Live life traveling the river from end to end. A winding river and its tributaries are like life. Each tributary holds a different point of view. Here divisions are sown between the wise traveler and the not so wise. The wise visit each tributary to gain knowledge. The not so wise live their lives in the headwaters of a tributary, never experiencing the river of life to its fullest. Don't get stuck in the headwaters, never to return to the river.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Nashville shooter; what is our path forward now?
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Chesapeake Education Association goes woke
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Urban Virgina, and the hypocrisy of our Politicians and Media
Looking back at several articles and reports written and published in the Daily Press the week of March 6th - 12th, 2023. I offer the following discourse.
The hypocrisy of our Politicians and the Daily Press.
On Wednesday, March 8th, around 5:45 pm, security personnel confronted officers protecting the illegal sale of guns and drugs in a pop-up market. This market was, of course, found in Portsmouth, Va., where many illicit shops have been found before, according to police. While the Daily Press did not show the people involved, we know all forty people in the pop-up store at the time were most likely black. This is not a racist comment Ms. Worrell; this is an educated statical observation and a review of regional statistics. As much as you want to label good, law-abiding citizens as racist, this is not the time for your backward thinking and biased comments.
We can state the obvious with the observation of several apparent realities associated with the region of the state and other news sources. A WAVY news video showed a picture of patrons and security guards; all were black. This is downtown Portsmouth, and over 50% of the residents are black. Louis Luca is a drug dealer, dealing drugs that can fall into the hands of children and young adults. We suspect, and based on her recent Twitter feed, this granny will not care who she kills. I might suppose you will look the other way when drugs fall into children's hands, but a gun, oh, a gun, well then, we have to take them all away. A fentanyl overdose killed a child; residues, mind you left behind by previous Airbnb renters in Florida recently, and not one word from a liberal leftist like you.
The local media and police blame the lack of understanding of the law on the sale and distribution of drugs in Virginia. In my opinion, it is a cop-out, and of course, some people, but not all, are always looking for ways to skirt the law, as reported by the police. Do you believe these people also did not think you couldn't sell guns without a license? The most concerning part is that according to Wavy News, multiple previous busts of illegal pop-up stores have sold the same illicit goods. According to the local news, drugs have been sold laced with fentanyl. Are you saying you don't care about people dying from fentanyl? Has the local press or politicians expressed any concern or opinion to help close our borders to drug dealers? So let me get this straight, the police have shut down many of these pop-up stores across Portsmouth, according to police. However, some blacks in this community still have not realized that selling drugs and guns in Virginia is illegal without proper licensing. Are you insane? No, you are hypocrites. Of course, no one took responsibility for the drugs and guns. It is, in fact, reasonable to assume, and I dare you not to justify my reasoning, that there were 40+ people in this illegal pop-up store, defended by security thugs, mind you, and not one of them came forward to tell the police who were the drug dealers and gun dealers. The police say the people who ran this illegal pop-up store did not understand the law. That is a lie, a poor excuse for community policing; these thugs knew what they did was unlawful.
Let's move to Friday's paper and the alleged Legacy shooter who appeared in court and was released. The shooter was released on a lack of evidence. According to your reporting, witnesses all black, mind you, failed to testify, so a shooter walks free. Grey, reportedly beaten, left and returned with a gun, shooting randomly from a distance. Nothing but excuses made by a lawyer. We all know Legacy is a restaurant and lounge patronized by blacks and owned by blacks. Do you not see the issue yet? Low moral decisions and low ethical values seem to pop up everywhere; there is murder and mayhem in our cities.
Let's move on to the Sierra Jenkins murder: March 11th, 2023, Sunday opinion Daily Press. According to your reporting and opinion, charges were dismissed against Legrande after witnesses failed to show up. Noting the witnesses do not feel safe to testify. In an email, I warned Ms. Jenkins to be careful in downtown Norfolk at night; now, she is dead.
Do you still not see the pattern of low moral decisions and low ethical values found in some but not all of our black community? Do you see the pattern of snitch mentality associated with this part of our society? Do you still not understand why Scott Adams is right; it is best to stay away from those who are a danger to our society since the Democrats are unwilling to crack down on violence in our community, where Democrats tie police officers' hands behind their back only to be shot and killed by evildoers in our communities? Do you not see that most of the issues our society deals with today come from the black urban community? Do I have to ask why you want to take guns from law-abiding citizens? Do you think another gun law will stop low-moral decision-making animals from breaking the law? Do I have to point out that we do have a cultural problem in some, but not all, black communities in America, and most, if not all, reside in urban communities run by Democrats? The fact is, pointing out these known truths will make no difference.
