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ANOTHER ANGLE
By Edward R. Culvert
GET A LIFE
I Peter 4:15
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer,
or as a busybody in other men's matters.
There are many unhappy people in the world, and they think it is their lot
to make everyone as unhappy as they are. Busy bodies always give advice when it
is not asked for, and keep their noses in other peoples business.
Old people envy youth their youth, and youth envy the wealth the aged have accumulated.
People seem to be unhappy with their ages and stages of life. Some people are unhappy
because they are young, and some people are unhappy because they are old. Lord Tennyson
said the old evolves its self and gives place to the new, and God reveals himself in many ways.
There seems to be no pleasing the human animal. In the summer there are complaints
about the heat and humidity. In the winter there are complaints about how cold it is. What
is the weather supposed to be in the summer? What is the weather supposed to be in the winter?
Many people's lives are a series of complaints, problems, contradictions, and crisis. Most are built
around things that are not their business. Think of how happy the world would be if people just
minded their own business. There is an old southern expression. It says run your shoe heels over,
and let other people tend to their business. People who do not have a life assume that they need
to be the guardians of the world.
Older people have a propensity to want to help, but there is a difference between helping and
messing in other people's business. When we were young, we needed to make mistakes. We
learn by our mistakes.
It is interesting how much money people will pay to read about some one else's life? Much of
the major media devotes a larger part of its space to gossip. Who is going with whom, and
who is getting divorced. Most of the people who read about in the tabloids have contributed
very little to improving the quality of this nation. Nothings are known for something absurd,
and capitalize on this absurdity for the rest of their lives. MONICA! It is interesting how people
who do not have lives will make folk heroes of buffoons.
Owners of tabloids have capitalized on the loneliness of people without lives, and have made
millions, from an unsuspecting public. Most people, who would never encounter, the so-called
beautiful people, follow their every move in the tabloids. They become members of fan clubs,
and mimic the lives of their tissue paper heroes. They dress, walk, talk, eat, and try to have
the same life styles as their heroes.
Have you noticed the styles of clothing people wear? Ridiculous. The other day an aged man
walked into a plush restaurant with his cap turned backward, and the tag displayed. When
questioned about his attire, he said that it was a part of his outfit. Everyone just shook their
heads and watched as the old codger made a fool of himself.
These things occur when people are not happy with themselves. If the populace were to accept
the proposition that God is perfect, then in syllogistic thinking, anything God does would have
to be perfect. He would be incapable of doing anything that was not perfect. If God made you,
then you would have to accept the proposition that you are perfect. If you try, or change what
God has done, then you, a mortal have usurped the power of God.
All of this comes from the minds of dream spinners. They make people who are unhappy with
their lives or bored with their lives live vicariously through the lives of fiction heroes.
Consider this. Many good churchwomen who love the Lord, and never would think of committing
and incredulous act toward the faith, will watch the soap operas. If you call them during the
time their favorite story is on, they will not talk to you. They say things like call me back after
my story goes off.
Loneliness has given birth to new business ventures that capitalize on the fantasies of the least
desirable of people. Be happy with what you are, and live your life. Do not, and do not try to
live someone else's life it will not work.
Talk to me at culverte@nyc.rr.com or 1-718-960-8933
Let's move on.
BABIES USED TO BE CALLED A BLESSING
There was a time when the words, you are going to have a baby, were a followed by adulation and great happiness. Now the same words invoke foreboding of pending crisis in a relationship. Some humans have become lower than animals. They will mate with the first thing that comes along, and when the fruit of their lust comes along, they want someone else to take responsibility for their copulation. More importantly, they make you feel that their children are your responsibility.
Human animals are one of the few creatures on earth who do not want to take responsibility for their young. Welfare, and an assortment of relatives, particularly grand parents are raising children. Where are the parents? Doing their thing, whatever that is.
These things are not supposed to talk about. People say, I am grown and I can do what I want to do. That is true, but selfishness and the inability to think things through are producing a generation of children who are raising them selves. Because they do not have support systems, these children are relegated to lives of poverty. This kind of childhood also produces individuals who are void of sensitivity, cannot show affection, or care for another individuals.
