Lessons in The Great Race

Lessons In The Great Race


We are all human. No matter our political affiliation. No matter what religion, or lack thereof. No matter what nationality. No matter what sex. No matter what color.

Color.

Race.

The arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been called 'a teaching moment'. His words. This Harvard professor who was arrested in his own home recently by a police officer, Sergeant James Crowley who was responding to a call of someone breaking and entering someones home. This was reported by a local passersby who thought she was serving the public good.

The good professor was handcuffed, hauled off and booked. After spending four hours in local custody, he paid a bail of a whopping $40.00 and was released on his own cognizance. A few days later, all charges were dropped. Now it should be noted that in many other circumstances, these men would have likely worked together rather than at odds.

Professor Gates is a renowned authority on matters of racial inequity as it relates to people of African descent. Sergeant Crowley is a veteran officer and indeed a training officer for the local police force who specializes in getting rid of 'racial profiling'.

Everyone seems to agree Professor Gates should not have been arrested. What everyone can't agree on are the exact circumstances directly leading to the arrest. Sergeant Crowley maintains, Professor Gates was behaving in an increasingly hostile manner towards him, so much so that he felt moved to arrest him for disorderly conduct. While admitting that he was not cool as a cucumber, Professor Gates maintains that the officer refused to give him his name and his badge number when repeatedly requested to by Professor Gates after professor Gates showed him both his driver's license and his Harvard ID card.

Even the President had to get into the act, speaking a bit rashly when he called Sergeant Growley's actions 'stupid'. Perhaps they were.

Perhaps things would have been different had both these men approached the situation as you or I might approach the simple act of going to work, calm, cool and collected. But neither man was in this case.

Professor Gates had just returned from China. Finding he could not open the door, he and his driver went to the back. After unlocking the door, they still could not open it. Returning to the front, they applied their shoulders to it and the door opened. His driver brought in his bags and departed. Thus the stage was set for this little drama.

When Sergeant Crowley appeared, saw Gates through the open door and ordered Gates to speak with him outside of the man's house, Gates refused. And the little play started in earnest.

Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. Sometimes. Both men had adrenaline running through them like a river. Both men were facing unknown terrors. One wanted to be sure he would make it home. The other just wanted to be left alone. Was this racial profiling? Yes, to be sure. But both men were profiling the other. This is why things got so extreme.

Adrenaline is funny stuff. In some ways, it makes things very, very clear. In other ways it tends to cloud up the truth. Adrenaline is a response to a life or death situation. It is there to help you survive. It doesn't care about right or wrong. It only cares about being alive or dead.

We will never know for sure what was said to who. Perhaps they don't even know themselves. I can see it now.....somewhere in the future of the cop on the street will come the 'Badge-Cam', the ultimate recording device. With a tiny camera lens and recording device, it will track the interactions an officer makes for every call. Technically, it is possible.

So, what's the lesson here? Perhaps first realize that everyone is a member of the same race, and spend less time worrying about the color of their skin. It may be unconscious to a large degree and it may be something we will never outgrow. We always view someone who is different from us with a suspicious light, until at least we get used to them. We just use color as an excuse because of our shared histories.

But there is in reality, only one race. The Human Race.

Legacy...Take Two

From the day of our birth, we begin writing our legacy. We go through our young lives, heedless of scritching of life's pen upon our parchment of experience. Yet so many of us fail to really take advantage of our lives. We live. We fun. We laugh. We love. We hate. We war.

When one looks upon the face of history, we see the masses and we see the famous and the infamous within. The vast majority live unremarkable lives. Why? Why are there the famous and the infamous?

Because the famous and the infamous decide to do something special with their lives. Whether they feel Fate blessed them, or they are simply acting out of simple bloody mindedness, they live their lives whether for good or ill to get the most out or have the greatest effect upon those things they deem important.

The rest of us in the 'masses,' simply try and get by the best we know how and live somewhat unremarkable lives but hopefully with some sense of satisfaction and try and complete the work of our lives. It is in the masses that we tend to 'settle' for what we can get. But it is the famous and the infamous who take our cake and eat it too. Even if they don't deserve it.

