Do you know a chromaphobe?

I’m creating a new word for a certain population that seems to be growing in numbers……

CHROMAPHOBE (chroma = purity or intensity of color; phobe = denoting a person having a fear or dislike of what is specified)

Definition: When someone accuses an individual of being racist simply for disagreeing with someone ‘of color’; someone who accuses an individual for being racist when in fact THEY are the ones who are being racist

Famous chromaphobes include Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Oprah Winfrey. Most notable chromophobic policies/events include Affirmative Action and Black History Month.

Putting the Nation in therapy….first session.

After an evening and morning of simmering over the recent political debacle, I have decided to approach the issues facing our nation in a different light. I’m taking advantage of all the money I’ve spent on a Masters in Social Work degree and applying known-effective counseling techniques to our current dilemmas.  If it works for the individual, maybe…just maybe…..it can work for the country as a single unit. Regardless, things can’t get any worse, right?

Using Solution-Focused Therapy, or SFT, the client looks at where they want to be and then plots out the changes needed to get there. You find a solution, and then you do what you have to do to reach it.  SFT is my favorite therapy to use because – to me – it has a lot of benefits as you use it, not just once you’ve finished it. The outcome is clearly defined and obtainable, which makes deciding which changes to make easier. Once those changes are decided upon it’s easy to measure progress as you go, which provides a sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, like I mentioned before, in most cases there are immediate benefits to those changes even before the final solution has been accomplished.  So, treating the country as an individual, where do we want to be when we finish therapy?

Hmmm……. gainfully employed with a stable financial future and a happy family. Sounds good.

So, again, pretending the country is an individual, what are the problems preventing us from reaching our solution?

• Employment issues.  Work is complicated.  We have a boss and the boss is directed by two different boards of directors, each board works with a different set of ethics and values, which sometimes leads to a complete and total shutdown of productivity.  It’s difficult for us to tell who is in charge sometimes because both the boss and the two different boards make deals with other agencies that include promises and cash flow that usually benefits the other agencies rather than our employees. This basically creates an upper-level system of marketing and commerce solely benefiting the upper level but being funded by the employees, resulting in gross amounts of income for those upper-level members while most of our employees are filing for welfare. Speaking of our employees…..most of them are twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do and no money to earn because their work is either tied up in unions (included in the aforementioned “other agencies”), outsourced overseas, or eliminated through automation/technology.
• Dependents. Deadbeat kids who are demanding specialized treatment because they’re adopted. Deadbeat kids who are our own but are demanding that we “take care of them” for no other reason than that we can. We love our kids so they shouldn’t have to work, right?
• Greedy neighbors. We have trade agreements worked out with our neighbors because they have something we need and we have something they need. However, trade is no longer fair because now our neighbors want 15x for their item as we want for ours. Furthermore, this neighbor only charges a fraction of this cost to their own family members. That doesn’t sound fair.
• High debt load. It’s happened to everybody….went on a spending spree and racked up too much credit card debt. Trouble is, we’re so fiscally irresponsible that we borrow money to pay for our borrowed money. If we don’t get into a debt management system soon we’re going to be forced to file for bankruptcy.
• Family mayhem. Our house has a standing set of rules which each family member has interpreted to their own benefit, resulting in a great rift between family members over whose interpretation is the right one. This situation is complicated by peer pressure from overbearing and influential friends who want to see a particular interpretation come to fruition for their own selfish benefit.

Okay, so we have 5 major areas we need to work on. For a first session, we’ve made wonderful progress in identifying our problem(s). Now we can begin to develop solutions….in our next session.

The country would be a better place if only……

Every day I read what is happening around our country and it makes me so…angry. I’m angry that too often too many people can’t look past the ends of their own noses to see how their thoughts and actions are impacting those around them, their communities, and the country as a whole.

So here it is, my list of things (in no particular order) that could help make the country a better place if people would only do them…or stop doing them as some of the cases may be.

1. Disagreeing with Obama or the results of the George Zimmerman trial DOES NOT make you a racist. I can not tell you how many times I have sided with the factual evidence and been called a racist because the facts went against something the African American community was supporting.

2. Stop putting the blame on somebody/something else and accept that sometimes people just screw up. Liberals want to blame the Republicans, the Republicans are blaming the Democrats, and everybody blames the guns. What the hell?!?!?! Guns don’t kill people….stupid people kill people and if they didn’t have a gun they would just find some other weapon with which to accomplish their mayhem. Responsible, legal gun owners SAVE lives. There are statistics to back this up (refer to http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ABo7Dg4gQTg).

