ClydeStyle

Tag: mind set

  • ICE-Capades are not new; What have we learned?

    Since the Trump Administration took control of the government, there has been a crackdown on immigration. As of this post, the Trump Administration has deported just over 280 immigrants, and there is a lot of innocent folks mixed in there.

    He is trying to surpass former President Barack Obama in deportations. His administration exited more than 400 immigrants, and we hardly heard about it. He also did it with half of the resources Trump is using.

    You could make a comparison of the two, but there is no comparison because Obama was trying to get rid of migrants who came here and didn’t follow the rules. Trump is just trying to get rid of Brown people.

    Why? Because of White fear. There will come a time when white people will lose their numerical majority, and this country will change. Most whites are in fear of being mistreated when the tables turn. This fear is conjecture because they have no idea what will take place.

    Will there be some people of color who will seek revenge? Sure. Will there be people who want to rid America of White people because of their past behavior? Absolutely. But will it happen? Doubtful.

    The reason is simple: If Black and Brown people were that savage, they would have fought to take the country long before this. If they were that savage, they would have fought themselves into extinction by now.

    In Europe’s “Dark Age” when the Roman Empire fell, one of the main causes was greed by the government, which led to underdeveloped communities — basically, the people were too stupid to know what was happening.

    The lack of literacy and learning is a major problem in America despite the advancements we have. Greed has overcome everything — divided we will fall.

    America has always been controlled by certain folks — in fact, they have always been in control of Europe, and yet that region would have nothing if it weren’t for the help of the Egyptians. And when they destroyed themselves during the Dark Ages, the Moors came and greatly contributed to their existence today.

    America is not far from the fall. It can not all be blamed on Donald Trump as this country is 249 years old. Who’s fault do you think it is? Maybe it’s the fault of those who stay silent.

  • Does America still believe in morality?

    Morality is principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. A hundred years ago, our country based its morality on what was written in the bible. Our country claimed a belief in Jesus Christ and a belief in the bible.

    There were other religions here. Hinduism, Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists were welcome in our country and shared similar views as Christianity.

    As time moved forward, morality was hijacked by social norms. According to google, social norms are the perceived, informal, and mostly unwritten rules that define what behaviors are considered acceptable and appropriate within a given group or community, essentially acting as unspoken guidelines for how people should behave in a particular social context; they are based on shared beliefs and expectations about what is considered “normal” behavior within that group. 

    The problem with social norms is trying to define what is “normal.” We do not all share the same views on what is normal. Over time, normal became human nature, and human nature depends on a lot of things.

    For some people, it is human nature to take something that is not yours if you want it bad enough and nobody is looking. For others, it is human nature for a man to refrain from crying at a funeral. Still, others believe that it is human nature for men to exercise power over other men and women. They may use the power that comes from money or physical power, resulting in sex.

    Our biases have crept into our human nature, our social norms, and our biblical interpretations. Our constitution was written the same way, which is why it gave no rights to women nor minorities.

    So, where is our morality today? It rests and abides with the rich and powerful. We see this play out in politics every day. Corporations like to believe they dictate social norms. They run most of the advertisements that tell us what products to use, what to eat, what medicines to take, where to vacation, what cars to buy, who is acceptable, and who is not.

    We are riddled with double standards. We have “laws” in this country, but if you have the right law firm representing you, you can bypass the penalty.

    Is it moral for the elderly to suffer in a country as rich as ours? Is it moral for babies to be born in poverty and without healthcare in this country as rich as we are? Our country tends to help many more foreign people than they do citizens. Ukraine and Israel greatly benefited from the benevolence of the US, while there are people struggling in the rural and urban areas of a plethora of things.

    It is hard to believe that America still believes in morality.

  • Let freedom ring, for real

    Our beloved country brags about its freedoms. We often speak arrogantly about our freedom to do this or that. Many have died for the right to have such freedoms, but what we haven’t learned is that great responsibility comes with our freedoms. A responsibility that we have already decided is too much for us.

