On President Trump, From A Heartbroken Christian

Posted on November 10, 2016 by theboeskool

Forgive me for not writing sooner. It has been a hard couple days. And since it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier, I might as well give it a try…

For me, my support of Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate was never really about some misplaced hope that she was going to be a leader who somehow “saved” our country in some way. Honestly, it was mostly about limiting harm. I supported her because I felt like she–of the two candidates who actually had a chance at winning–was the better choice for a person like myself… One who believes that supporting and standing in solidarity with vulnerable and oppressed populations as a spiritual practice is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. My firm belief is that our kids get this truth better than we do, and slowly–as bigoted people get old and die–the people of the world get closer to loving their neighbors… Closer to being able to love like Jesus… Closer to being able to see the humanity and divinity and inherent worth in all people… Closer to this thing called “the Kingdom of God.” But, like many of you, I am very impatient. Beneath the stages of grief inside of me, there is a very deep “HOW LONG, OH LORD?” welling up inside of me.

So listen–I can’t put it all together right now, but here are seven things on my mind during this difficult time… As many of us struggle with the question, “Now what?”

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Image of God, image of God, image of God, image of God…

1) I hate how much I hate right now. It is really hard for me to deal with this. I usually expect people to be generally good. I don’t like feeling suspicious. I am a person who believes in an Enemy-Loving God. It is not at all impressive or out of the ordinary for people to love those whom they find easy to love. What IS impressive–and, I believe, transformational–is when people love the ones who are directly against them. I am doing a terrible job with this right now. At this point in my life, it is easy for me to love the Muslim and the queer and the immigrant and the persons of color and the poor and the stepped on and the expendables. But I read the posts of people calling themselves “Christians,” and I find very little grace inside myself. I am filled with anger. And sadness. And a dehumanizing revulsion for people I know are made in the image of God. I’m ashamed of how readily I feel this, even as I write this sentence. I have identified my enemy. It is the sort of person who uses their Christianity to defend hatred and racism and bigotry and sexism and selfishness and greed… the sort of person who defends their support of policies and leaders who install systems which reinforce ideals that are anti-Jesus in every way. And I cannot–for the life of me–figure out how to love them. But I know that’s the only way forward.  I suppose we call out hypocrisy when we see it, we stand lovingly with the ones being harmed, we remind ourselves as often as possible that our enemies are image-bearers of a God who loves them with an infinitely love, and we remember when we were stupid too. And we stay hopeful… Even when it seems crazy and pointless.

2) Separating the Christians from the “Christianists.” We need to figure out a way to distinguish between the sort of Christian who stands with the powerless and oppressed, and the ones who claim that term who use their “Christianity” as a means to some sort of power grab. I like the term “Christianist.” The word “Evangelical” is just irredeemable now. It’s never coming back. 81% of white Evangelicals voted for Trump. My preference would be to keep using the word “Christian,” because I truly believe this is what Jesus was about, and I don’t want it to be so easy for “Christianists” to dismiss us. People say that religion and politics don’t mix, but my belief in standing with “The Other” is a direct result of my spirituality, and that belief has political implications. I don’t believe that we’re all getting out of here soon in some giant rapture… We are responsible for making this place better. We are in change of taking care of the planet. We are our brother’s keeper. We are agents of change, and our hearts cry out for justice. We work with God at establishing equity and human rights for ALL people, and we make the valleys high and the mountains low. These things are inherently political… And if people calling themselves “Christians” stand against them, I will gladly stand with any Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist, or Atheist  AGAINST the Christianists. But really… Honestly–Whatever… Keep the name “Christian” if you want. Keep the buildings. Keep it all… Just know that I am different than you.

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The poor are moochers.

3) I hate to tell you this, but God is not in control. People are posting things like, “Don’t freak out… God’s got this.” No. God doesn’t “got this.” This is the mentality of people 3000 years ago who believed that when it didn’t rain, it was because “God was angry,” and it is the mentality of people who believe that God gives people cancer to “teach them something.” It is the heresy of “Everything happens for a reason,” and it turns God into a monster. It is Miracle Gro For Atheists. Everything that happens is not God’s “will.” Stop saying crap like that. Don’t put this on God… This shit is on US. And speaking of which…

4) Trump’s election was not the fault of People of Color not voting. A while ago, I almost wrote a blog post titled “Dear People Of Color: Please Save Us From Donald Trump.” But I didn’t. Because creating the foundation of white supremacy that makes a candidate like Donald Trump able to get elected, and then begging POCs to save us from the monster we created… That’s just gross. The reason we have a “President Elect Trump” is NOT because brown people didn’t vote… It’s because white people did. Here’s what that looked like:

