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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Introduction

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas

Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Introduction 

Every so often, there is a seismic shift in circumstances brought about by a demand for change. Those who benefit most from change position themselves to capitalize upon that change. They then endeavor to maintain their advantage to sustain their benefit. But, the same is even more true for those adhering to the existing circumstances anticipating changes unfavorable to their concerns. It is the short-sighted cycle of selfish accumulation and consolidation without considering long-term implications or progress.

In an ironic twist, this hedonistic short-sightedness, selfish exploitation, and immediate gratification usually initiate the resulting demand for change. Figuratively milking the cow dry. The cycle feeds upon itself, continuing to circulate cleverly disguised with different variances of the same dynamic and sequence of results benefiting the usual suspects. Therefore, we must change the operational dynamics to alter the cycle and change the outcome.

The current process is constructed whereby there is no scenario where we, as Black people, collectively win. The odds are partly because our effort to shape the dynamic lacks definition and unity while facing staunch opposition. Speaking to power is vastly different from having authority. Speaking to power is more or less a formal complaint, while authority only exists to the extent it is recognized or exercised.

The objective is well defined in these terms on what shapes the narrative or dynamic. It is having power and speaking with authority. We need our power recognized to configure methods asserting authority to regulate our desired outcome. Primarily, the plight of our race is what is understood must not only be spoken but, to a more significant degree, demonstrated. The demonstration is not in organized protest or rioting but psychology and sociology. Let us systematically break down our constraints with brutal honesty, good, bad, or indifferent.

We must navigate a progressive path to acknowledge our power despite the history of slavery and any arising inferiority insinuations. The historical narrative has predominately focused on the dredges of slavery while ignoring or embezzling Black people’s achievements and contributions before, during, and after slavery. That narrative propagates inferiority to fill the void created by deception furthering the ignorance of white superiority and their insistence on Black subservience.

We should take an analytical approach to detect, identify, isolate, infiltrate, and dismantle our challenges regarding racism. So before any other considerations, it must first be determined what is the objective. Next, what are the strengths and vulnerabilities of the challenge? Then, how can the challenge be divided and overcome? Followed by what portion of the challenge must be prioritized and focused upon for maximum or strategic neutralization? Then finally, what will be installed in its place, and how will it be implemented to further achieve our objective?

The process will then come full circle, returning to the initial intent and evaluating it from its beginning to the acquisition of our objective. The subsequent actions are the steps needed to create any power-wielding authority or influence quantified by practical results. So, the starting point is to build power they cannot ignore. The goal in building it is a strong horizontal foundation. That is the strategic phase, but there is also the practical logistics of having the unity, personnel, and preparedness to accomplish the task.

Any movement starts in silence and thought, building a presence where the efforts cannot be snuffed out in its development or execution. Consequently, preparation creates resistance to collapse,  countering an anticipated condition or a predictable response based on contingency and method of implementation. A lesser power can withstand a more significant power when properly positioned to diminish the options and possibilities of opposition. Any concepts deployed must be applied using psychology and translated into sociological, political, and economic strategies.

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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Book Description

Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Book Description 

Thurston presents a candid examination of the sociology of racism, modern social systems, primitive rituals, and religious manipulations cloaked in conformities of ignorance. This is a casual forensic inquiry of history, methodologies, ideologies, and consequences of racism, religion, and economics to formulate narratives leading to our modern challenges of divisiveness and conflict. The sanctity of ignorance must be individually and intellectually dissected for suggestive solutions and future perspectives to identify historical traps of distraction, dehumanization, and deceit.

The book’s goal is to stir discovery, self-evaluation, discussion, and the rejection of counter-productive ideologies, behaviors, and conformities designed for subjugation. Among the evaluations are suggestions for solutions understanding the context of time, genetic migration, economic motives, political influence, military conquest, spiritual corruption, and psychological captivity.

 Not surprisingly, these transcend race to maintain exploitation through servitude as essential to a ruling class heavily reliant upon etymological illiteracy. This anthem of evolution is a call to shed the mental shackles of forbidden curiosities and rational impossibilities. Dare to explore your beliefs as the iceberg of deception melts under factual scrutiny. This must have book is an expansive journey into the tip of this deception and ignorance binding us. Free your mind, un-shield your eyes, and hear clearly this resounding message.

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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- “African American”

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas

Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Excerpts regarding the term “African  American” 

Page 176

Otherwise, there is a distinction such as African American or minority, not of lesser numbers, but as disadvantaged. Never just American. The Olympics is the only time we are simply American. No other race or nationality are referenced by a land many of them never visited and ties dating back over four hundred years. They at least have a country instead of just a continent of origin. However, many have populated this country to have the interim title removed from their designation, simply being called Americans.

Undoubtedly, the ability to Americanize one’s image for easier assimilation diverts attention from themselves, especially by ostracizing others, particularly Black people. Those who arrived by immigration now bemoan immigrants while concealing apparent hints of their immigrant origins.  White and light complexion immigrants easily assimilate into the white culture or middle class and are excluded from adverse comparisons and discrimination. Once incorporated, they quickly develop no allowances for a diversity of perspectives or cultures not rejected by their new identity and cultural spectacles.

Their culture is surrendered in exchange for a new identity welcoming them to the Americanized white subgroup. Not having their identity stolen but surrendered, they fail to see the damage and trauma caused by never feeling or escaping the prolonged ostracization our people have faced. Regarding the “African American” plight, they don’t know the half of it. The sting of the whip or the noose around the neck of it. They instead become members of the system by white association. The system and the integration become indistinguishable.

People are molded to be inflexible and dismissive, while systems are designed rigidly but fickle. Taking the country back for conservative values is maintaining the violation of church and state for religious values to mandate legislative foundations supplementing sociological biases. These customary biases and identities are preferred as normal behavior well entrenched, while any deviation is abnormal or fearfully anticipated. The imbalance that produces their comfort disregards the aggrieved party’s demand for consideration, essentially minimizing and dismissing claims with indignant outrage.

The way it has been is prone to narcissistic impositions by rejecting the evolution of intolerance and discontent to instead embracing inclusion. The majority inclination has shifted from the majority ideology of controlling minority populations. Yet, the now racist minority ideology resists the changing times seeking to rule the majority. The ignorance of the past attempts to paralyze the present and remains opposed and fearful of future possibilities and expectations. Redefining the constructs of society, self-identity, and equality is deemed a threat.

Marginalized society is no longer happy with whatever scraps procured, instead wanting whatever possibilities and considerations advantaged white’s receives. Wanting equilibrium of opportunity and social treatment impartially available and applied. The contempt and discontent are prevalent and pervasive on many levels regarding a biased irrelevant and suppressive application or standard.

However, a stark difference exists, whether it is gender inequality, pay inequality, religious discrimination, educational gaps, healthcare deficiencies, lifestyle orientation, and many others, not just racial profiling and social injustices. Moreover, many deep traumas have been directed towards all subgroups not representative of the dominant controlling group despite being members of other dominant subgroups such as educated, male, or the double whammy, Black and female. Every subgroup has a learned behavior with defining expectations and benefits and is subjected to judgment from other subgroups’ prejudices.

However, the problem arises when it minimizes or infringes on another subgroup to be defined by the standards beneficial to the dominant subgroup. Thus preferences are common to all humans or specific taxon, but the exercise of dominance and privilege where none exist based upon a manipulated interpretation or advantage violates humanity. Continued practice of this violation is not a deterrent for change, it invites it by unfairness. On the contrary, it dictates perseverance because to concede is to assure the imbalance of identity, perspective, and privilege continues.

Page 389

I have a theory, maybe a wacky theory but follow me. Suppose we travel back far enough to the origin of life in Africa. Wouldn’t that make everyone walking the earth African and all Americans African American? Suppose all bi-racial people claim their presumably socially dominant racial identity instead of the lowest relegation of their racial identity. Wouldn’t that make them white if they so choose?

Sort of the reverse one-drop rule where one drop of white blood would make you white or whatever race contributed to your identity. If Canaan was made Black by Noah to curse his father, Ham, then can’t all Blacks claim to be White being descendants of the pure seed of Ham directly from Noah or Canaan when he was white? What about as a descendant of Adam? Genealogy allows for claims of many variations of race or identity.

Furthermore, if people can choose to be non-binary, a singular person can identify as plural, and anyone can be white then why can’t Blacks claim to be any race, even white or no race, as a matter of self-identity, even for government purposes? Why not if it is based on self-identification or ancient history? So what is African American? Is it a color, a lineage, or a classification that secretly segregates us as a distinction other than American?

Look at any government form; under white, it does not have any distinction outside the collective family of white, none indicating origins or lineage. Maybe, everyone’s identity should be an x on forms to eliminate race as a consideration. Makes me wonder if race or gender is even needed since it is questionable what benefits the distinction brings. Arguably, it is more used for discrimination. This could indicate that some re-evaluating needs to occur when these terms have or should have no bearing on determinations or qualifications. But let’s go to the deep waters.

Case in point, to some the greatest President of all times, 45, who claims the confederate heritage and an all-American persona grandfather and grandmother was born in Kallstadt. But he claims white, not German or European. It goes unquestioned and is acceptable because, quietly, most designations of white fall in the immigrant category of impersonating a legacy of American heritage.

My grandmothers and grandfathers were born in Mississippi and Georgia, but I need to claim African American. Their parents and grandparents were born in America. It is a sly segregationist distinction where Black and brown people are further diluted as people of color. These distinctions are misleading, ambiguous, or flat-out lies. We are relegated to a continent or hemisphere, while other races belong to a country, province, city, or culture.

Whites can be of any nationality to claim white. All dark complexion people are not directly from Africa, although all humanity is from Africa, so how far back are we going? If that make all Americans African American by ancestry, whereas a naturalized African would be what? African Americans too, regardless of color. If born in Africa and naturalized in America, that seems to make you African American more than Black. But what that would make you is knowing your natural heritage, which we cannot claim. Still, their struggle is not removed from ours, our reference point is simply different.