    We argue that our government is too involved in our affairs. We fight against government regulations, and we want to be left alone. Freedom dictates that we allow those free to March by the beat of their own drum. We don’t have the right to say you can have your beat as long as I like it, too.

    Why regulate abortion? Guns? Transgender surgeries or any surgeries for that matter? We do these things in spite of our freedoms because we believe the said person making the decision is not fit to make a wise choice. We are a free country, but our government wants to regulate a woman’s body and her decisions surrounding her body. Why? Because abortion is a sin. But what if we don’t share the same religion? Don’t we have freedom of religion here, too??

    A student should not be able to obtain an automatic weapon and take it to school and kill dozens of people because he’s angry or bullied. But, if we’ve decided in our free country that people have the right to bear arms, doesn’t that decision already come with the understanding that someone is going to make a decision within this freedom that most will disagree with? If that is the case, then we either grant the freedom and shut up or take it off the table altogether, and no one but active military personnel can have guns.

    We are so hypocritical regarding our freedoms because what we really mean is you have the freedom unless it bothers me or it’s something I like too, or I can benefit from it some way. You can’t have freedom if it affects me in a negative way. Now, all we need to figure out is who gets to be the decision maker of these things? The government? The wealthy? Republicans? Democrats? Should it just be a part of white privilege or incorporate affirmative action into it!

    Anyway, other countries are watching us get it wrong and, at this point, probably wondering how could democracy possibly be a benefit.

  • Religious beliefs are the biggest trick on Halloween

    Halloween is more than 2000 years old. It is something that immigrants helped to develop in this country. Halloween has everything to do with the Celtic celebration of old, where they welcomed the harvest at the end of summer by dressing up in costumes to wart off ghosts and celebrate the occasion. It was always festive and always fun.

    Like everything else, religion tends to put a damper on many things as some attempt to make others feel extra guilt about their sins. There are some who believe almost everything is bad, and for them, religion has everything to do with stopping people from going too far.

    For the sake of religion, there was a time in this country where women who were believed to be witches or practice witchcraft were burned alive. Somehow, these religious nuts only see the downside to everything, and if we follow their teaching, we would not be allowed to do anything.

    Biblically speaking, the bible does prohibit any practice of witchcraft or worship of anything other than the Almighty God. I am sure there is a small percentage of Halloweeners who have gone too far into the festivities and use it as a time to practice evil. But that is definitely not the majority.

    My 3 year old granddaughter loves to play dress up. In fact, when her mom was that age and older, we bought her many beautiful dolls to play with. Kids today like to dress like the dolls. My grandbaby doesn’t have one Disney princess doll, but she has all the Disney princesses gowns — all of them!

    She loves Spiderman, and she has several spidey costumes. She knows exactly what Halloween is, and she loves to dress up and get candy. It’s her third favorite holiday behind Christmas and her birthday!

    My point is that if you are one of those super duper Christians that complains every year about Halloween and you are the only house on your block with the porch light off during tricks or treats, I need you to know that you are sending a message but it is not the one you want to send. You will never be able to convince anyone of your beliefs by going so far against the grain.

    This year, 175 million people will celebrate Halloween. For a change, why don’t you join them?

  • Is the resurrection still relevant?

    Every year, Christians around the world will celebrate everything associated with Easter. Many will go to church, kill the fattest calf, and lay out an Easter dinner fit for a king – all in memory of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

    Although it is not a holy holiday (none of them are), the tradition of Easter has been blended with Spring traditions, and this is where the Association of Easter eggs comes from. It is said to have been started in Germany where the symbol of eggs carry the thought of new life which happens in the Spring.

    Biblically, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the focal point. But the question today is how relevant is the resurrection?

    Does it matter that Christ died for the sins of the world? How is that shown to matter in your life? What of all the power that accompanied his resurrection which we have access to today — does that matter.