For instance, an example of an infamous person could be the good old standby, Adolf Hitler. Now, good old Adolf Had always thought he was destined for greatness. After a near miss in World War One, he was convinced God had great things in store for him.

Now Adolf wanted to be an Artist. Not just an Artist, but a great Artiste! Well, he was a mediocre artist, at best. But he was good enough to perhaps become a good production artist had he wanted to settle for a regular work a day life. But no.

So he chose another of his gifts to develop; that of oratory. And the rest, dear reader is 'history'; unknown millions dead and and continents ravaged.

Another famous individual would be H. G. Wells. Unwilling to knuckle under and become a hum drum Draper for a local mortician, he defied the Victorian age by educating himself in the unheard of span of two years, becoming a teacher and becoming a successful and world class writer, single handedly creating the genre of 'Science Fiction'. Laying the groundwork for the United Nations, and the Rights of Man, having one of the first 'Open Marriages' and championing both free love and women's equality, helping to inspire the suffragette movement, and accurately predicting the Second World War in all its terror, decades before it actually happened.

these are people who fully lived their lives. One in as positive a way as he knew how, the other in quite a bit darker and deranged fashion.

One is thought of today as an inspiration of the future and the best of Mankind, while the other is now synonymous with pure evil and the darkest side of the human spirit. But both had one thing in common. They were not afraid to live their life and live it the fullest of their ability. Right or Wrong. That's something to look at.

So when you go to live your life -- LIVE YOUR LIFE!

Don't settle for what you can get. Aspire for more. Then look for opportunity. Even if it doesn't seem great. It may be better than what you would have settled for.

These days, we live fast, consumerist lives, wanting to keep up with our neighbors and the fickle nature of our society and getting whatever the latest gewgaw might be. But you see, that puts you at the wrong end of the stick. there are those who watch and there are those who go do. Why just watch when you can go do. You might not be great....

.....but then again, you might just be.........Great...

Legacy...

The Journey through Life is more important than the destination of Death.....

From the moment we are born, we are heading towards our death......but this journey towards it is called Life. From the moment of our birth, we sail on, heedless of the scritching of life's pen upon the parchment of our experience.

Yet it is the Journey which endures. When you think on a loved one who has passed, what do you see? Usually, we see a memory which involves them. We see them through the action of their life. Through the action of their Journey. We rarely see the destinations.

So our Journey through Life impacts all those around us to a greater or lesser extent. Have you heard the tale of the faithful dog, who after their master dies, sits and howls or lays next to the tombstone? Why would this be? Because the Journey of the master has impacted the life of the faithful dog, deeply and intimately. And people wonder if animals have emotion. An entirely wrong question to ask.

So your journey through Life affects EVERYTHING around you. You pass through the air. You eat. You sleep. You excrete. You interact with objects and creatures, places and ideas which you may have little heed of in the bustling Journey of your Life. But each is important.

And with each interaction, an exchange is made, between you and whatever/whomever you interact with, from the lowliest crawly creature to the love of your life.

So, to those who say one person can not make a difference; To those people who say what is important in only what YOU take away from an experience.....I say Bahh! Stop deluding yourself! Stop being self centered! It's not all about you! Realize that an interaction requires two, count them, TWO energies to create said interaction. That which you interact with ALSO takes away something.

Don't sell yourself short. You make a difference every day. Just by being. Accept it. Acknowledge it. Enjoy it. And keep it Sacred.

That is how you make a difference.

Have you ever been offered Wisdom? No not via a book of the month club. Not by some holy writ or bible or koran. Not by some old dude who died thousands of years ago and whose writings and so called teachings have been re-written and skewed into unrecognizable forms throughout the millennia.

I'm talking real, honest to goodness life affirming Wisdom. Every day. Look around you at the Nature surrounding you. Even in the City. There is Nature there. Maybe there are no trees where you are. But the ants are still there. An occasional bird still wafts by. Perhaps even the rare ladybug or butterfly chugs on through.

There lies Wisdom. They are making it. So can you. The work is in figuring out how and why. But that, you see is the challenge. Live outside the box. Let others live in the box and suffer for it. But if they want out, you can also help them too. It's not hard.