Therefore African American signifies unknown origins and lost heritage. How many claim America as their homeland and heritage to take back America? But their roots don’t go back as far as ours in America? They will claim the country but not the atrocities. That would make America ours before it was theirs by way of their immigrant legacy. We have been the N-word, coons, coloreds, negroes, blacks, people of color, and African Americans in the ever-shifting saga of our assigned identity. I claim Black with pride just as others claim their distinction, even confederate, but they refuse to claim squatter.

Black is a legacy American whose ancestors were subjected to slavery, reminding me of my obligation to not defile their sacrifices and tribulations. The analogy is often inconsistent when attempting to retrofit an identity or association. By that metric, is there such thing as Confederate American or Immigrant American according to their heritage and ancestry? Most whites are of immigrant origins compared to descendants of slaves, but they also arrived on a boat, most after us. African American is furthering an insidious distinction that undermines the concept of equality. Minority applies to everyone from Black people to gender, disability, religion, and soon-to-be white in approximately thirty years.

Race is a delusion of numbers and classifications by disproportionate criteria. The technical distinctions defy logic while casually applied. By designation, the census and office of OMB consider African Americans to be anyone whose ancestors’ origins are traced back to the lower regions of Africa, below the northern portion or sub-Saharan. I would imagine even indirectly from another land. So realistically, African American is a polite way to say slave descendant. Everyone else on the globe can be considered white, even if from Africa.

By definition, it is firmly consistent a dark complexion person or so-called Black from the northern part of Africa is white by geography. So with the geographical origins set by that criteria, how does anyone else become classified as African American if not by color? The spectrum of color variations in all lands further extracts light complexion appeal as the overwhelming and overriding criteria simulating whiteness but not by geography. So by geographical designation as evidence, it reveals in general not where they hijacked us from but a dark skin aversion.

By the same curiosity, what slave trade or immigration globally have others undergone in four hundred and fifty years? Does it reflect their geographical origins for direct comparison to ours during the same period? That changes many things in the world, but many it doesn’t change. Globally connect the systems, ideological cultivations, and echoing beliefs throughout that time for an accurate portrait of comparison. From origin to evolution, follow the continuity of repetition over time. The repetition of time cast its shadow as truth without breath possessing only time with more assumed than spoken.

Page 399

This brings it back full circle to the descendant from slavery labeling disguised as African American. Maybe they need to know to exclude us rather than ensure we are included. White includes every light complexion nationality without further distinction whereby they are incorporated by deceptive but established means regardless of time or history in America. Skin tone grants automatic membership and privileges from day one. This is also true for other darker complexion nationalities so long as they are not Black.

Page 401

It would then seem culture not colorism is at play. It also confirms white is more of a social status of inclusion not a race. With African American meaning the descendant of slaves and white meaning everyone else, including descendants of slave owners, it also denotes us not being accepted as belonging on or from this land. White exclaim they need to take their country back, but it was inhabited when they arrived, but no mention of returning it and definitely not vacating it. But, we are welcome to return by boat to Africa when we have been here before almost everyone saying we don’t belong.

Relocated by slavery, our designation is the closest estimation of commonality, Africa, even if over four hundred years ago or more. But, African American also denotes being of unknown origins or lineage from a miscellaneous bin of humanity. It gets confusing because white is miscellaneously composed and defined only by what has not been included, Black people, ignoring genealogy. African American is an oxymoron. Africans suggest we don’t belong here, and American likewise suggest we don’t belong there. Yet, we are tolerated in America as orphans with no specific nationality or ancestral identity.

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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Preface

 

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Preface

Thurston K. Atlas started a blog entitled “When Playtime is Over” to express his point of view on relevant topics and present an alternative voice. Thurston K. Atlas’s diverse life experiences and challenges provide a basis for his perspective he felt compelled to express. The author hopes that the perspectives and ideologies offered are used for motivation, contemplation, and progression. Thurston K. Atlas’ primary objective is to generate introspective thought, facilitate candid conversation, and arouse free-thinking perspectives.

This book is presented in a series of observations and commentary of perspectives intended to editorialize and illustrate the surface ramifications of underlying racial principles and ideologies. It further explores and challenges some long-accepted fundamental socializations and the consequences of adhering to these thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. The goal is conveying a deeper understanding. Part A is the conventional or historical perspective, while Part B is a companion article offering a more specific interpretation applying causation and intent, hopefully leading to awareness and solutions.

The articles in Part A illustrate factual experiences, while Part B stirs the sediment of its implementation and impact. The psychological and sociological dynamics causing and promoting racial discrimination also produce many other biases affecting various socially marginalized subgroups targeted by discriminatory treatment. These dynamics transcend racism and geography, but many of the solutions are similar since many of the root causes are comparable.

The primary goal is for you to include these ideas and considerations in your family and subgroup discussions, making the exchange a philosophical family affair. Finally, part C is a series of questions intended to encourage conversation to preemptively address issues clarifying possible actions, responses, and perspectives applied to real-world situations. Whatever your perspective, it should be factually and logically defensible but certainly withstand debate.

The discussion within the Black family is crucial as a rite of passage, survival, and recognition to avoid the distractions and traps that deplete our aspirations and progression. We must place the narrative in our hands, emancipated from the residue of slavery and focused on future prosperity. It is only a generation away if the proper approaches are applied. Applying enhanced knowledge, altered perception, and practical actions for those sufficiently determined and disciplined are the treasures that will summon fortune, astutely changing the Black condition.

The advantages of aggressive pursuit are undeniable, while the complacency of the past is inadequate. The absence of change prolongs assured damages, while the sluggishness of progress stalls optimism and is insufficient to execute solutions. We are all familiar with the old methods the same old results. Time to change the channel to visually, emotionally, and intellectually recalibrate our psychology, sociology, and methodology.

Hopefully, we will reconsider what we validate and from what we seek validation. We must visualize our objectives directing our actions toward achieving them. So, welcome to when playtime is over, where our goal is to stimulate thought and conversation, not to convert your perspective. Any persuasion is solely at your discretion and deliberation. So, let the discussions and transformations begin.

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The Dreamer’s Dream

Delayed Delivery

The Dreamer’s Dream

Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech spoke of hope at daybreak after a long night of captivity. He spoke of the crippling continuation of segregation and discrimination even 100 years later. He spoke of us as an island isolated from prosperity by public policy and racist sentiment. He spoke of cashing a check issued on a promissory note. His civil rights speech questioned the inalienable rights, liberty, and pursuit of happiness promised to all but yet not delivered to us. He spoke of the urgency of the times, police brutality, ghetto conditions only varying in the size of the ghetto, voting rights denied, and the indifference to injustice provoking an interdependent fate of destruction.

However, he did not speak of becoming docile and we should not let the interpretation of his words convert us into doormats for those who say his words were those of passivity. He was emphatic about there can be no rest or contentment until we are recognized and treated equally as first class citizens.  He did indeed speak of a color blind society but have we achieved it yet? If not, many interpretations and assertions regarding his speech are still delinquent in their realization. As such, the racial utopia of his dream is a society we are working towards but still have a considerable ways to go.

The unrelenting echoes of his voice ring loud and true as if he is giving that speech today. Many of the conditions he spoke of still exist as challenges of today. Sure, apologist, revisionist, and the treasonous historically ignorant point to gains amounting to meatless bones of patronization comparative to other segments of society. He also warned us of contentment fatiguing us to complacency. It is also true that our complacency has now led to our conditions just as much as the forces against us have. Patience is a virtue only when it is not used as a crutch propping up alibis of inaction and deficits of fortitude.

Where is our bus boycott or march on power mentality insisting our demands are met? We whimper in celebrations of causes which allude us disguised as a tribute to the man himself. They are separate. Celebrate the man but the fight for the cause, his cause which has always been our cause is still waging far from over and constantly under siege. Any factual revelation of discrimination is labeled anti-American, anti-white, divisive, and well, racist. It absolutely is exactly that if judged by the metric of Jim Crow and those who would hold themselves to a delusional entitlement of superiority.

But that was the point of his speech. He was, and I am also very clear to state it is not a reference to all white people or people of any “color” who do not hold racist sentiments. Much like in home room when they call names at roll call. If it is not your name, you don’t answer because they are not talking to you. Same for acts of racism not committed by you. Counter claims of racism because we assert our humanity may just have to be the price of doing business and should not deter us from our appointed duty. This counter claim of racism from pointing out the elephant in society amounts to playing the dozens and you can’t play with me in a way I don’t play.

Label it as you may but it does not change the nature of the historical accuracies by the whining “white victimization” petition when social change or accountability hounds your privileged fragility of a fractured identity. The reimbursement of our claims are met with entitlements of moral bankruptcy or written off as an uncollectable debt of justice. But, why? A large part is the psychology of assimilation where we must shun any association or resemblance to those of us still stereotypically marginalized based on our indoctrination of them as memories of inferiority. Our Judas approach to denounce them to appease others and pacify ourselves maintains our separation and our collective ostracization.

It is an adoption of an ideology mimicking an identity conditioned upon us similar to the squabble between house and field personnel. An immigrational surrender of our identity to gain acceptance. Dr. King spoke of governors, some now are freshly minted immigrants I might add, as vicious racist whose lips are dripping with, well their hypocrisy of racism or the eradication of it. Frankly speaking, presidential candidates can be included as well until their ethnicity is challenge as not “white” and then they cry racism which they say does not exist.

However, I would bet white is what they self-identify as on an application when it suits them. This code switching is a form of discriminatory privilege many fail to admit but routinely use such as the term minority or person of color. These minor practices do not obscure the awareness and denial of much more significant normalities and fluctuating definitions of unnecessary labels. They protest the restrictions of racism and subjugated labels only when directly applied to them. Why would it exist for them but not for us when we have a documented archive of its existence for us? They can ban books but history, memories, and truth is a much different story. 

So, August 28, 1963, was the date of Dr. King’s historic speech and more than 60 years later the runway is still not clear for equality to land. Advocates of freedom are not voting for something. We are voting against our forever intertwined destruction. Our collective survival. This is especially true for Blacks, the enemy of those who opposes our interest is a friend not to us but to our interest. Assimilation surrenders an identity which many believe was taken from us centuries ago, but as Dr. King said this is a beginning and not an end.