    What of the idea that eternal life is now available to all who believe and are obedient to his calling? To be called a Christian society, we do a horrible job of showing the power of the resurrection in our lives. There are just too many things we don’t care about! Some could care less about abortions. Others care less about school or mass shootings. Still, others never say anything about police brutality or the killing of unarmed back men.

    We don’t care about those with views different from ours. It’s a big “so what” that there are people falsely imprisoned. And of course, not many seem to be too concerned with homelessness, veterans’ rights, and those struggling with mental health issues.

    If the resurrection matters, then we need to use it to resurrect a few of the societal problems we face and solve them for those who suffer. Christ suffered on a cross so we wouldn’t have to. We need to return the favor to those less fortunate.

  • Determination is our strength; guess where it comes from?

    Determination is the firmness of purpose. Resoluteness. Whenever we see success, determination showed up first. To live life knowing where you’re supposed to go is a beautiful thing. It allows you to step with assurity and act expeditiously.

    Obviously, this state is not so easily attained. Many get paralyzed in their desires and crumble at the stress. When there is no “handout” in sight, can you get the job done alone? Ignorance, prejudice, stupidity, pressure, and focus are always against us. It’s a battle whether you have succeeded or failed we all will have these struggles.

    Then, our upbringing at times is a hindrance to our future because either someone loved us too much or not enough. Perverted things happened that affected our lives forever or we had a loved one missing which left an empty space in our hearts. We were bullied, discouraged, cheated, lied to, and hurt.

    Finally, we lacked the proper examples, we never saw someone else do what we desired to do and we lost our sense of well-being. It was as if there was a conspiracy set against us. But deep down in our souls is a glimmer of hope.

    Now hope is commonly used to mean a wish: its strength is the strength of the person’s desire. This would be fine if there had been no challenges or disappointments in your life. But in the Bible hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness. This means that you have a blessed assurance of trusting in God to bless your efforts according to his will.

    Watch how this works: This would mean that you would never trust a man, you would never even blame a man for his folly. Everything that would happen to you would be viewed as part of a grand scheme by God that ends in your benefit. Completely trusting God and living a life to please him is the greatest thing for a man. The Bible teaches us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. It then promises that everything else we need would be given to us.

    When you read about God’s people in scripture try counting all the rich people. Adam was rich — he was the only man on earth. Noah would have experienced this as well being the head of his household. Abraham and Isaac were rich. We literally saw Jacob obtain his wealth. Job and countless others lived extremely well and I believe they were blessed in this way because God saw their heart and knew that wealth would not ruin them.

    The point here is that determination begats success but believing in God begats determination. We come into this world being memorized by what we see. I want you to ignore what you see and live life knowing.

  • Great time to create family rituals

    One of the greatest days in a child’s life is today — the eve of Christmas. This day for me growing up was always filled with great anticipation and food preparation.

    There were 5 children living at home and my parents not only made Christmas happen for us each year, but fed our family and extended family with an incredible feast with all the standards: Turkey and dressing with ham and Swedish meatballs. Mac n cheese, yams, collard greens, broccoli casserole and 7-layer salad.

    Desserts were in abundance as well with sweet potato pies, yellow cake with dark chocolate frosting and a carrot cake. We all had Christmas baskets with various trinkets, fruits and nuts.

    If we were poor (and according to my parents we were) we could not tell. If there was another way to live, we didn’t want it. Our house was surrounded by love.

    When I grew up and had my own family, both my wife and I shared similar traditions which we continued with our family. Our kids were completely spoiled having more toys than they could handle and tons of food. Christmas songs played all the time throughout our house starting on Thanksgiving and ending on New Year’s Day.

    It was important to us to build these type of memories within the mind of our children. In a world full of trouble and problems, this was the time of year where thongs were supposed to work right!

    Be mindful of what your children digest from the environment you placed the in. Go all out and give them something wonderful to remember and pass down to the next generation. This is the best time to create family rituals!

  • History and truth need validation

    We live in a time that has the phrase “fake news” circulating through our language. Most of our country looks back at history and tries to cover up the wrong doing because of guilt. In fact, the further back we go the worst it gets. Our country is very divided which was the intent of some. We actually have people who are hoping for another civil war. Because of all these things and more, our history needs to be fact checked and validated.