All it requires is a change of consciousness. Change your attitude. Expand your latitude...We are all in this boat together. Banker, Tailor, Butterfly, Sheep. Working together will help us all survive. Peaceful Coexistence. What a concept and a place to start.

A step towards Cooperation.

My life in America has been undergoing changes.

Not New News.

My trusty, rusty transport, the lusty, busty terror of the desert has broken once again. This time I have no support for a quick fix. So, she languishes at the mechanic's garage. Meanwhile, I have to take the bus.

Yay! That there is even a bus at all. Thank you Universe! Living 60 miles from work in a one horse town, one might be surprised that there is such an option. I was. I had been trying to figure how to use it when the Universe stepped in and took the decision out of my hands. Amazing what 'need' can do.

So now I rise at 4am every morning, attempt to de-zombify myself and ride my other trusty rusty sled, the Honda to the Park N Ride. Granted, I could drive the Honda, but alas, why cripple two old soldiers for convenience. After all, I'm not old "W".

The bus arrives a bit after 6am. I climb aboard. I'm one of two regulars now, who ride this beast. And of course it stops at every town along the way, a total of four equally one horse towns as my own until it hits the citadel where I work. And lucky for me, it lets me off a mere mile from work.

So, I trudge off to work. The first day was hard because I wasn't used to walking. Such a lazy ass bones...But it does get better.

The ride home is equally dramatic. There is only one, count 'em, one bus that goes all the way to and fro my one horse village. So, I don't miss it. So far, so good. We'll see what winter brings.

Imagine a world without Aparteid Rubies. Imagine a people free to mine the resources of their own lands and to benefit from it for their greater good and for the greater good of all humankind. Imagine being able to pick up a stone in your back yard. Imagine not having to scratch out a meager existence from the wild resources around but rather having enough to fulfill all of your needs and some of your wants. Imagine a place where you can hold your head up high and say this is where I come from. This is what I believe in and this is how I honor my beliefs without having to look over your shoulder.

Is there such a place?

There used to be.

It used to be Greenland.

But now, no native may pick up a stone, even if it is in their very own back yard. No native may create the handicrafts and sacred objects they have been making for thousands of years if it involves any kind of stone. No longer will they be able to sell small trinkets to those few tourists who do brave the wilds of Greenland, thus augmenting their already dwindling incomes.

Why? Corporate Greed. Pure and Simple. The White Man is Doing It Again.

What is left for the Natives? Dwindling Fish supplies, Fewer whales and seals to hunt. Vanishing Polar Bears. Receding Ice. Fewer and fewer ways to live the old ways. Fewer resources to live the modern way. The inevitable? Poverty, Hunger, Disease, Death.

Is this self rule? Is this Home Rule? Is this Prosperity?

In 2007 there was hope. Many natives were learning how to see, find and work the most valuable of their native mineral resources. The problem? That they actually found the most valuable mineral resources in perhaps the whole world. The Greenland Ruby. The highest quality. The largest pieces. Better than Burma, the previous world leader.

A year later some of these native miners were mining under the then existing laws of Greenland giving them certain inalienable rights as natives to mine by hand small quantities of ruby and other gems. It was built into the very constitution given them by Denmark.

However, an outside company who also had interests in these gems intervened by the manipulation of both the local and the Greenland National level government agencies to not only steal what the miners had mined, but to also make illegal all provisions of the law they were operating under.

Yes, folks, bought and paid for. Somehow, someway. The laws were arbitrarily changed without input from the people. The new laws are so onerous that they preclude just about any native from being able to adhere to them. Greenland natives are losing their rights. Greenland natives are under the thumb of a corrupt system of government. They need the world's help. Don't let Greenland become another Sierra Leone or Rwanda. Fine gems are supposed to inspire our sense of awe, beauty and granduer, not our sense of shame, suffering and misery. End the Aparteid...NOW!

Read more here: Fair Jewelry. Org

Visit where the lines are being drawn....freegreenlandruby.com

Whither the unremitting Connectivity of all that exists for the process of being within that which is inherently in All Things....


By The Gods Your'e Beautiful!.....

Come and see me.....