Because of nihilistic thinking, and adumbrated thought the values of a civilized society are lost.
People need structure. When there is no structure in a life that life falls apart. When people do no take responsibility for their actions, they cannot develop their true potential as vigorous participants in the game life. They are just spectators who complain, and never leave one-foot print on the sands of time, just unpaid bills.
There are groups of women who use religion and church to hide from life. These women have accumulated cadres of children, do not receive child support, and will not take the fathers to court to make them pay. They hide in storefront churches and are exploited by jackleg preacher. Once beat up, they bring them selves to the Lord.
Let us deal with the issue of child support. If a man or woman makes a child, it is their responsibility to take care of that child. Men tend to want to enjoy sex, but not the results of the act. When confronted with the possibility of having to give up a part of their income, reality sets in. Was one night of love worth seventeen percent of you income?
Then there are those men who are abusers of women. Once they have enjoyed the woman's affection, they talk about her like a dog. My question is if she is a bitch, then what are you? At some point, the supposedly good people in this society are going to have to start to tell people the truth. If a man impregnates you and does not want to pay child support, take him to court.
Many women are social footballs. They can find a thousand excuses for not doing what they know is right. They will endure physical and verbal abuse for a few dollars. Some say, maybe he will change. The rule of thumb to follow is if he abuses you once, he will do it again. Take that to the bank.
A friend of mine called me crying and told me her significant other had cursed her out and berated her in front of her child and her neighbors. She said that she had never been humiliated like that in her life. As the conversations unfolded, she told me that he did not pay child support, and had on occasion threatened her life. She was afraid of him but did not want to tell me. I told her that no one has to live in fear of his or her life. She related that he had told her that if she took him to court that she would never live to collect the money.
Intimidation is tremendous when you are female in this country and your relatives are not here to support you. However, sisters, if you do not look at what a man looks like, but look at what he is many women would not have this problem. This sister has a problem. She is the only person who can solve the problem. There are abused women's support groups that would eat him alive. They will not come to you, you have to put forth an effort and go to them.
Incidentally, her man is married, he told her he was single, has other children, is a schoolteacher, and a pillar of his church, and a creep. Well, it takes all kind of people to make a world.
Who would think a baby, who did not ask of come here could cause so much trouble.
If you are an abused or battered woman and need help, talk to me at culverte@nyc.rr.com or 1-718-960-8933
Let's move on
ONE MEMBER CAN DRAG THE WHOLE FAMILY DOWN
ONE MEMBER CAN DRAG THE WHOLE FAMILY DOWN
One day last week, I was thinking to my self. Most African Americans I know come from dysfunctional families. The question is why. Children having the same father and mother, raised in the same home, eating the same food, and yet as different as night and day. Psychologist raise clinical arguments, but that does not alter the fact that this phenomenon is still occurring. In fact, it is happening more and often than we would like to mention. Social deviants in a family can tear a family apart. One deviant member can put an entire family in crisis, and destroy it.
It is difficult for a mother to see one of her children having a problem and not try to help. Her good intentions can put a financial strain on the other family members. She does no realize that at some point people have to assume responsibility for their own actions. It is called, growing up. Some people never grow up. We call children cute. Child-like adults, we call losers. The danger is Mothers never see their children as adults. They always see them as children. As they will tell you, Little Boy will be my baby until the day I die.
Your baby may be your baby, but to everyone else he is a holy terror.
ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE
It is hard for one family member to lead a decent life when other members of the family are constantly begging, borrowing, and stealing. If you do not give them, they try to lay a guilt trip on you. They tell you about the five dollars they gave you ten years ago. They use that to sponge off you for the rest of your life. They become unwanted dependents, they, and their children, and their children's children.
Social scientists tell us the class we are born into is the class we will die in. I used to argue this point, but the longer I live, the more I understand what they were saying. The harder you work, and the more wealth you acquire, the more people who do not work expect you to give them.
Poverty is not a condition of your pocket book poverty is a condition of your mind. When we examine the condition of servitude in which many people live you can see why they are dependent. When they are in trouble, they turn to their more affluent relations. They beg, borrow, and steal to get what they want. If they are in jail or in dire financial straights, they make promises, they have no intentions of keeping.