Our salvation will be our dignity, content of character, and fortitude persevering as our sword to tremble the sentiments of injustice from the ideological delusion of Stone Mountain in Georgia to whatever rock of ideology racist hide behind or under. We have tried a soul force of faith more appropriate for that time. It has proven that the beggars tool benefits only time. So, don’t discredit Dr. King’s dream turning it into a nightmare by our empty talk and celebration. Celebrate his life and legacy sure, but don’t succumb to the relaxation of a partial achievement. Dr. King warned us of this with his words and life 

Nevertheless, his legacy is best celebrated by the actions of people who embody his calls to arms by being about it instead of talking about it. Standing on the ideological business about it. To not be deceived about his dream we must learn about the Dreamer and his speech from his words beyond the sensationalism of a few of the more famous verses. It will inspire you to a greater appreciation for his significance as a sociopolitical force so dangerous he had to be silenced. READ the speech to consume the magnitude of its message so it can never be silenced. Please, don’t sleep on the Dreamer’s message. Humanity has no color only where racism has no place. Hopefully one day we’ll have a Happy MLK Jr Day which is not a dream but a reality!

Thurston K Atlas

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The Black Reality



Inner City Blues

Black folks, it is time to face reality and speak the truth. We have indeed faced hundreds of years of racism and oppression in America, and any atrocity that the mind can imagine has been committed against us. That is a given, and the damage of those actions and consequences remain evident today, but we have proven to be resilient.

There can be no denying that there are many reasons for the Black condition but are there any longer any excuses? Let me say we have a right to tell the truth about others, but we also have an obligation, to tell the truth about ourselves to ourselves to improve our condition. We may not want to hear it, but we should hear it from ourselves truthfully.

Believe in what you see more than what you are told because you can be shown better than you can be told. Actions always speak louder than words, so what is understood need not be spoken but observed. If we do not like the truth, we should make it a lie by changing the reality, not the narrative. Then, they can’t dispute the obvious.

 There has been no redress for the slavery debt, nor is it likely to be paid to our satisfaction or the extent of the damage done. Yet, it is no secret in our inner circles what we agonize over the most in our communities, and it is not the police, racism, or the white man.

In some of our neighborhoods, we barely see the police or interact with them. If there are whites in our community, they are a scarce minority, if at all. Racism has always tipped the scales, so nothing new or nothing we can’t or haven’t overcome.

We are not fooling those outside our circle because it is plain to see and increasingly harder to conceal. That is why detractors can keep reminding us and deflecting from their actions that hurt us because sometimes we hurt ourselves more. So we give them something to talk about.

Could we be wrong more so than they are, just as two wrongs don’t make a right, but it doesn’t make us even either? In this case, it makes us odd? Odd to harm ourselves in a struggle against harm.

Oddly enough, how can we, and why are we as equally wrong as the forces we complain and protest about, asking them for our equality and safety? What do we demand of ourselves in our predominately black neighborhoods where we practice a different form of cultural racism and genocide?

Why is it easier to point the finger at others as the source of our problems in OUR communities where they have a minor presence? We can not pretend to have submitted our consciousness and condition to their influence when they are not present unless we admit to the frailty of our minds to be so thoroughly conditioned to perform atrocities against ourselves for them.

We have to keep it, one thousand family; it is us doing it to us. Whatever the number of unarmed Blacks killed by the police is a crime and tragedy, but how many more would be at the dinner table if we were not killing our own at an alarming rate in these streets?

How many innocent children would continue to play? How many families have been generationally damaged from the drug game? Why is it unsafe in our communities from those who prey on those who look like them, never leaving the neighborhood to commit a crime but would claim black lives matter to them?

Why are our black women disrespected by us and treated in ways anything but queenly? Okay, I hear you, playboy, and that may be true, but what about the man in the mirror or regard for your mother, sister, or daughter?

Is it proper for Black women to project images appropriating other cultural beauty standards to their impressionable daughters, diminishing the empowerment and dignity of their child’s blackness or self-love?

Is our own self-esteem and character, which reflects our integrity and principles by our conduct, more critical than fronting for others? Are we that fragile in our thirst for validation? How could our conduct, discipline, and ambition have a positive impact on our children? What about for other races to be less resistant to our humanity?

We have proven ourselves to be a resilient people but not as collectively progressive as we could have been. We cannot normalize or excuse the behavior that holds us stagnant as others surpass our condition while holding us in contempt. We have worked hard, but now we must work smarter to produce a reality that aligns with our expectations and demands.

Instead of focusing on the negative, not within our control, we must focus on the negative within our control. We cannot cry our bed is hard if we contribute to making it that way. It is an emotional display that restricts meaningful gain except for an outburst of feelings. It is time to grind if harvest is to be upon us. The grind will take extra effort, but the harvest is abundant by using the principle of addition by subtraction and innovative substitution of traditional education and rejecting self-limiting socialization.

We will have less of a need for others if we take care of our business first. We can take what is ours when we can give it to ourselves. It reminds me of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who sang, “I don’t want nobody to give me nothing open up the door, and I’ll get it myself.”
Enough doors are open with the ability to open more doors for our harvest, but we must position ourselves advantageously. A change in our mentality and specific education outside of the structured diagram of social engineering must occur.

Many of us know the rules of the streets and how to survive if not thrive, but it is time to switch the game up from the nonsense some have told ourselves that this is the only way available to us. There are better ways, but it will require something more of us. We can’t convince ourselves that it is economics-related because it is other ways of making coin that doesn’t hurt the community in which we live. It is not always the economics but the mentality and lack of applied ingenuity towards the obstacle to economics.

Life will present challenges, but we should avoid the damage we do to ourselves, our image, and our communities. Unfortunately, some aspects of Black culture have taken on a detrimental mentality that significantly contributes to our collective condition. We should not take negative labels or harmful behaviors and embrace them as a positive appropriation of endearment or conduct.

What we immerse ourselves in becomes our reality and desensitizes us from the cause and effect of its impact. Unfortunately, the nature of some of our music and television choices from the earliest age conditions us with subliminal indoctrinations that form our perspectives and behaviors to what we accept, conform to, and aspire to become.

We must be diligent about what we expose our children to, primarily if it promotes negative connotations described as entertainment. We must then ask ourselves, who benefits from our mimicking these actions and behaviors? Can we expect to be anything other than dysfunctional when the stimulus that we bombard ourselves with is tainted by violence and indifference as regular primary programming? Instead, we have tricked ourselves into devouring it and blame others for our appetite.

Just weigh the benefit against the detriment and compare it to what you observe in the community. Black man, we must reacquaint ourselves with what it means to be a protector, provider, and example for our families and communities by being engaged in providing veteran leadership and knowledge-creating stability. Black man, it is time to lead the charge unflinchingly. Black man, let’s end this now by changing now, so they don’t pay a costlier price later.

Our ego or being a tough guy or a “real one” can not displace our obligation to our family or contribution to our community with an allegiance to a broken spirit of weakness disguised as bravado while riding for despair and destruction, not respect or progress. It takes effort to build and larceny to destroy, but whose future are we robbing if not us and ours?

I asked many questions, but maybe they were not questions but solutions or concepts that may lead to solutions. I cannot be ashamed to say that the generation of the eighties and nineties became distracted after significant gains were made in the sixties and seventies against stern opposition.

I say that to say this that the fruit today was from seeds planted then, just as tomorrow’s fruit will be the seeds planted today. We must regain our compass and set a course of self-determination and self-realization that requires no one’s consent, just our grind.

We can’t wait on reparations or equality. You cannot be made to feel a way you refuse. To seek personal equality indicates you personally feel inferior and collective systematic equality in the form of institutional fairness will take far too long waiting for grace to be granted. We grant ourselves equality by the strength of our perspective and integrity. We can not overcome or operate from a position of weakness where power is granted.

It is never good when you have to ask from a position of weakness. With that said, let us pay ourselves reparations first by our conduct and progression, creating an atmosphere where nothing less than our respect and equality will be expected from others or accepted by us.
We need to respect our lives and stop the killings of each other, but call it some soft sucker shit to throw a rock and hide your hand. If it is that important to blast, put your pride on the line and throw down or better yet, let it ride if it causes more problems than it solves. The cycle must be broken by being avoided.

More of our people need to make it home and not just from the hands of the police. Time to break the chains that enslave our minds to move beyond conflict or protest to elevation and progression. Then as James Brown said, we too can “say it loud” and indeed be black and proud.

Progression is a transition of a perception that becomes an obsession manifesting a realization. Reasons are why you do something excuses are why you do not. Make no excuses allowed be our determination not to harm our progression. Let the healing begin within while the solution resides outside the pitfalls of social engineering.

Much love to my brother C.T. (Gery Curl) from East St. Louis. He always spoke of being resilient and resourceful.

 

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Democracy Divided



Solomon’s Dilemma 

Often when making a decision, it may become advisable and even necessary to visually project that if a particular scenario plays out to its logical conclusion, what are the ramifications and unintended consequences created. Next, without any consideration for the standard of evidence required to prove or disprove an assertion, it must be presented to be evaluated.

If such favorable evidence exists for consideration, why would it not be presented regarding voter fraud and election indiscretions as claimed? Denials of a result without counter-evidence are just outlandish claims or machinations of not accepting defeat.

It is a delusion that you were not defeated or could not have been defeated, especially when performing your personal best, although you were out-performed. 

Assuming any of these bellyaches which were repeatedly denounced and rebuked by authorities mostly considered favorable to you had any merit or sliver of truth, they indeed would have been upheld or revealed by now.

A preferred scenario to invalidate or rectify an election dispute instead of presenting evidence was to overthrow the Capitol violently and forcibly install Trump. First, however, it must be further explored for feasibility.

Assuming Ex-President Trump were to be installed as some form of ultimate authority by the violent dissent and frenzy of his followers after overtaking the Capitol and its politicians. What would that authority or title be? Would there be future elections?

To prevent Democrats from ever being able to ruin the country, would it then be a one-party Republican union? How would the majority and larger number of voters who rejected Trump be conceded?

