate market has done an outstanding job limiting where minorities can move and making them live it areas where the property value is horrible. Moreover, they were extremely unfair in granting loans. They were biased when it came to loans, interest rates, amount of loans, credit criteria, and length of loans.

    Fourth, you would think that a person with the same experience, same education, and same ambition would get the same pay. Well, in America, white men have always gotten at least 38 percent more than anyone else for the same job with the same specs. This still happens today.

    Five, there have been laws created to expressly suppress, oppress, and stiffle the financial and educational wealth of minorities in this country.

    So, if we were to simply get the math wizards to calculate the damage of just these 5 things, we would get an idea of the true offense. It’s not a matter of just writing a check, either. You can not make up time and development, and something has to happen to ensure we never go backward.

    We have spent more than 75 billion dollars helping Ukraine in their fight with Russia. What about the fight we have here at home?