3. In line with #2 above, start taking responsibility for who you are, what you have, and what you do. “The government owes me money cause I’m a minority.”  “I deserve this because so-and-so has one.”   “The state owes me ’cause I’ve got 4 babies and another one on the way”.  Okay, from someone who grew up in poverty with parents who couldn’t give me anything except love, let me tell you something – nobody owes you shit! I grew up wearing ratty, tattered clothes, living in a trailer that probably should have been condemned, and spent many, many nights doing my homework by flashlight because our power had been shut off.  My dad had polio as a child and it left him disabled, but the government denied his claims for disability. My mom worked herself sick, sometimes up to 20 hours a day, just to be able to feed me and my two half brothers (Dad’s from a previous marriage). We were thankful for what we had and NEVER thought that somebody owed us anything just because we had things tough. Instead, my parents used our dismal circumstances as reasoning as to why getting an education is so important – so that I didn’t have to live that way. Now, I’m 2 semesters away from my Masters in Social Work and I tell people everyday that each of us has the ability inside of us to change our paths and become who we want to be. And if you’ve got more kids than YOU can take care of, stop having them. Birth control is free – there is no excuse for mass reproduction than ignorance and a continued desire to leech off those who are trying to survive on their own.

4. For the love of God, EDUCATE YOURSELVES about what’s going on around you. Too often people are complacent to just sit back and allow their lives to be controlled by others that they ASSUME will make the best decisions for them. Don’t bet on it. People are motivated by money, even those who have supposedly taken oaths to protect us. Our elected officials do not answer to us, they answer to the pharmaceutical companies, the lobbyists, and the unions. Don’t expect them to have YOUR best interests in mind simply because you voted for them.  Follow the money and you’ll find out who your officials really answer to.

5. Tying in with #4 above, don’t believe everything the media tells you. As someone who’s married to a 25-year veteran news editor for a local television station, I can tell you that a human being determines WHAT goes on the air and what ANGLE it is approached from. If you have a liberal news producer, your conservative story is going to get ZERO publicity and vice-versa. There is no such thing as “unbiased” in the media, so if you want the full story go to multiple sources and research it from multiple viewpoints.

6. Get off the fence. The primary reason this country is in the state that it’s in is too many people choose NOT to do something about it. People, things don’t just miraculously work themselves out. It takes effort, work, and most of the time a good bit of compromise from both sides, but sitting on the fence gets us nowhere. My dad always told me, “You have no right to gripe about something unless you first try to fix it.” Smart man. Quit complaining that crime is too high and start demanding stricter sentences for repeat offenders. Stop complaining that we spend too much tax money on prisons and start demanding an alternative.  I personally think they should bring back the gladiator games for death penalty inmates and provide the prisoners with a choice – immediate carrying out of their sentence by means of lethal injection or a chance at a 5-year reprieve if they win the gladiator games.  Charge for viewing rights for the games and use the money to fund the prisons, using whatever funds are leftover to fund education. It’s a win-win for everybody – prisoners get a choice, communities become safer, and the economy gets a boost.

7. Agree to respectfully disagree. Everybody has their own personal beliefs and values, and no one person’s is better or more important than the next’s. Provided one person’s beliefs do not endanger or harm others, I say let them be. I am a Christian. I believe in Christ as my Savior and I believe in God the Father. That does not mean that you have to believe the same way. I respect you as a human being regardless of whether you believe the same as I do or not. Jewish? One of my best friends is Jewish. Atheist? Yep, friends with those too. The only people I have issues with are those who condone/demand human suppression and violence to support their beliefs (such as members of Westboro Baptist Church and Sharia Muslims).

8. Practice random acts of kindness. Oh how much better the world would be if each of us did one act of random kindness every day.

9. This is America, we speak ENGLISH….not Spanish, not Portuguese, not ebonics, and definitely not the “lazy English” being spoken by many young people today where they’re slaughtering the English language by being too lazy to properly enunciate all of the syllables.  Do not speak like that and then get upset when people can’t understand you! And if you are someone who has a speech impairment/impediment, this in NO WAY applies to you and I will do everything within my ability to accommodate and help you.

10. Perspective and respect. People need to spend a little more time thinking about how they would react if someone did to them what they’re about to do.  How would I feel if someone pulled up next to me with rap music blaring profanity so loudly that my two young kids in the backseat can still hear it even with the windows rolled up and our own music playing as loud as is safe for our ears? How would I feel if someone else refused to control their children and let them run loose all over the store, getting into everything and breaking things, and even tripping people by darting out right in front of them? Common sense is a dwindling commodity in this country. Let’s say we bring it back.