A one-party political system is a monarch or dictatorship, especially if installed as a violent toppling of the existing government. These actions would exempt democracy from being practiced. Historically speaking, not many dictators have been democratically voted out after dissatisfaction arises among those who forcibly installed them.

I would assume then that there would probably be no need for the Senate, a House of Representatives, or Supreme Court since the boss would be running things. A new governmental structure would have to be established, solidifying his hold over the government and people, usually involving military obedience and gun control. He could and would not risk what happened for him to occur against him, including freedom.

It would seemingly invite military action against segments of the public deemed to be insurrectionists to your insurrection. Government, Military, and Law Enforcement would have to purge their ranks of sympathizers partial to democracy and the ballot box.

Many who fled these regimes worldwide would now be subjected to it in America, some by their own violent hands. So at least there will be something to compare it to when wondering what’s the impact on Freedom and Democracy.

The societal echelon would reflect the prevailing correction of the racial pecking order restoring America to immoral greatness again. Some religious Freedoms and groups would most certainly not be tolerated at all, hopefully amongst them, not yours, of course.

Returning to a time of core values might be a time that did not include acceptance of you. Remember when those core values did not trust a catholic to be President when JFK ran? At what point might your Republican fervor and ideology divert from the mainstream to exclude yourself?

Further assuming other implications such as the economic impact and the resulting global disruptions caused by a government overthrow is first and foremost the certainty that an unstable republic could no longer be the default currency of the world.

This action alone would overnight send markets crashing, devalue U.S. currency, annihilate retirements, wipe out pension funds, trigger government defaults, and collapse the economy. Perhaps it would even allow the likes of China to gain world dominance, and things would undoubtedly be different around here then.

The uncertainty it would create in the global economy for civil war to emerge in America is the most ingenious method to influence a conceptual change in politics and devaluation of money, not to mention political strength. Without hard asset value or fiat currency, the alternative is implementing a digital-only currency with no value except for perceived with controlled access.

Crushing financial and economic devaluations of banks, securities, debt, credit sources, mortgages, transportation, businesses, and insurance industries surely would suffer substantial losses.

On the other hand, the Covid 19 virus damage to the economy would pale compared to civil war notwithstanding dealing with Covid simultaneously. We would be sitting ducks while being too busy fighting amongst ourselves.

Medicaid and Medicare would most likely be disrupted severely, and methods of payment and delivery of medication and medical services. With the transportation of food and goods decimated, online delivery of products extinct, and civil unrest-related safety hazards magnified, the chaos would all need to be calculated.

If you thought Covid had you afraid to go outside and closed things down, think again. What company or currency would be sustainable if the government lost its spending and buying power and compromises to the operating systems that facilitate them.

The labor force would be made totally unstable and fractured. Additionally, Federal aid to states and cities uncertain, ceasing of federally funded or subsidized programs, societal disorders and criminal desperation spiked, despair for personal survival widespread, and the total dysfunction of the judicial, criminal, and penal systems across the nation simultaneously destroyed.

The power grid, water systems, and sewage and waste systems would cease to function or be sporadic.
Consider your subgroup treatment under democracy and then reimagine it without.

Sexual preference, sexual identities, interracial unions, racial protections, or religious freedoms, for example, which is not the consensus among the typical insurrectionist tolerances, would likely be trampled as your right not to be infringed upon.

Wherever your conduct diverts from these minority voter’s preferences as not aligning with their historic racist, sexist, or caste system indulgences or beliefs, what protections from persecution would exist for your subgroup? If you need a hint or assurances reflect on history, you would certainly be relegated back to the dungeon of society.

Once subjected to the imposed conservative values heavily influenced by so-called Christian values and enforced by radical violence and racist suppression follows the forced conversion and acceptance of a heritage steeped in the dormant biases of the past.

This practice has been preferred, and escape has proven to be quite elusive. The escalation and justification are moral and patriotic values under the cloak of religion manifested in racism, exploitation, sexism, and inequality as it always has been. Only blatantly and without remorse again under the new regime MAGA style.

Now those advantages can be relied upon by you with those nostalgic yearnings no longer frozen in the past. So great is this prevailing denial and deception; some are delusionally and utterly convinced the election was rigged against the restoration of division instead of its repudiation.
The variance within the ranks of those who would collectively argue election fraud fractionally disagree to the extent and manner it could be proven except as established by force.

This sense of acceptability on display now makes it comfortable again to proudly proclaim what was only allowed to be shamefully whispered. Backed by patriotic proclamations and First Amendment rights threatens any opposition that attempts to change this stagnant illusion of time and detachment from progression.

With your quality of life now no longer threatened by the advancement of other people but secured by the systematic advantages and suppression of other’s fair opportunity. Home of the brave’s valor bolstered by Second Amendment rights instead of the quality of your ability.

Most nationalities have been discriminated against at some point in their history, especially their origins in America, to now claim inclusion and exemption by white membership. That said, immigration standards would have to absolutely be adjusted to reflect the caliber of people worthy of populating the new republic.

What to do with the unworthy who are here, enslave them again? The moral insurrectionist would definitely have their immigration limits and standards. It most certainly would not be reflected by those who stormed the Capitol, whom then-President Trump complained how raggedy they were dressed for an overthrow while disguised as bums. Could this be a time when he was right, no?

No longer being a democracy, it then follows that Democracy could not possibly be encouraged or supported anywhere worldwide, having a collateral effect on other countries’ sovereignty. Moreover, the global political reverberations caused even beyond those mentioned could not be calculated by any measure.

There must be a comparative assessment of the purpose, benefit, and damages probable in this pursuit of the forceful irrational implementation of a minority of voter’s candidate. The succession of states is even more problematic, but I guess he could be the President of Texas or Florida.

If there is evidence as to why the overwhelming majority of voters’ democratic and constitutional rights should be discarded to install a minority of voters’ preferences, let it be presented.

If the bombastic claims have not been presented as proof by now, it may be time to shit or get off the pot if you are not going to use it. But, if it is to be told, then tell it and back it up with proof just as you would request of those who you would doubt.

It is way past time to put up or shut up. The shattering of the country has begun to show its fragility when force is the first discourse for the disappointment of legal voter choices of elected officials instead of providing the proof.

Four years in power and favorable supporters inclined to protect and promote Trumpism by concerted efforts to stack the deck to cajole and coerce the election outcome also failed. Still, there are no claims that withstood judicial repudiation.

Beyond the rhetoric, there must be a recognition that sometimes your team doesn’t win, and the officiating was just despite your wishful outcome. There are always reasons why someone won, and someone lost aside from someone has to look at themself first.

Consider it could have had something to do with dissatisfaction with Trump’s lies, judgment, or performance. But, with clear conscious and honest reflection, the impact of the mishandling of the Covid-19 virus, the racial discord, harsh policies of implementation of immigration, indifference to truthfulness and accountability, international political scorn, and the attack on voter confidence which led to a historical engagement of voters has to be factored into the loss.

The current condition of Lenin-styled scorched Earth tactics from a vindictive now-former President should expose all that needs to be known.

Brought into focus and reason, this version of society brought about by a treasonous insurrection aftermath would be deeply unfavorable to most. The majority forced adherence would, I assume, not be contrary to the spirit of the insurrection of Democracy and that brand of governmental control.

Many politicians have come and gone. But, no matter how popular or unpopular they were, the democratic republic has stood as a representation of the people’s will. Democracy is about collectively agreed-upon rules of conduct even when your choice is not preferred. It is not the galvanizing of force but instead consensus of votes.

The reality is a self-inflicted destructive feeding frenzy where extensive devastation and destruction prevail, or an eager opportunistic regime moves in to conquer in the chaos. This is not about one man but about how he created an atmosphere to cultivate and encourage an undercurrent of sentiment that frankly needs to be addressed and rejected.

By the same token, some would say that he merely exposed that which had been denied but insidiously present and vigorously demonstrated being used now against the very seat of Democracy. Either way, we all can agree from our own perspective that WE have a problem that needs a resolution, no longer being able to deny the corrosive implications and its destructive existence.

The agreement has always been our societal collective majority voting preference, not our minority voting preferences. Even when that preference was oppressive and evil, it was still the preference exercised until progress overtook ignorance.

Force had been was used to uphold injustice, the collective majority to change it. Now it comes down to the good of the many by consensus and healing, choosing survival or those rupturing Democracy by sedition for a debilitating future.

The simplest perspective to apply is the wisdom of King Solomon, reputed to be the wisest man ever to live. When confronted with the two women’s dilemma, each asserts themselves to be the child’s birth mother. Wisely, the King instructed that the child be split in two, with one half given to each woman, surely killing the child.

The King knew that the birth mother with genuine love would sacrifice their preference for the child’s survival. The child is Freedom by way of Democracy. The question is if God-fearing patriotic insurgents would rather suffer the ramifications of overthrowing the government, ensuring the death of Democracy? Is your Patriotism conditionally unconditional?

To preserve their lie while providing no proof of former President Trump winning, they are proven not to possess a genuine love for Democracy. No one has put any meat on the table proving he won, even while some Republican voters flocked away from him. So, by default, supporters have demonstrated their ultimate claim, loyalty to a lying sycophant.

To split the child is to kill the child; Democracy and Freedom murdered and cannibalized after withstanding many foreign threats only to succumb to domestic upheaval without merit. There are indeed those in favor of splitting the child. Some will not loudly and explicitly denounce these domestic terrorist actions and sentiments threatening the country’s split.

The temporary faint of outrage identifies their motives and cowardice to displease Trump, although he has no qualms about talking all under their clothes. They succumb to his bully tactics and their own power grab instead of their pledge of office and obligation to the wellbeing of the republic they should serve without fear of Trump’s scorn.

Their obstruction of anything by default that the new administration proposes and constant reliance on Trump for approval in government affairs is borderline treason by Republicans. Those Democrats sitting around waiting for bipartisan conciliation are borderline remiss by de facto when considering the Republicans had no such reservations when they were in power.

United, there is strength but also survival. Survival for the country’s existence cannot endure what it has been allowed to become, nor can it survive just as a baby split in two cannot survive. Democracy and the virtue of fairness must be allowed to expand to all segments of society to survive.