"It's not laws that keep us safe; it is the behavior of people that keep us safe." These are the wise words of our governor, whom you choose to castrate occasionally with your liberal ideology nonsense. If the people were to follow a higher moral value, laws would not be needed at all. This is precisely what I have been writing about for years, and you ignore the truth. I don't need your gun laws because I safely conduct myself within my own moral conduct and ethical reasoning of a Mason. Yet you want to take from me what is not rightfully yours? Tommy Norment seems to think the same after voting to suppress my 2nd amendment rights recently. Now retiring, this closet Democrat has made his stripes known with higher taxes and gun restrictions for the lawfully righteous.
Ms. Worrell, you are all too ready to criticize others, but when you are criticized, you do not respond; when you disagree with others, you ban their ideas from being printed, and you shut down free expression within a public avenue where ideas should be shared for us to move forward. The editor of this paper uses false accusations to make reasons to ban speakers of higher morals and ethical values than her own. As long as you ban ideas you disagree with, we will always hold you in contempt.
Be it known, I am not a racist, and I dare anyone to say otherwise. I do not judge others based on their skin color; I judge (when I have to) the content of character. Yes, the clothes you wear matter not because of skin color but because clothes are an observation of good and evil. If you wear your pants down around your knees, if you wear gang colors, you may be a good person, but I don't know that, therefore siding with safety, I cross the street. This is not racism, this is threat assessment. I am not one to want to judge truthfully, but when you want to take freedom or life, one has to stand up and be counted; to point out your fallacies and lies. I judge for self-preservation of life and carry lawfully for the same reason. There is not one damn thing wrong with that. "It is better to judge wrong and live than to not judge and die." This motto of my critical thinking process and based on life experiences will keep you alive when danger presents itself.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
History and truth rarely coincide.
Mr. Filco wrote an opinion for the Willamsburg Gazette on February 18th, 2023. "History can be taught fairly and objectively." This opinion is right on target, and his analysis is truthful. However, I am offering an opinion as to why history is not taught fairly and objectively. In other words, why did Mr. Filco write his opinion unless he saw an issue with how history is taught to begin with. I am thankful for Mr. Filco's opinion, but we need to look at the cause of why.
Mr. Filco, I read your opinion today. "History and the truth rarely coincide," You can attribute that quote to me if you wish.
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
New York times opinion writer shows us, he has no clue as to rural America.
This discourse is in response to Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Paul wrote an opinion piece found in the Williamsburg Gazette 2-1-2023 opinion page.
Mr. Krugman,
I read your article today an opinion entitled, "Is there anything that can be done to assuage rage in rural America? Let me help you, oh, Northern VA urbanite, understand why rural Virginia hates you.
1. The vote: In any popular voting process in Virginia, three counties and a handful of large urban cities dictate who our representatives are in Washington, DC. It is so bad that when Mark Warner writes an Op-ed in his quest to ban guns, the Op-ed is not even posted or submitted to a Virginia paper for its residents to read. No, he chooses the Washington Post. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner never visit rural Virginia except it be during voting season. These two urbanites don't give a rats ass about southwest Virginia.
2. Guns: Rural America owns guns, and we are responsible gun owners for the most part. It is urbanites who shoot each other and not rural America. Yet Northern Va will vote to take from rural Virginia our rights without our permission. Notice how all gun bills in the 2023 Virginia legislation came from urban centers where moral decisions to kill each other do not meet the expectations of rural America's ethical standard.
3. Most important: The article starts with the New deal and jumps to today's society handouts. Roosevelt 1932 ( in between???) - 1980s. Having grown up milking cows in the 1970s, we had federal subsidies to produce milk on our family farm. That subsidy, along with tobacco subsidies, is all gone. The Government took our milk and took our cash crop. You most likely don't know this, but the family farm is dead in due part to the Federal Government, the lack of subsidies, and in due part to milk processors' cheap payment for raw milk. A living wage was certainly not on the minds of Democrat urban politicians to keep family farms afloat. Now, that is coming back to bite America in the ass, as milk production is done on large milk-producing farms owned by corporations. The Federal Government killed us - to say, the family farm in the 1980s.
4, Richard Nixon: Ross Perot warned us all, "there will be a great and giant sucking sound if NAFTA is approved." He was right. Not only did we send jobs to Mexico, but we gave communist China favorable trade status in exchange for cheap and, in some cases, slave labor. Textile jobs left Virginians for good. The small town factories making little girls' dresses like in Appomattox and Amelia Va are long gone. Furniture plants like the one in Appomattox and Thomasville, NC, have been shuttered since the 1990s, and Danville Textiles is gone. Do I really have to spell it out for you, or do you understand the term rust belt? The difference between rural America and urban America is the idea of self-sufficiency.
