Speak less.......

Have you ever, in mid-sentence, caught yourself saying something really, really stupid or ugly? So moronic in fact, you cannot believe that it came from your pie hole

I have.

I have brutally honest with people for the better part of my 44 years on this blue marble. With that honesty comes a truckload of apologies; sometimes warranted, sometimes not. 

This lead me to wonder, "Why do we humans spend so very little listening and so much time speaking?" I mean, somebody has to be the receiving party of a given communication. We can't ALL be talking at the same time. The world would implode.
I am not nosey. I mind my own business and my household. God knows if I take care of Chris, my plate will be full. But if asked a question, I feel an obligation to give an unbiased answer. 

But why do we focus on the "talking" part of a dialogue? I have dome some searching into my own psyche and have come up with the following reasons:

1. We despise silence.
From the time we come into this world, people are trying to get us to talk. To say their name, to give a speech in speech class, or a sales presentation to a prospective client. It's never-ending. 
We are therefore trained to dislike silence on some level.

2. We like to hear ourselves talk
"I'm not talking just to hear myself talk." My beloved Mother used this phrase more often than I can correctly recall. It was her way of saying that she was trying to relay information to me. Information that could very likely save my life. But we do enjoy hearing ourselves gab. We take selfies, and videos of "us" and post them all over the internet. I'm just as guilty as the next person. (There is something to be said for the power of the visual versus the written.)

3. We hate to be "wong"
This may be the most crucial element as to why we talk so much. We are busy trying to convince another person of a viewpoint on which we disagree. As if that were a sin. Humans will do nearly anything to prove themselves right; also because we equate being "right" to being intelligent. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's o.k. to be wrong sometimes, folks.

As a result of this blog, I plan to listen more actively than I have been; especially to the people who truly matter in my life.

Ferguson

Ferguson, Missouri. Prior to August 9th, 2014, most people in these United States had never heard of it.
We now know that Ferguson, Missouri is yet another bigoted town of rednecks run a muck. Or at least it would seem so on the surface.

Michael Brown, a young black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer on August 9th of this year. It's terrible that this young man's life was cut short, regardless of how it ended. The fact that a white man took his life, is enough reason for the black community in Ferguson to riot and loot local businesses.

It's the looting that I want to focus on in this post.

I will start by saying that I simply don't now, nor have I ever understood looting. I was serving in the U.S. Navy in Charleston, South Carolina when hurricane Hugo hit. It destroyed everything in its path; homes, boats, buildings, you name it. I was part of a security force that was asked by local authorities to help prevent looters from taking all that was laid bare by Hugo. People came from everywhere!! It was as if the dinner bell was ringing for criminals, and cowards alike to just come take whatever they wanted because the windows in downtown Charleston had been blown out by the hurricane.

I stood in amazement as we ran off group after group of looters. I mean, I'm still perplexed as I type this post. That happened 25 years ago.
So when the inevitable looting began in Ferguson, I wondered what purpose it served. Did it serve a purpose at all? What's the point?
I don't condone the rioting, although I can completely understand the mentality that accompanies it. People are angry and demand justice for Brown's death/murder. I get it. But how does tearing up one's own community prove or solve anything at all?

Let me see if I can loosely follow the logic here:

Kid get shot and killed. 
People get angry because of race.
People riot out of anger.
People (cowards) use the opportunity to take things that they otherwise could not afford to buy.....
Oh wait....

They raided liquor stores!! Seriously? How bad do you want to get hammered if a liquor store is your first target? BB guns?

How does this prove your point to "the man"?

All this does is make you look ignorant. I feel sorry for the people of Ferguson, because THIS is what they will be remembered for.

Prayers to the family of Michael Brown.

Moolah

Money, in fact, makes the world go 'round.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil....." (I Timothy 6:10)
Not money mind you, but the LOVE of money.

I think that I could safely state that we would all like to have more money coming into our bank accounts week week than we currently do. But why? And how much is enough?

Money afford us "things"; a place to live, food, etc.

Money, as it turns out, can buy happiness. Here's an example; I'm sitting on my the grass at my local lake and watching a guy on a jet ski race up and down the waterway. If I had the money to buy my own jet ski, I would definitely be happier than I was before.

Money CAN buy happiness, but it's not guaranteed to do so. It can certainly alleviate some stress in one's life.

Money, and those that have alot of it, rules the world. Pro sports teams with the largest payrolls typically win more games than teams with smaller payrolls. (See NASCAR) The politician who can spend the most money on their campaign ads will nearly always win their respective election. Congressmen and senators line their pockets with kickbacks and ear-marked money by voting a certain way on a given bill.

Money can dictate how people act. Think of all the game shows where people compete for money.

Why do we value money so? There are several reasons.....

1.) Money is conditioned into us as children. Child: "Can I have a dollar?"

Parent: "Why?"

Child: "So I can get one of these."

2.) On an emotional level, money is linked to pleasure and pain.

It's truly a false sense of security. What backs our monetary system in the U.S.?

3.) People often times derive their own value and self-worth from the amount of their hourly wage. How crazy is that? (Men especially struggle with this)

4.) In general human beings are not patient. We want it NOW!!

This makes us more dependent on money. (I'm talking to myself on this point)

We do need money to have the things that we need and want, but don't tie your personal worth, your value as a human being to a dollar bill. Because truly, the dollar bill has no inherent value at all.

Voting......or Not

It's here; election time!! Aren't you so very excited?

Actually, judging from the numbers, you're not. 

In Knox County, there are a little over 275,000 registered voters. Compare that to the 441,000+ people living in Knox County, take out those who aren't eligible or aren't yet old enough to register to vote.....let's just say and even 400,000.

But I have a better question to pose......Why do you vote at all?

As a nation, and a state, we have continually sent back the same old, tired, white dudes for DECADES! Why?
I love to hear people (who very likely don't even vote) bitch and complain about the President. The President (even Barack Obama with his executive orders) can only do so much. The lawmakers are the senators and congressmen that we keep sending back to do so very little it makes me nauseous. 

Do you understand that congress and the senators make the laws?

I'm simply trying to understand the math here....Congress has a 13% approval rating as of June 2014.

Now I'm assuming that at least some of the registered voters fall into the "pissed off" category here. If so, why are you sending these douche bags back to Washington year after year?
The voters of this country are either thoroughly confused or are unintelligent. I choose to believe the former. So here's my plan for fixing the voting system (or rather the voters IN the voting system)

1. Not everyone should be allowed to vote. This is not a "right" as most claim it to be. If you vote a certain because that's how Ma-maw voted 65 years ago, then you're a sheep being lead to slaughter. Stay home on election day.

2. If you have not researched the candidates for a given office, sans commercials on TV, radio, and the endless crap that's dumped into your mailbox on a weekly basis; don't vote. This is because you have not properly educated yourself on the candidates and you will, by default, choose the incumbent. Not a good strategy.

3. If you have, at any point in the past, voted for Stacey Campfield for Tennessee Senate, you should be deported to Arkansas and never be allowed back into my beloved Rocky Top.