There is a lot at stake for partisan disappointment in one election to ruin the country when there is always the people’s majority vote for the next time. For a former President to advocate for dividing the country, we should know that he has no concern for Democracy and would rather see it split if not under his power.

King Solomon would definitely see through this ploy and not divide the child or give it to the callous heart of a deceitful liar bent on vengeance.
The choice is simple mutual compromise or civil self-destruction by sheer cannibalism. AS always our fates remain intertwined.

 

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

In fear for your life



 Deadly Force.

The standard for legal justification of deadly force is the same for police and civilians, but it is interpreted and applied differently. Therefore, following the law and exercising your rights must include adherence to the application of the law and the procedures or scrutiny if deadly force is used by you or against you, whether civilian or law enforcement.

The standard default declaration is to proclaim being in fear for your life. It has no meaning but is generally understood to mean something that is subjective but not specific to the situation. You only think you know what it means but it has a different meaning to everyone projected upon and applied to a situation. It is vague and supports a spectrum of fear levels based solely on fearful anxiety.

The time when that is acceptable as the primary justification for using deadly force has passed and defies objective reasoning or quantification. Thus, fear should no longer be sufficient or a factor for using deadly force. Instead, the actual circumstances should constitute a code red threat or tactical disadvantage creating an imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death, not to gain compliance or quell any fear.

Being in fear for your life is very subjective. It can primarily reflect your psychological frailty instead of the actual circumstance you are in or confronted with actually being a serious bodily harm threat. Specific physical and mental allowances must be made for a variance of vulnerabilities, the prevailing circumstances confronted with, and the objectively reasonable response. Still, an actionable threat must be the primary reason for any legal lethal force response.

Realizing that most civilians have uncertainty regarding when deadly force is appropriate and required lends itself to a tendency to erroneously use deadly force based solely on fear, not the threat. Sometimes law enforcement being unaccustomed to high risk or confronted with unfamiliar situations, can react with certainty but erroneously or prematurely from fear or anger, not the threat. Force must be reasonable and unavoidable, and prudent in its exercise where your actions did not create or escalate the threat.

When deadly force is used, the standard for reasonableness, even when justified, requires it must remain within that which is not excessive. The standard applied by law for both civilian and law enforcement is to use the minimal force necessary to neutralize a threat based upon the known or reasonably perceived circumstances at that time but not to your level of fear.

Your perception is formed by the actual events or circumstances existing at that time and the threat’s ability to carry them out, resulting in serious bodily harm to you. According to the law, it is explicitly forbidden to use deadly force to protect property regardless of the value of that property. Deadly force is only supported as a counter to serious bodily harm.

The subjective factors that influence deadly force use are age, size, gender, physical limitations, specific previous victimization, etc. The list is long, but the actual justification must be supported and based on specific factors justifying the action to be warranted and always from a defensive perspective.

These many considerations are supporting factors of articulation but not justification for deadly force. The harmful threatening act is the only primary justification that can be legally considered. The rest is just supporting elements of that action or threat. The perception of a serious bodily harm threat must also be of the nature to be carried out at the time of your reaction.

You must have the fundamental knowledge of what perceptions of a threat you were responding to, why you reacted that way, and whether you can legally respond that way with a force that will likely cause serious physical harm or death. It must be a reaction to their actions supported by a reasonable response to a specific pending or imminent articulated threat.

Being in fear should not be the emotional state you are in; instead, the apprehensive projection of the threat if allowed to progress to a reasonable conclusion. You cannot instigate or agitate a confrontation and claim to be in fear of the situation you created. It would be best if you remained near blameless in your contribution to the circumstances causing the conflict.

For example, a vehicle moves forward and backward, not sideways. If law enforcement knows this places themselves in the forward or reverse path of a vehicle without escape options, they have essentially created their own danger. Therefore, deadly force should not be used. Instead, better judgment should.

Everything articulated should be their actions and your response. You must only do what someone’s actions force you to do. Reacting for your safety must be warranted and justified by your right not to submit yourself to the discretion of whatever misfortune, harm, or criminal intent that may be forced upon you.

If placing yourself in harm’s way and then the assumed harm is attempted, then by default, you ultimately initiated that attempt. If it was expected to possibly occur, knowing the risk and danger, you actually allowed it to happen by your actions.

Deadly force must always be reactionary to a threat unforeseen or unavoidable. Knowing the standards under which you will be judged, feeling confident in your response, and committing yourself to restraint as necessary increases your advantage of legally responding to a deadly threat with little hesitation and minimal scrutiny.

Understand that fear is where your concerns and insecurities overcome your confidence and commitment. What may weaken your resolve to resist or survive is strictly subjective to your fear of inadequacy and not a response to the actual threat. Reacting to the actual threat is responding to the resolution of the threat and not the resolution of your fear. Under this perspective, fear has no place in the equation for consideration of your actions.

There is a distinct difference between a response for your life or being scared and frightened. Fear is from within; it is something that you choose to accept and project. Fear is closely related to your level of preparation, familiarity, comfortability, and any unfavorable circumstances present. When these levels are low, your anxiety is high, so fear is more of a reflection of your personal state of mind than the threat confronted with, even when lethal action is necessary and unavoidable.

Anger is fear projected outwardly, and fear is anger projected inwardly upon yourself. No one can account for your or another’s fear, biases, or insecurities. No one should have to account for why you or anyone is afraid of the dark or an impending danger that does not exist outside your mind.

Fear is often a stereotypical or conjured projection causing an irrational override of reality. So, fear must be removed as the primary criterion for using deadly force. Fear is an admission and display of irrational behavior and most likely an indictment of your confidence.

Legal justification is the principal standard and level of responsibility that anyone carrying a firearm consent to by carrying that firearm and definitely by using deadly force. Insinuated by implication and association are also all bullets fired being accountable to the shooter. It has nothing to do with the shooter. Instead, the person getting shot to provoke and justify that action of being shot.

What did they do to get shot that was a reaction to and material reflection of their behavior? From the shooter’s perspective, they did this, and I reacted as such. Not, I did this due to my fear of unwarranted anticipation of an unobserved action or being absent of any overt indication of danger. Much like chess, only one move is made then the opponent must make a move until checkmated. Your move is executed only after the opponent has made their move which you then counter or prevent.

When deadly force is used, there is a legal responsibility to stop when it is no longer necessary, even if initially justified. As the threat level changes, force adjustments must change, adhering to minimal force necessary to discontinue the threat. Excessive force occurs when the adjustment is not made or justified in the beginning. That standard applies to less than deadly force as well. Passive resistance is not a justification for deadly force.

The standard criteria already legally established for deadly force should be firmly applied and enforced with violations fully prosecuted to discourage the motivation and occurrences of its violation by civilians and law enforcement. Law enforcement and vigilantism must especially be scrutinized to diminish violations of publicly accepted legal expectations and legally established statutes.

Even cowboys recognized in the wild west that shooting someone in the back or from behind was inherently wrong because it was cowardly and suspect of the threat they posed with their back towards you or running away.

Multiple gunshots to the back should be assumed murder absent some extraordinary circumstances and articulation to justify the nearly indefensible. Possessing a gun that is not in a position to be used most certainly falls under the same reprehensible cowardly actions since it is legal in most places to possess a firearm.

In the use of deadly force, there needs to be fully transparent investigations and personal accountability according to the governing state and federal laws, police department general police orders of operation, the departmental expectation of conduct and tactics, and civilian or officer-initiated encounters. In addition, civilians should be vigorously held to the same factually based reactions rejecting their reckless behavior, frivolous encounters, and fear of situations they created or had no legal standing to enforce instead of an imaginary justification of fear.

Being comfortable in situations requires mental preparation to visualize likely scenarios prior to encountering them. Lack of knowledge and preparation manifests itself in panic and fear, which is prone to overreaction. Memory retention and muscle memory are then trained by conditioning them where your only concern is logically and methodically dealing with the threat or circumstances without panic.

Proficiency in your craft, whatever it is, breeds confidence, even if it is baking a cake. Target acquisition is the next issue of paramount importance. You must be sure before firing what you are shooting at, why you are shooting at it, with what you are using to shoot at it, can you strike the intended target, and how many times is reasonable to fire to eliminate the threat but not necessarily the person.

You should not just unload on someone out of fear without articulating why it was necessary. At this point, it becomes suppressive fire without a confirmed target or justified circumstances. Controlling your anxiety avoids reckless behavior and unreasonable actions which are regrettable or debatable.

Recent news examples that illustrate the lack of these principles are the Breonna Taylor, Jacob Black, and Duante Wright shootings. In the Taylor case, the lack of target acquisition and discipline under stress laying down suppressive fire. The Black case poor tactics and poor suspect control to prevent him from moving contrary to risk aversion.

Mainly seven shots to the back being excessive to repel the perceived knife threat, which had not yet become direct. The Wright case where panic and overreaction mentally short-circuited the motor skills and muscle memory familiarity to perform an act your body knew was wrong but that your mind overruled to grab the wrong weapon.

You can train for stress, but only stress simulates stress and fear is always present with the uncertain where you feel unprepared, even taking an exam or a critical event. Still, fear must be processed and redirected to heighten the ability not to immobilize it. The first consideration is always to minimize risk to yourself by your tactics to maneuver to minimize danger.

You must be proactive to predict, eliminate, prevent, or minimize the risk, escalation, or damage you must do to someone by limiting their opportunity to harm you before deadly force has to be used. You cannot account for other’s actions but are responsible for your tactics and actions, so control what you can control, yourself.

Excessive force and deadly force must be responsive to the deafening outrage and continued advancement of transparency and accountability regardless of who the violators are. The public now demands it, and the law requires it to be applied equally without prejudice or reservation, thereby minimizing the fear that others have for their life in these encounters.

The police must now also police themselves to raise their shared duty of accountability to these known standards and restore public trust to the previous levels enjoyed and beyond. Ongoing training should reflect this, and violations should be exposed to protect the integrity of the uniform and profession to establish a law enforcement culture in line with the changing times and respect for life. Civilians must adhere to a standard of conduct that does not initiate or invite deadly force to stay out of the gray zone subjecting themselves to fear.