Relatives reach into their savings; mortgage their house, cash bonds, to save blood of their blood. This complicates the lenders personal life, because people do not live in isolation. They have significant others and the others have a stake in the family's wealth. This one bad apple has compromised the lives of not only their family, but the family of the lending relative as well.
It is difficult to see a family member in trouble. It requires tough love to say, I cannot help you this time. I have a wife and kids to feed, and I do not have enough to do what you want me to do. Statements like this will make you the most hated person in the family. African Americans have the illusion that as a family member you can be a dependent of the family for life. If one person is making it, then the other members of the family assume they have the right to share in the good fortune. This is as far from the truth as left is from right.
WHEN DO YOU GROW UP?
Some people think that they deserve a free ride in life and the rest of us have to pay for the ride. Well that is not true. They quote the bible and tell you how you have to be benevolent. Here is what the bible has to say about giving. - James 1:27, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
This is telling us that grown men and women should not be sitting around waiting for people to give them handouts. They should have enough pride to stand on their two feet and do what has to be done, to sustain their lives.
Times are hard for everyone food prices are going through the ceiling, and we do not want to mention gasoline. People who work should not be put into a situation where they are intimidated, or have a guilt trip laid on them to save a sorry relative from ruin.
Bums and social misfits grow up and take care of yourselves. You are selfish. Think of your family. You are destroying them. GROW UP. The life you save will be the life of your family.
Talk to me at culverte@nyc.rr.com or 1-718-960-8933
Let's move on
FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO
All over the world, Muslims are dying of starvation. Sudan and Niger, both have large Muslim populations, starvation is a constant reminder of man's inhumanity to man. Countries in the mid eastern Arab world are holding the nations of the west hostage for oil. The price of a barrel of oil has reached over sixty-five dollars. What bothers me is this? If Saudi Arabia and the countries of OPEC are making all of this money, why is it they are not supporting the plight of their Muslim brothers?
The Koran speaks very clearly about charity and human kindness. Why is this not being done? I do not know, but I can hypothesis. Is it because darker skinned brothers inhabit the countries mentioned? Alternatively, have the true teachings of the Prophet, all blessings and praises be upon him, are not in the mix when money is involved. No one has asked these questions, nor has anyone written about them.
It appears that Christian nations are doing more to help starving Muslims than Muslims are doing. Yet, the terrorist's are calling the western nations murders, and imperialist dogs. Seems to me that before you start calling names and pointing fingers you ought to check your self. Just thinking.
THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM
True Islam is not in the mix. What non-thinking Muslims and terrorist have done is to turn the whole world against Muslims, and Islam. Some time ago, this space was devoted to the Islamic Rules of War. I received more calls asking for clarification than I receive for most columns. People could not believe what I wrote. It was true, and I stand behind every word.
This leads to the next point, if a Muslim intentionally kills a wounded enemy or one of the persons protected by the Islamic Rules of War, why are innocent people constantly being murdered. This is not Jihad. This is murder. Under the Rules of War, the person who commits this act is relegated to hell, and can never enter into Paradise.
No self-respecting Muslim would want to go to hell. No self-respecting Christian would knowingly commit a sin that would relegate them to hell. Do you get the idea that there is something going on that we do not know?
REVENGE, RETRIBUTION, OR JUST IGNORANCE
There is a difference between making a point to advance a political cause and a group of malcontents making it hard for an entire religion. Islam, if practiced right is beautiful. Because of the recent rash of bombings, the followers of the prophet are taking a lot of heat. What I am finding out is not every one named Mohammad is a Muslim. People tend to lump everyone together and not investigate to find the, truth or the facts.
Did anyone know that the late Yasser Arafat's wife was Christian and not Muslim? It appears that there are rebels in Islam who are angry about conditions in their country and are using their religion as a rallying point to garner strength for their agenda. No one is considering the concerns of the masses. Most people just want to be left alone to live out their lives in peace.