5. You write about how these perceptions are largely wrong from a point of authority, it seems, and that does not make you right. Yet my guess is you have never lived a day in your life in my shoes; you think you know better, but alas, you seem to believe your friends Thomas Edsall and Katherine Cramer and have yet to experience rural Virginia yourself.
1. Ignored by Politicians
2. Don't get their fair share of resources
3. Disrespected by city folk.
1. Yes, Federally speaking, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner ignore rural Va. The fact is they never leave northern Va, and why should they? All they need is the votes of three counties, Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William, along with Roanoke, Richmond, and Portsmouth, to stay in power. That is where they spend their money. State-wise and as well as federally, an example would be gridlock on our roads from the 1990s- 2020. While suburban DC gets a large swath of money to build roads, Tidewater suffered with a lack of US 64 widening until recently. We suffered and still do with tunnel crossing. Rural roads go unrepaired, and I81 is now a nightmare to drive. While it was once rural is now congested beyond relief, and yet no monies to expand I81. Oh, but I95, well, they get all the money, don't they?
2. As a country boy, I can tell you firsthand that, yes, city folks are leaving their urban centers and, in many cases, retiring to communities like Williamsburg, Va. Once a small community of 30k 15 years ago, now boasts, mind you, 80k. Florida is in the same boat. These urbanites leave high taxes and crime in New York City and bring their brand of politics to rural America. We resent that loudly. These buffoons move to rural America, and the first thing they want is a Walmart. Taxes rise because of the urbanite's intent not to be self-sufficient. These "come here" begin to destroy our way of life, and we resent that. We are a proud people who want local jobs; we don't have to be rich to be happy. Yet the federal Government took our jobs starting in the 1970s and sent them overseas or south of the border. We don't want your damn handouts, Paul; we want to live our lives pulling our cart ourselves, and we take pride in that. We are not a bunch of self-serving; shoot each other hypocrites looking for a handout. Generally speaking, we are church-going god-fearing people, who live a life serving Jesus, and we follow his lessons for living a good life. There is a big difference between following Jesus and worshiping Jesus one day a week. Urbanites tend to worship money, greed, and envy the other six days. That is my life experience with Urbanites. That is something Urbanites don't get and never will. The Urbanite has lost its way, destroyed its cities, and moved to rural America and did the same. No thanks, you have done enough already.
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Richneck School shooting: The police and school division are not explaining or the right questions asked.
Sunday, January 1, 2023
New Years opinion of peace as seen through the media's lense.
Peace is a word thrown around the sandboxes while heads are buried.
Once again, the Daily Press editors miss an opportunity to explore all possible solutions. Let's break down the editorial and provide discourse. Sunday, Jan. 1st, 2023. "Our Views"
Here is what Kris and Brian wrote or, shall I say, agreed to print.
"But at a time when division and discord are ubiquitous."
1. When violence is commonplace
2. When neighbors and family are at each other's throats
3. What greater hope can there be other than to see more people choose peaceful means of conflict resolution?"
Discourse:
The Population Reference Bureau, known as PBR, a leading think tank on violence in our communities, found some not-so-astonishing facts, and yet the media does not report them. (April 2005) Why do black youth in the United States commit violent acts almost twice as often as white or Latino youth? Researchers at Harvard University have found that the reasons have little to do with individual poverty or inherent racial differences, according to a study published in the February 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Instead, four factors— (1) the marital status of a young person's parents, (2) the prevalence of professionals and managers in his or her neighborhood, (3) whether he or she is a first- or second-generation immigrant, (4) and the proportion of other people in the neighborhood who are immigrants—account for most of the differences in violent crime rates for youth, according to Robert J. Sampson, the study's lead author.
"The data suggest that it's more than just a family's financial resources," says Sampson, a professor of sociology at Harvard University. "The study shows that the disparity is largely social in nature and therefore amenable to intervention in the community rather than individual settings."
Our biggest issue is, of course, Democrats. If we, as a morally straight, ethical society, intervene in a black community, we stand a good chance of being labeled racist by the media and black politicians. Whence we do not worry ourselves with the black community for fear of losing our jobs, being labeled, being doxed, or our employers being called to complain, thereby losing our means to provide for our own families. The politicians the black community votes into office give away money for a vote whose followers know no better. Keep them poor and keep them uneducated; that is the Democrat way. Let them kill each other, let there be violence; as long as I have the power, nothing will change. One only must look at Portsmouth or Richmond to see this, yet blinders are the fashion. Blacks are not first, or second-generation immigrants, so (3 and 4) do not apply; therefore, we only have to look to two issues to resolve the violence in black neighborhoods.