Remember to eliminate fear; you can practice until you don’t make a mistake but can also practice until you can’t make a mistake to be genuinely proficient and eliminate fear. It is about taking life seriously to invest the time and resources into training yourself lessening fear and promoting better judgment when carrying a firearm.

Taken from my forthcoming book, the Pointman.

Thurston K. Atlas
Creating A Buzz

Posted on by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Tactical Protest



 Objective Campaign

The intent and purpose of protest are to demonstrate the objection, frustration, and dissatisfaction of circumstances denied redress, which can no longer persist without adjustment or change. Civilizations have been toppled over disregard for the people’s protest of conditions that will not be tolerated. Protest can be stifled, but eventually, it resurfaces and overcomes the suppression of the people’s will. History always repeats itself in this regard, and change prevails, or extinction occurs.

Effective methods of protest vary with the extent of outrage and the ramification of its effect to force change. Additionally, the passage of time influences the efficiency of the protest methods used to settle any such grievances. The more widespread the objection, the higher the expectations for change are. The more likely a revolutionary demand emerges that requires radical adjustments to the system according to the people’s will and acceptability.

The method of the specific change’s ultimate purpose and other expressions of frustration should not be confused or used to dilute it by the actions used to achieve that change. Radical responses have erupted during protests where force has been met with force. Peaceful protest has also been met with force. The circumstances under which demonstration is conducted must be focused and flexible to maximize its effectiveness while minimizing the harm to the protesters being suppressed by this force.

Harmful exposure to protestors should be minimized and is equally as important as the cause. However, perhaps with the societal climate changing, a new political administration settling in, and the Covid virus still lurking, it may be time to adjust the tactics. Maybe, use more strategic, effective, and conciliatory tactics conducive to the desired change making the outcome more attainable. This is not to suggest not to keep the pressure on or lessen the expectations but to achieve objectives differently to galvanize resources across a spectrum of solutions and support more efficiently.

Any protest should consolidate active and passive support not to alienate resources or allies that can be an asset supporting change or at the very least not standing in opposition to it. The total Black population is roughly 48 million or 14.7 percent of the total U. S. population of 328 million, leaving approximately 280 million people that are other than black. With 67 percent estimated at some point to support racial equality, it is clear that an additional 52.3 percent (171 million) would be helpful.

Taking it to the streets with bullhorns had its place in the past and may still contain a level of effectiveness. However, today a precise focus combined with efficient use of human resources applying technology can disseminate messaging and informational exchanges beyond physical opposition to gain more of an advantage.

More modern tactics can resolve some significant concerns and limit the negative impact on protesters, the alienation of allies, and the alternative actions or narratives levied against the protestors. Protest tactics, methods, and ideologies need to be updated; surgical precision, not blunt force, is required. It is not the skill of the sword but the skill of the swordsman that directs the blows.

Destruction is an emotional response to frustration that is not equivalent to passion or progress. It undermines the success of legitimate efforts and squanders opportunities for meaningful action, resolution, and advancement. The objective is to facilitate focused disruption and change without random destruction or ill-fated confrontation. A tactical advantage has the purpose of engagement with a minimal footprint or target but maximum effect.

Inflicting disruption and affecting changes without being subject to retribution and resisting dispensing collateral damage to innocent parties not involved in the engagement is the goal. Specific tactics can define most responses by manipulative design, thereby aligning the reaction with the purpose of the tactics while working to position the objective for success. Success can often be attainable without conflict when the opposition’s energy is converted or depleted to benefit the protest objective. You cannot lose when causing methodical attrition to the opposition unless by surrender.

Conflict is always an option but becomes exhausting and depleting when recklessly deployed as a default reaction. It should be the last resort even when conflict is the first chosen action. This is not a doctrine of non-violence but a perspective of principle to not become or commit the very oppression we are protesting against. It only justifies their response, fear, and treatment of us, forming a perspective contrary to change while enforcing resistance. Resistance needs to be weakened and not fortified.

It serves no meaningful purpose to destroy or loot except to indiscriminately inflict pain upon someone who has not harmed us directly or who may be sympathetic to the objective of the protest. Protest awry presents the opportunity to express anger, emotions, or repressed personal vendettas by offering an outlet under the disguise and protection of collective outrage for the cause. The business of protest is not personal; it is collaborative, the collective objective is primary, and it will provide some resolution for many of the personal vendettas.

Destruction for the therapeutic purpose of soothing angry feelings or emotional outbursts is not practical or efficiently convincing and mostly futile without focused goals for achievement. Being under the influence of a mob mentality or raging emotions undermines the collective purpose of tactically maneuvering to accomplish our stated objectives and changes. Avoiding compromise by self-imposed distractions or succumbing to emotions is essential in executing a strategy for change.

Our anger turned inward or against us is on us and counter-productive. Emotional intoxication creates an impairment to clear thinking and promotes regrettable actions alienating allies from supporting our cause. Regression into our deferred pain or submission to displays of emotional fervor prolongs our condition. As the past has consistently proven, anger subsides with time and expression, making it unsustainable and unreliable motivation to propel protest or change.

Pent-up emotional frustrations must be controlled, transformed, and refocused for any protest’s sustainable strength and integrity. The mind must be engaged, not the emotions, for logical actions and sustainability of intent. The insanity of our same approach without results is evidence of itself that we have traveled this road many times before to find ourselves on the same road again. It is past due time to change approaches for perhaps a different result other than being angry, stubborn to self-examination, or prone to destructive behavior.

Confrontation is the lowest level of persuasive negotiation or communication with the greater force usually dictating the terms and conditions over the lesser force. Overcoming a more significant force or power does not involve direct altercation but a strategic and analytical negation of their advantage. Primitive expressions of anger acted out from past pain are counter-productive to future gains.

Anger disregards intellectual pursuit and persuasion, surrendering to and conceding an inability to reason or debate our objective convincingly. Commitment finds a way to achievement by not succumbing to surrender or outburst when faced with obstacles but engages adaptation.

Our strategy’s disciplined and foundational principles have to remain firm in its conviction but flexible in its focused execution to sustain the expansion of our influence and support the acceptance of our objective. The cultivation of our base requires that they be informed of the purpose and the method of achieving it. Their determination, resources, talents, and skills, when efficiently deployed, will effectively optimize their contribution to the collective objective.

The methods used should be surgical and fluid in dissecting the obstacles to the objective’s realization. When the methods and techniques are organized and unified, the impact can undoubtedly be predictable and quantified. However, when we come to do serious business, then keep it strictly business. Doing business with tangible results with measurable outcomes must be structured by expressed policies and concessions aligned with our agenda.

Appeal to one political party or ideology has historically failed, resulting in bouncing from one extreme to another, never achieving the wholesale changes sought. More realistically, it has led to being conquered by exploiting our differences and personal ambitions instead of unified by our commonality of interest and objective. This division has no viable focus, momentum, or process to make demands much less change.

The insanity of the same old protest tactics has yielded glacier changes considering the last 60 years of progress since the bullhorn and slogans that rhyme have formed the focal point of social justice protest. Unfortunately, as a result, perceptions remain tainted (theirs and ours), assurances hollow, and equality still elusive.

That is not to discredit the efforts and accomplishments of those who have gotten us to this frontier. Instead, it suggests that to fully benefit from these unprecedented times embracing tactics conducive to current sentiment and public consciousness would seem wise. We can then avoid unnecessarily repeating the same futile cycle where destruction overshadows progress.

A multidimensional approach must be utilized, attacking the systems and perpetrators of injustice and those who would align themselves with justifying or concealing institutional and societal violations. Political and legislative recourse is the most pervasive and effective way to universally isolate and identify systemic injustices to punitively and economically persuade or penalize transgressions and transgressors alike.

It is imperative to use all those who would align themselves with our objective of equality and fairness to address both major political parties to propose, pledge, and produce programs, legislation, and penalties. The precise agreed-upon procedural implementation and application should be transparent and obvious.

Changes to existing structures in violation must be urgently undertaken and remedied. Given the opportunity to honor any assurances, visibly effective actions would be the only acceptable verification. Our political and economic courtship must be accompanied by this bouquet as well as by any other suitors who would seek favor with us.

Since beggars have never been choosers, for us to have a choice, we must develop further options to empower our interest without other’s permission or compliance. Therefore, make it necessary and in their best interest to create a coalition with us essential to their own success demonstrated by their actions seeking and validating our trust.

Political and economic prowess is fundamental to being respected as a force to be reckoned with and afforded the same first-class citizenship considerations as any other group. A major cohesive political initiative is needed to consolidate a coalition of grievances to remedy historical and systematic discriminations. Redress inclusive of our grievances and interest, including those marginalized within the diversity of our ranks.

While the political influence and legislative reform are the most pervasive and effective methods, economic protest is the most immediate and convincing consideration to facilitate change. Mutual goals, shared results, cultural awareness, and systematic bias can all be altered by the bottom line.

Maximum strength can be derived from the imposing of strategies that impact and weaken the financial interests of those in opposition. Let our spending do the heavy lifting against immovable obstacles and damaging objectives. Money penetrates many adverse resolves.

Preparing, educating, and directing our base in our preferred way of resistance or persuasion is the most impactful initiative. Financial withdrawal puts us at no physical risk, allows us to remain lawfully blameless, and is an exercise in our spending discretion that can be heard without ever being seen but felt. It is called discretionary spending, and it is our prerogative.

The tactical concentration of resources and the creative application of proven techniques reversed engineered and effectively used against us can be effective for use by us. Hostage negotiators seek to humanize hostages to captors by deflecting their ideology, making them reluctant to harm the hostages. The most prevalent is self-identifying with the hostages and reflecting their similarities to elicit empathy from the captors. They must be made to see themselves in you or see the similarities of you in themselves.

Lima syndrome techniques can be used effectively towards those who are not hopelessly entrenched in their ideology and position to encourage sympathy for those who have wronged or are wronged. Their injustice is their shame which they feel compelled to resolve along with civilized impulses of compassion. The same technique can reverse social engineering to reject racism and instill a more socially compassionate affinity for equality.