I’m sure others have great ideas about ways we can improve the country. These are just my suggestions that I think would get us back on the right track. They may offend some people, but I’m just trying to do what my daddy taught me….

“You have no right to gripe about something unless you first try to fix it.”

 

 

 

Why are we avoiding the REAL issue here?

Immediately after the shooting in Newtown, the first thing the politicians did was start clambering about gun control. Now, to follow up on their threats, Representative Diana DeGette (D-Colorado) has introduced a ban on high capacity magazines and clips. The problem is that her definition of “high capacity” would make some handguns completely illegal, such as any handgun that holds more than 10 rounds.

While I think that any murder is atrocious, especially the murder of innocent children like those at Sandy Hook, I feel very strongly that the government is doing what it does best – it’s distracting the American people with fast, expensive, useless legislation to appease the masses rather than fix the root of the problem. The root of the problem, of course, is: crime, a lax justice system, and high criminal recidivism.

I’m not just idly ranting about this – there are statistics and common sense evidence to back this up. The Huffington Post claimed in a blog post dated 04/06/11 that “guns are used to murder more than 9,500 people in our country in a single year”. That’s tragic – it truly is. But how much more tragic would it be if that number were increased by 989,883? Almost a million lives lost to violence….now THAT would be tragic. Guess what? According to the data from a study published in 2000 in The Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 989,883 is how many times US civilians used guns to defend themselves and others from crime per year. Almost a million lives saved because people were allowed the freedom to choose the best tool to defend themselves and their families.

Gun and ammunition ‘control’ only applies to law abiding citizens. Criminals will always find a way to perpetrate their evil deeds. A great example of this would be the Columbine High massacre, which took place during a government-imposed assault weapon ban. Those were KIDS and they still managed to wreak havoc because laws meant nothing to them. Washington DC instituted a gun ban in 1976 and it was in effect until 2008. During that time, Washington maintained a murder rate that was 73% higher than when the gun ban took effect. Why? Because the criminals were bringing the guns in from other states and the law-abiding citizens were left defenseless.

Most of the gun crimes that are committed are done so by someone who obtained the firearms illegally. Ahhh, yes, but if guns or ammo is ‘controlled’ then there won’t be any of the bad stuff out there to be stolen. Right? Wrong. Crack is illegal. Cocaine is illegal. Meth is illegal. Yet these things are still obtainable on any street in America.

The real problem in this country is a lax justice system. According to justfacts.com, “nationwide in 2008, law enforcement agencies reported that 55% of aggravated assaults, 27% of robberies, 40% of rapes, and 64% of murders that were reported to police resulted in an alleged offender being arrested and turned over for prosecution”.Of all these people who were captured and turned over for prosecution, here’s a statistic that I hope pisses you off as much as it did me….“currently, for every 12 aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, rapes, and murders committed in the United States, approximately one person is sentenced to prison for committing such a crime“. ONE PERSON. Where is the justice for the other 11 victims? There isn’t any, because our justice system failed them.

The country has such a high crime rate because criminals know there is a good chance they won’t be caught. IF they do get caught, they can trust over-crowded prisons and a backed-up court system to minimize the odds they’ll actually serve hard time. IF they actually get sentenced, they can look forward to 3 square meals, free education, free rent, and free cable for the few short years they’ll serve before their early release. And recidivism? Here’s a couple of statistics for you….

“A 2002 U.S. Justice Department study of 272,111 felons released from state prisons in 1994 found that within three years of their release at least 67.5% had been arrested for committing a new offense. Of 1,662 murders committed in New York City during 2003-2005, more than 90% were committed by people with criminal records.”

Sandy Hook Elementary was a senseless tragedy that never should have happened. However, ignoring the real change that needs to take place and substituting it with the band-aid that is gun legislation is an even greater tragedy. Why aren’t we cracking down on the criminals? Why doesn’t the ‘death penalty’ really mean the DEATH PENALTY, instead of ‘sit on death row for 30 years while waiting for an appeal only to be executed anyway after having consumed millions of dollars of taxpayers’ resources’??? Why isn’t prison time hard work, like the chain gangs of old? Criminals aren’t afraid to go to jail, they’re not afraid of prison, they’re not afraid of our justice system’s punishment, and until they are crime isn’t going to change. THIS is what our government needs to be addressing. Without changing the desire to harm, without changing the utter disregard for the value of human life, we are solving nothing and are only disarming those who will soon be included in the statistics of those victimized.

No, gun control is not the issue. The real issue is crime, and the real criminal is our own government for aiding and abetting violent offenders while disarming the innocent.