Think about this. Before the rise of Adolph Hitler Germany was in economic turmoil. Hitler needed a scapegoat. The Jews became his scapegoat. Hitler blamed the Jews for every thing from flat feet to the common cold. People gave him power, and look what happened. The man who perverted the philosophy of Nietzsche on the issue of the superman, got their children killed and their country decimated. Why, because no one dared to look under the skirts of the little Corporal from Austria. The same thing has happened to the people of the Middle East. They are following leadership that has an agenda. A hidden agenda and the masses are not a part of the master plan.
If they were so concerned about members of Islam, why not spend some money on the poor starving Muslims, or build schools. Only a small percentage of people in Muslim countries are literate.
Win loose or draw, when the chips are down everyone turns to the Christian to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. You can talk about America as much as you want, but there is no one down by the Brooklyn Bridge trying to sneak out of America to go anywhere.
One last remark, America is not like my country. ANSWER: thank god its' not. If it were we would all be on food stamps, starving, and blowing each other to hell. One last, last remark. If America is so wrong, why are we living so well?
Talk to me at culverte@nyc.rr.com or 1-718-960-8933
Let's move on
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING WHEN THEY LEFT
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING WHEN THEY LEFT
The recent departure of some of the unions from the AFL-CIO is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. There is strength in unity. When you divide an organization, you weaken the organization.
In 2005, the labor movement is in crisis. Undocumented workers, robotics, artificial intelligence and new technology are making workers obsolete. Just a few days ago, Hewlett Packard announced that fourteen thousand workers worldwide would loose their jobs. . To readers this may represent just numbers, but to thinking people these figures represent people with families.
Instead of leaving from the AFL-CIO, the errant unions should have taken an oath of solidarity. Any decent history book on the merger of the AFL-CIO is packed with factual data about why unions come together. Goldberg who was the general council for the merger wrote one excellent book. He later became involved with the United Nations.
When you do not know history, you tend to make the same errors made by past generations.
Look at the big picture. The current administration does not have the backing of organized labor. People who control the means of production have been trying for years to destroy the strength of organized labor. Many of the southern states have resisted the unionization of their labor force. There are a number of excellent books documenting this. One is Black Worker in the Deep South, and The Narrative of Hosea Hudson both by Hosea Hudson.
Importing commodities is a necessary function in a postmodern society, but when you import more goods than you export this creates an imbalance for your economy. There is something else that has to be examined, and that is strength of leadership. In the old days, people took pride in their work. In this age of deskilling, people no longer have any loyalty to the company or to the good's they produce. Marx was right in his assessment of Alienation.
Capital itself is the source of further alienation within a developed capitalist economy. This is because capital accumulation generates its own needs of commodities. Workers become factors in the operation of capital and their activities are dominated by the requirements of profitability rather than by their own human needs. Within a market economy, the rules, which govern accumulation, are those of the market place. These rules constitute a set of impersonal mechanisms, which dominate all economic actors, capitalists as well as workers, and the market has as cohesive force. Marx noted that although the needs of profit and capital accumulation seem to take on a life of their own, these impersonal mechanisms in fact disguise the human origins of capital and the exploitation that allows one class to appropriate what another has produced.
Quoting Karl Marx It is not considered politically correct, but his writings do make you think. This epoch of time is changing the way people see them selves and the way they view work.
There is another side of the coin. Political Action Committees, PAC's. A political action committee is the arm of a union that organizes campaign workers, telephone banks, and contributes money to political campaigns. When organized labor is split, it weakens the effectiveness of the PAC's. Traditionally, organized labor has endorsed Democratic candidates. Now that some of the unions have left the AFL-CIO, the residual affects need to be examined.
One person said that the American worker has changed. That is true. Many workers are in this country illegally. They can work, but they cannot vote. You can hire four illegal workers for the salary of one legal American worker. This is the problem.
Take this to the bank. Without the thinking of a John Sweeney, and the like the scrambling unions are going to be hung out to dry. When you are wrong, you had better learn to keep your mouth shut.
Whom will the dissenters endorse? Will they continue in the traditional manner of labor? Will they endorse candidates with or without the consent of the rank and file? These questions are up in the air. Labor unions are doing some strange things in today's labor market, and they are going to suffer.
Talk to me at culverte@nyc.rr.com or 1-718-960-8933
Let's move on.
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