Conversion of the ideologies and perspectives of people must hold a more significant enticement to change old thoughts rather than to adhere to them. First disproving those antiquated beliefs, then embracing the voluntary integration to their identity a genuine acceptance of the change. Their hurtful actions becoming vile, distasteful, and regrettable to themselves.

Protest not aligned with core beliefs results in resistance as a survival mechanism as if they were personally attacked. This personal attack is then internally adapted to reconcile those core beliefs to justify resistant thoughts and actions. Any required change must be a self-revelation where an acceptance or realization transforms those actions and attitudes to a different set of core beliefs aligned with a new perspective.

The concept of addition by subtraction seems counter-intuitive, but much can be gained by what is taken away. It is far more challenging to remove a thought and replace it than to place it there initially. In this regard, social engineering must be addressed relative to racial inferiority or superiority complexes perpetuation. Spreading of either must prevent the ratio of people who learn, are taught, display, or are made to feel either.

Repetition and reinforcement of these concepts lead to their prevalence and, when reversed, can lead to these concepts being rejected. Time and patience utilizing reverse-engineering of the propagation of these concepts where there then becomes an overwhelming presence of the desired one, and the absence of the unwanted one leads to the extinction of the unwanted behavior. Like potty training of sorts, it instills a level of conditioning that is socially acceptable, compelling, and enduring.

 

 

Aside from the many psychological and behavioral modification techniques available, procedural adjustments can be similarly effective on institutional and structural entities. These agencies entirely comprised of people operating within those systems are either governed by, restricted by, or compelled by some parameter of conduct or procedural mandate. The adjustments can be implemented when an understanding of their protocols, mandates, and operations is utilized.

Intimate knowledge and understanding of these parameters can nullify, neutralize, restrain, or mobilize their resources. Conflict is short-sighted when others can do the heavy lifting for our purpose. For example, resources can be utilized for our protection or against us depending on how we maneuver their interpretation of our intent. Let their muscle support our intent and against any known antagonist intent, as the national guard did for school desegregation in the sixties.

To lessen the possibility of conflict and be equally effective, a massive crowd assembled in one place without a specific agenda for their collective assembly is not tactical or practical when our assembly results in their assembly as a stronger, more fortified consolidated force. Peaceful assembly locations should be carefully chosen, and agendas precisely directed and fully understood with contingency plans against conduct clearly undermining our purpose. There have to be no tolerances for egos, flexing, insults, emotions, or agent provocateurs, just our objectives and goals.

Any conduct while assembled under our flag reveals whether you are with us or for yourself, in which case this unwanted activity damages our purpose. Our protest must occupy the high ground morally, intellectually, and geographically to move separately but in coordination, while converging collectively into a specific purpose and method to achieve that purpose. Disbursement into smaller crowds that spread resources and divide commands demonstrating clear, peaceful intentions minimizes herd mentality on both sides, and our communication can become more sustainable and direct.

If a breakdown should then occur, it would be isolated to that one location and not into collective chaos as when there is one massive assembly. At peaceful assemblies, law enforcement has to respond to any probability as a paid captive audience. So instead of yelling, insulting, or confronting them, why not try to convert them or at least salvage the ones who may find themselves marginalized within their own ranks as well as sympathetic to our protest and objective.

It is a marketing opportunity since they cannot leave, and exposure to our ideology cannot be avoided. This time and opportunity can be used to hear or see our message and possibly promote it in places where we cannot. By the same measure, the key is not conflict but expense. The more they stand there, the larger the expenditure becomes until it becomes too much on the city budget. City officials will want to negotiate a resolution because law enforcement will also complain and protest about their own conditions and attrition. It will then become a matter of wasted resources and weakened morale.

Law enforcement, city officials, and city council can be required to meet with the public at any number of safe environments where we can put a name and face with a promise or proposed action. The police department is always open to receiving complaints, must investigate, and must give a disposition to the submitting complainants. Churches, schools, community centers, and government facilities can all be utilized for community events and meetings. If they can’t come to us, then we can always peacefully assemble and go to them. Systems and resources are always susceptible to being overwhelmed.

Law enforcement reform starts with the hiring practices of who they put into the uniform and an asserted effort to increase their interaction and familiarity with the culture of the community they serve. Avoidance of bias deployment of selective enforcement throughout the community, a better internal and public accountability system, and assurances that reflect departments and specialized units ratios align with the community demographics are also needed. Discretion is encouraged where minor offenses build goodwill and correction instead of revenue and criminal intent.

Removing the overseer, occupying force, and adversarial culture and mentality of law enforcement to be above the people they serve is crucial to better policing. Changing the officer’s expectations within the department to be less numerically driven as the basis for the court system, jails, and general fund revenue. Additionally, training needs to be directed at mental and psychological options for compliance, de-escalation, and control under fearful or stressful situations that simulate reality. Indeed, a different type of training and increased training is in order.

Engaging the political and legal process at the municipal, county, and state level to change the city charters, county enforcement, and state laws mandating more accountability and transparency removes many instances of abuse. The other component to remove abuses is to remove those who obstruct or violate the intent or equal application of the law. City Charters can make the Police Chief accountable to the public and not the mayor. The law is full of remedies that are not currently aligned with the will of the people or used to reconcile them.

The political structure of this country is established upon majority rule, even if that majority is by one. The path forward seems clear to keep that which has served us well in the past, embrace that which reveals itself to be effective moving forward, and discard that which has not produced the desired results.

The use of technology, emails, social media, and the like that can be consolidated at the push of send is a powerful tool to disseminate protocols, actions, and objectives. Information is the new currency, and shared education is the manner of transport to expose the iniquities of history and the needed corrections now and in the future for advancement.

The objective must be exalted above the method of the objection, the message superseding the messenger, and the change sustained beyond the sacrifices made. All those concerned are welcome to be agents of change under this directive that lessens harm to the integrity of our concerns.

We must practice policy-driven professional protest, not random emotional exhibitions of extortion. Some of the methods and techniques available are time-sensitive and subject to subversion. There are forces actively attempting to legislate and criminalize specific actions to abolish or lessen their use and effectiveness, making it more difficult to protest without retribution and retaliation.

These laws designed as countermeasures to suppress voting and protest have been announced or anticipated which the development and implementation of effective alternative methods must be employed that are impervious to being undermined. Force is used for revolution, which is not reasonable since our goal evolves and it is not the overthrow of the government. On January 6, 2021, an attempt was made on the Capitol by anarchists hell-bent on suppressing our objectives and the incoming administration as well as the imposition of theirs.

Force in the form of civil unrest and civil disobedience, as it is termed, has minimal effect, being localized at best and a squander of human resources at worst. Using revolution employing force and confrontation, the butcher’s tools generate casualties and opposition with the need to maintain coerced compliance. Evolution is the tool of the master akin to chess outmaneuvering the opposition manipulating their move by intellect and persuasion to anticipate their move and checkmate them with their contribution.

We are not equipped for revolution by force and should not be so inclined when the results move us farther away from our goals. On the contrary, the times are ideally suited for evolution, with the circumstances ripe with the proper strategic approach. The surgical attainment of our prime objectives should aspire to minimal exposure and maximum benefit. With that in mind, adaptation and progression do not have to be glacier, but it will take some time and sustained effort.

To survey the factual landscape and assess the most effective course of action, the first thing we must do is control our emotions and remain reasonable about the sequence and scope of our goals. We can not succumb to the emotional compulsion to express our frustrations through destructive methods that yield only a release of anger but limited results.

We must then logically analyze the playbook being used against us for vulnerabilities and deficiencies. Many have historically been the same, but the support has waned, significantly exaggerating the weaknesses exposing new paths to change. Just as their ideological numbers have weakened, ours have been strengthened, forging overt empathy and allegiances towards justice for us.

Dissent and allegiances in unison with a significant number of people who should not be alienated or excluded from their contribution to a mutual objective. For example, some have aged out of active protest in the streets. However, they still can significantly contribute if an avenue for their participation was available which remained within their capabilities. The same holds for adolescents who can contribute in their own particular way or those who would need to remain anonymous for their own preservation but would love to contribute if provided a way.

The racist or conservative value ideology has to be exposed for what it is and the lack of inclusion of some who support it, not realizing that they are not included except for achieving a goal that will discard them. Conservatism is rooted in the past, which does not include alternative sexualities, gender roles not male-dominated, inter-racial relationships, immigrants who visually do not look white, and the list goes on.

These are the divisions and vulnerabilities which need to be exposed. The 2020 election and the strategy utilized by Stacey Abrams and many others are symbolic of the horizontal attack on a vertical establishment. The legs can be taken out to make the head fall.

The divide and conquer tactics that have been so effective against us redirected against the social intimidation used to sustain this stain of racism can now be used as never before to topple this system of discrimination. Isolating its methods and motivations cultivating change for its own survival or wither isolated from the acceptability of change. The implosion of maintaining their discriminating ideology will collapse when starved. The pen is mightier than the sword, and the briefcase more effective than muscle can use their momentum against their purposes when redirected for our purposes.

The prototype builds a horizontal coalition targeting as many local gatekeepers as possible from the school boards to city council from the infrastructure that governs them by vote, city charters, or other legislation that either changes their policy and functions or promotes the compromise needed for our redress.

The latest census report does not accurately reflect the shifting demographics of those by their designation whose interest would more closely align with our objectives for their benefit. The number of those who would oppose or actively resist has diminished when put into the context of racial and economic oppression, which comparatively suppresses their prosperity as well.

Focusing on the horizontal social foundation is where the legal and meat on the bones changes will be more attainable and intensively affected at the grassroots level. Producing new socio-economic norms not constricted by race, gender, or discrimination will require more vertical institutional infiltration.

It would be regrettable not to fully benefit from this unprecedented time in a diametrical shift of ideologies, theirs and ours. Confronting this plague of racism that has persisted for centuries has spilled out into the open, and we can not refuse to update our strategy conducive to meaningful change.

There was civil unrest under the previous administration as clashes of ideology and practice, but that most certainly seems not to be the case with the Biden-Harris administration, so why would the method of protest be the same for friend and foe. They deserve a chance to benefit us from the highest levels as they have pledged without being encumbered by behavior that undermines their efforts or strengthens the opposition.