    The greatest reason for this is so that we don’t repeat the mistakes. It’s always difficult to hold someone accountable in their ignorance. And it’s even more tedious to suffer someone through their wrongdoing. It really becomes taxing on everybody because our ignorance and forgetfulness tends to effect us in great numbers.

    Recently, the Queen of England died. She was on the throne for 70 years and whether she was a figure head or not, that monarch has a ton of innocent blood on it’s hands. Colonization of countries was their specialty and to reign over a place that terrorized countries for a living is not fashionable at all. Their entanglement in South Africa, Jamaica, Barbados and other places was absolutely horrible. But I guess if you live long enough people forget. She lost family members recently because they could no longer endure the racism. But I digress.

    America has a reputation for building weapons on mass destruction, incarcerating it’s citizens and racism. The Bill of Rights and freedoms we have on paper are great until they aren’t. Sure there are worse places you could live but measuring and comparing us based on our resources and what’s actually possible for us to do, we are definitely found lacking.

    This is a perfect place to live if you are wealthy — but that’s only one percent. For the rest of the 99 percent we have varying degrees of contentment and down right bankrupt individuals who are barely keeping their head above water. We have been repeating our past and finding better ways to be convert in our repeats. Our problems are systemic and design to maintain the status quo.

    As a country, we need to figure out exactly what we are trying to do and be honest about it. If we really have a plan to continue to disenfranchise citizens then say that. But based on resources, our country could be a place where everyone thrives.

    We need the correct history so that we can be more tolerant of each other. There are way too many injustices to name here but if we really wanted to correct the problems we have to start with admitting the wrong.

    We need a history check and an honest conversation about what type of country we really want to be.

  • Finding YOUR spot in this world

    One of the most fulfilling things in life is to know your place. To know where you fit in life and actually be doing something that builds your self worth is something everyone would want but few actually achieve.

    Opportunity has been covered in red tape and there are so many hoops to jump through that many people give up on chasing their dreams. It is as if our government wanted to keep people from achievement. It seems as if the rich have a hold on making the real money and instead of skill and ingenuity creating opportunities, who you know makes all the difference.

    The decision needs to first be made as to the thing that matters most: To seek fame or fortune; to have influence and power; or to make life easier or better for others. Other decisions like whether or not to go to college, start in the military or learn a trade are key. A person can succeed doing either of the three.

    Then understanding what moves you and what makes you feel alive. I’ve always asked myself the question is it a job that I would do for free. Then finally you have to make it work. And on the way to completing this task you learn many things about who you are and what you are made of. You learn your passions and your fears. You learn how you respond in problem solving and the things that frustrated you the most.

    Above all else you have to master the learning curve to secure your space under the sun. There really is enough world for all of us. You just have to carve out your own slice! Happy cutting!

  • Getting your God complex under control

    We all have this inner God complex. It’s where we get some of our best ideas, it’s where our compassion grows, it’s where forgiveness begins and it’s where our unconditional love comes from. With this complex, when things are going well, we achieve and flourish in various areas. We create, lead, influence, edify and develop ideas. When things are at their worst, we tend to lack forgiveness for ourselves.

    We being to accept blame, sometimes too much blame because in our complex we think we should have known, seen, anticipated, figured out or controlled people, places and things — and that’s impossible.

    The feeling is amplified when other people are injured by our actions. It happens. What should take place is that we should release all negativity, deal with the facts and be reflective about moving forward. Learn the lessons and forgive yourself. We need to begin to see the truth about these ill- feelings.

    God doesn’t want us punishing ourselves because something fell through the cracks or we proved that we are not perfect. I started out calling it a God complex because when something happens some of us will take full responsibility as if we were God and could control everything.

    Nobody is perfect. Most people who dare to lead want to do their best. It doesn’t always happen like that and you need to forgive yourself. Now! And move forward a better person!