(1) the marital status of a young person's parents, (2) the prevalence of professionals and managers in his or her neighborhood, meaning educated beyond high school in most cases, although this is not set in stone. A high school graduate can make a great professional in some trade, even a great manager of people or proprietor of a business. Therefore, I submit we are down to one major factor. The marital status of a young person's parents. Fix this Daily Press, and we fix the black community.
4. Hampton Roads Residents cannot make a difference when we say, "We can't mediate a peaceful settlement as to the war in Ukraine."
Discourse: Yes, we can make a difference depending on who we vote for to represent us in Washington, DC. Stop voting for free giveaways and start voting for morally straight, ethically sound candidates. Just write my name in the box, that is all you must do!
5. "Our region lost far too many promising young lives in senseless shootings and should have to live with the threat of mass shootings haunting every trip to the grocery store, every visit to a theater, and every day at school."
The Daily Press goes on to offer solutions.
1. "Virginia needs to restrict access to firearms so those with ill intent cannot purchase them."
2. "dramatically bolster behavior health services."
The desired result: If successful, it (meaning behavior health help) should help more Virginians find happiness and peace in their own lives. So, what the Daily press is saying is the government is going to help you find happiness and peace!
Discourse: Yes, we have lost far too many promising young lives, and I refer you back to my first discourse.
(1) the marital status of a young person's parents, (2) the prevalence of professionals and managers in his or her neighborhood, meaning educated beyond high school in most cases, although this is not set in stone. A high school graduate can make a great professional in some trade, even a great manager of people or proprietor of a business. Therefore, I submit we are down to one major factor and then one not considered. The marital status of a young person's parents and a movement back to God and God's law, you know, the ten commandments. Fix this Daily Press, and we fix the black community.
Steps to take:
1. Too many distractions, so turn off your cell phone, turn off your TV,
2. Find moments for quiet and reflection.
The editors blame:
1. Past few years.
2. People struggling with a world that continues to change and dramatically.
We can find some stability.
We can find some comfort.
Maybe we will find joy.
if
We are contemplative.
We are quiet.
We are empathetic.
We are peaceful.
if
Discourse: Reflection is a mighty power to right a life, as Socrates says, "the unexamined life is a life not worth living. We can find stability, comfort, and joy in our churches. Our public school teachers are not able to furnish these attributes to a good life, but our Sunday school teachers can.
If we reexamine what we teach in schools and make time for financials before the 11th grade, make time for ethics, philosophy, and conflict resolution outside of just once a month or eight times in a school year, we may change some lives. Yet, people make decisions that are not productive or counterintuitive to the health, both physical and mental, of young people. So, what do the Democrats legislate, they make drugs lawful, the very drugs that destroy the child who has no father or living skill set to begin with. I firmly believe politicians do this for power, and the media is all too happy to promote an ideology that kills thousands. The truth is you do not know what to do except it be more power over others. The media be damned if, for once, the media and Democrats thought for a moment, I might be right. That is to be your undoing, Brian and Kris, you think you are always right, and you damn those who do not think like you. Our governor is that example.
We can learn to be contemplative, quiet, empathic, and peaceful in our churches and masonic lodges. Yet until the black community wants to stand up and change, there will be no to little change, and whites are not in the mood for being called racist when they try to help our brothers in due part to cancel culture and hate. I read an article recently that blamed the lack of exercise on racism. This was a Time magazine article/opinion. A blame game to excite the masses of poor blacks to rail against whites. I am reminded of "principles before personalities" It means we practice honesty, humility, compassion, tolerance, and patience with everyone, whether we like them or not. Putting principles before personalities teaches us to treat everyone equally. In our Masonic teachings, we practice this ideal every time we gather. We are all equals in the lodge. I think some of you would do well to learn what that means. That means, though, that if a fellow brother trips up and does something wrong, it is my obligation to point that out. It is not your obligation to call me a racist for doing so but to accept my council. If my council does not resolve the issue, then others within the lodge may get involved, just as we see in the bible. Paul's instruction in 1 Corinthians 5: Paul instructs people to hold others inside the church accountable, but not those who are outside the church (nonbelievers). A fitting good bit of advice given the mass hysteria we find in social media today whereby one can lose their job or worse when we try to help others by preaching what we believe as truth to nonbelievers like yourselves.
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