By demonstrating their actions and those appointed by them, they have demonstrated more willingness toward fairness than we have been recently accustomed to. So let us do our business while they do their business unencumbered by each other and in support and coordination towards a just objective.

We can use all the help we can get and can not afford to squander our allies or resources by our emotional behavior or lack of logical strategy. So many of these protests are in response to the loss of life of individuals whose family gets constantly bombarded with reminders of their loss. They deserve closure and resolution reflective of the pain they endure and provide the progress that can be the only thing to minimize their loss and provide some degree of comfort.

So first and foremost, let us not get too wrapped up in our anger to exacerbate their pain without honoring the progression needed as a result of THEIR loss. We must embrace their wellbeing and make sure they are provided for while we claim our actions are on their behalf without honoring their wishes or embracing their condition.

Remember, it is about their families and protest, collectively, not us individually releasing anger. We must remain diligently respectful of their loss. United, we stand erect consolidated in purpose and with the integrity of our convictions to demonstrate that which we demand.

The teachings of Sun Tzu or the Five Rings present conceptual tactics of principle and concept. The study of Hannibal from Carthage and Shaka Zulu reveals helpful strategic maneuvering of resources, innovation, and positioning. These learnings are military tactics that will prove effective in a civilian application of protest.

War tactics applied to peaceful thought processes guiding social movements whose ideology is adapted to reflect the logical application of their concepts not to create war but to create evolution and progression. They are designed to minimize conflict and self-inflicted collateral damage while ensuring success in overcoming obstacles by a coalition of consensus.

The question is will we put an end to some of this nonsense or wait for others who have less incentive? But, again, the perspective of tactical protest is wisest, not demonstrations of emotional outbursts.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

 

 

 

 

Posted on by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Diluted Justice and Pure Morality



Judgement Day- Home Team always Win 

Justice and Morality are as old as civilization and communal survival aiding in the coexistence of different norms. They often are confused with each other because both are sometimes present at the same time. They are really just both agreed-upon social norms that provide society’s guidelines and govern the restrictions of its members.

Justice aspires to punish wrongful acts and distribute fairness ethically. However, morality is more concerned with good or bad and right or wrong in principle. The question then becomes who sets the standard and how binding it is for all to follow or submit to as an arbitrarily accepted social standard.

They are really close in definition but not in practice, application, or agreement. Under some circumstances, it remains the same and, in others, has an entirely other interpretation based on who is observing or practicing it. It can be virtuous over here while prudish over there.

The variations of each are endless and fluid, but some are consistent within a range or scope of understanding and, at times, baffling. A duality of the same condition by definition diluted is weakened in strength or lessened purity while pure is unadulterated or without dilution or contamination.

Let’s get to the point without any emotional blinders or folks head jumping time over concepts that their mind or experiences refuse to give allowance for to understand that their adherence to the home team undermines the strength and clarity of their assertions and positions.

It is more of a reflection of where your feet are and the conditioned or adopted perspective that results from a liberal or conservative application of your reality to impose your truth upon others. Liberals generally live and let live while conservatives hold tight to adherence and dissemination of their perspectives upon others. It is many times a cognitive dissonance ignoring the discord between philosophy and application.

In actuality, neither can be an absolute truth. Still, justice and morality can be a more inclusive comprehensive display of the virtue and veracity of your perspective that separates yours from opposing ones but strangely enough align them on common ground.

If we are outraged by attacks on the police, then we should be equally outrage by attacks on civilians by the police. If we are outraged by the police killing black and brown, we have to be outraged by black and brown killing each other. The blade cuts both ways with integrity as the dividing denominator.

When your politician or political party has been in lockstep with racist or divisive rhetoric for many, and you have fully or partially embraced that, then you dilute your hypocritical view that someone else is supporting division by their words or actions.

You cannot be silent when it is the home team and criticize the opposition for the same or similar things. You see, this is where the justice becomes diluted and the Morality less than pure. When you set the table and prepare the meal, you lose credibility to complain and deny your transgressions while bemoaning others.

The caterpillar’s knowledge is defined by the confines of its cocoon, unable to see beyond its perspective or limitations. The butterfly is transformed by expanding and shedding its limited existence to a sphere of expanded consciousness and possibilities.

The human perspective and experience are much the same in a micro or macrocosm of reality as you expand outward from your cocoon of a singular view towards a transformative multi-sensory one. It reflects the contemporary evolution of thought and perspective that is the adaptation of survival in a larger cocoon or radius of understanding.

There is a distinct difference between compromise and being compromised, between concession and surrender. If a majority sets justice and Morality as a social norm, then it would stand to reason the same dynamic should be used to change it in the adaption of a different standard.

Look at domestic violence and its acceptability that traumatized generations of women and children, once a social norm and even encouraged. Its acceptability has run its course, and while it is still a reality, it is condemned for the despicable act of self-hatred projected outwardly victimizing vulnerable targets masquerading your cowardly inadequacies and lack of self-control as dominance.

The same is valid with these moral judgments and racial prejudices on who do not deserve the same considerations as you because, in all your righteousness, their culture is not yours. Most people’s fortune or misfortune is simply a matter of to whom and where they were born.

It was not their choice of who, when, where, what culture, advantages, or disadvantages they were born into. It was not your choice what education, principles, or demons your parents struggled with or suffered from. There are times when it is not even yours regarding yourself, but even if born in the lowlands, you can scale the peak.

It is a mix and match, but there are plenty that we claim credit for that was the pure luck of the draw, a sort of social genetics. Be careful of judgments and values we place on others because of despair for our challenges or lack of gratitude for our blessings.

The pandemic should have taught us all something about how our circumstances can change overnight through no fault of our own to find ourselves in a food line, business or career obliterated, or the shoes tight and the purse-string light. Comparisons are always dangerous and usually an exercise in subjective status in a derogatory manner.

It gets real really fast when we become them, and these are the shoes we now walk in, or we ride in the struggle buggy for the first time. So it is all the same application to a different situation. So when we judge by a certain measure, we must make sure we do not fall short of being judged by the same measure. So when your words condemn others, make sure your actions don’t condemn yourself.

It would only stand to reason that to protest for social justice, against systemic racism, and denounce racial inequality are absolute legit demands. Still, we must also flip the coin and hold ourselves to a level of accountability that does not dilute the integrity of our demands or promote the impurity of other’s morality.

We must handle our end of the table, which we have control over. We control our spoon while we must cajole others into managing theirs. That within our power, we must grab holt of and correct while continuing to demand our humanity from others but let’s also require and demonstrate that ourselves.

They are two different things but closely related, and I believe interdependent upon each other. I trust that the better we treat ourselves and each other, the more our internal communal dynamics will improve with or without external help.

The dreaded talk that black and brown parents have with our children needs to expand beyond the usual topics to include their behavior and ours. We can only hope that white families have a dreaded talk with their children beyond the sphere of their cocoon.

The same criteria applied to Chauvin and many other cases of excessive use of force by police must be applied to the senseless excessive use of force by us against us in our communities which is equally terrifying and on a larger scale.

We cannot allow ourselves to be numb to the conditions in our midst that are claiming so many of our people, especially our young people. It reminds me of the saying that even if you have old tattered clothes, they should still be clean clothes.

If this is where we start and is all we got, then we have to make the best of it, and it will bear crop in the harvest season with cultivation, patience, and time. The struggle is real out there but also within here. If we suffer the most, then we need to find solutions for our generational provisions and safety.

We need change, theirs and ours. By whoever it applies, each taking their transgressions out of the equation or conversation of social dysfunction. Let’s give them something else to talk about, whoever they are. Peace, prosperity, and wisdom to the people that justice and morality will become less subjective to emotions and perspectives but aligned with unwavering integrity, progress, and resolve.

With that said, let me ask a question if the prevailing racial strife and circumstance had different parties inserted, then would it change the perception, or would the same hold true.

For example, insert black, gang bangers, or opps instead of the police within the situations mentioned playing out in the inner cities across too much of this country. Would that not be just as unacceptable and disgraceful, maybe even more so because it would be us doing it to us. Injustice or murder should not change according to who and where it is done.

The expectations have to be condemnation even when committed by us if the anticipation is for accountability for actions. It should not be judged by who is doing it but by what is being done. Then it would stand to reason that our outrage has to be focused on the act and the perpetrator, or at some point, our validity and impact diminishes of demanding better.

It is the parable of the goose and the gander; it should be the same with different players and with the same standard applied. Consider how many black lives would be saved if the two scenarios met in the middle and were lessened, but we control our communities.

Protest is cool against the system but let’s play our position on the opposite end to display love, patience, and change. The change demanded from others; we must demand from ourselves and reframe from that which alibis police use of force and irregularities. 

It will not eliminate their behavior, but it will lessen our contribution to it, making it evident and irrefutable to any misconduct. Some changes we seek without must be the change we are willing to create within. Giving no concession to inequality by keeping our knees straight, our backs unbent, our character intact, and our perseverance soaring in pursuit of our humanity and pure justice from a diluted morality.

We are not victims or survivors; we are warriors in pursuit of our humanity armed with intellect and integrity that does not require anyone’s permission. The resolution resides in time and commitment now so that the following generations can shed the disparaging and condescending cloaks of racial biases and economic gloom.

A strong ten-year commitment followed by another ten-year cultivation period will make tremendous permanent strides like the mighty oak, which grows into its strength over time. The seeds are the children raised to know no other way, feel no other way, or accept no other way because you can only feel inferiority if it resides in you.

Racism’s historical ramifications must be exposed, adjudicated, and conquered, but being a resilient people, it is not preventive of our ascension and perseverance. It can only be if we allow it to be; it is the victim mindset of despair and submission every time we ask for permission.

Therefore, just as we band together to protest against these evils, let us collaborate to establish our humanity adhering to our own social norms, which embrace each other.

If freedom is free, then we are free to frame our destiny. Enforcing justice and morality in our communities, creating social norms more in line with our integrity, desires, and prosperity can be done by us to better police ourselves.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

 

Posted on by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0