It’s not your fault. It’s our fault. And I am so very sorry. Yesterday, I was trying to make a left hand turn by a median, and another car (turning the other way) pulled in front of me, making it impossible for me to complete my turn until he made his turn. When this happened, I shook my head in an “I’m disappointed in you” sort of way. The car had tinted windows, so I couldn’t see inside… But shortly after my disappointed head shake, the window came down to reveal a brown hand flipping me off. I must have looked like I missed it, because a moment later, it came down again–this time he made sure I could see his face as he flipped me the bird. And I was just like, “Yeah, man… I get it. Right now, I’m not a big fan of people who look like me either.” And for white people like me, who thought this man’s election was “unbelievable,” it’s not. It’s very believable. What is unbelievable is the extent of our ignorance to the reality of racism in America. Which leads to this cold reality…

5) This election was a victory for White Supremacy. It’s as simple as that. All of this opposition to “political correctness,” all of this anger against “Social Justice Warriors” and people who play the “Race Card,” all of this fragility to being called a racist and a bigot just because you support a candidate who is a racist and a bigot… It is all just a thinly-disguised strategy for normalizing white supremacy. Just like normalizing Donald Trump is normalizing the white supremacy and sexism and xenophobia and Islamophobia and bigotry that keeps the power and privilege in the hands of white men. And it emboldens the people who are very angry that they can feel their privilege slipping away with every brown face they see. And this emboldened bigotry has consequences:

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There are stories of emboldened racism coming in from all over the place. Suddenly, “Go back where you came from” is not as out of fashion as it used to be. I shared a story of a young black woman who lives in a predominantly white community who encountered a woman who said, “Now that Trump will be president, we can get the nigger out of the neighborhood!” These things have real consequences. And right now, people are gloating. But to everyone gloating: You’re celebrating with the KKK. Congrats! Also…

 

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“Jesus is only a hero because he was crucified… I like heroes who WEREN’T crucified.”

6) The majority vote is what got Jesus crucified. There’s a story in the Bible about a supposed custom during a certain festival where the governor would release one prisoner to the people. Pilate asked the people whether they wanted him to release a dangerous criminal named Barabbus, or whether they wanted to release Jesus… Whom Pilate knew was innocent. The people voted for Barabbus. The passage says the people “acted in their own interest.” Now, I’m not calling Hillary Clinton Jesus–not by a long shot–but there are certainly some parallels here. This is democracy in action. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. Sometimes, when the ones voting are angry and acting out of self-interest, bad stuff happens. But it’s the best system we’ve got. And let’s be real… The reason this election is a big deal is because there are actually a lot of white people who are upset about Trump’s presidency. If it were just black folks who were angry, there wouldn’t be nearly as much noise… Because our privilege amplifies our white voices. And if you’re like me, and you feel way outnumbered by dip shits too, and you feel like your voice isn’t being heard–Congratulations! You have just a very small taste of what it feels like to be a minority. Now go use every bit of your privilege and voice to help those who don’t have either. Which leads me to my last one. Most importantly…

7) There is work to do. There is so much work to do. And here is something true and good:

If you call out racism or sexism or bigotry or any of these “ISMs” and “phobias” that are powered by white supremacy, chances are really good you will trigger people’s defenses. They will credit your speaking up to “political correctness” instead of an appeal to human decency. Keep speaking up. They will treat your ideals of a standard of kindness like it is a punchline to some demented joke. Keep speaking up. We need to do better. Cry. Mourn. Grieve. But don’t give up. Find a way to love. Remember a time you were wrong. Forgive people… Not for them, but because it sets you free. Find someone who feels extra vulnerable and unsafe right now, and give them a hug. Tell them you love them. And for God’s sake, keep speaking up. Not because you have any hope of changing them–Because there are children watching. Here is a glimmer of hope: This is how the future voted…

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And as our kids see us speaking up, they instinctively know right from wrong. They will see bravery, and they will gravitate toward it. They will hear our rationality, and it will resonate with their own deep sense of goodness. And before long, the ones who voted for this man will have gotten old and died. And our children–as they often are–will be better than we were at understanding and defending and loving the people who are different than us. And slowly… Sometimes so slowly and imperceptibly it makes me cry while I type words on my computer… Slowly, the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice… And slowly, even now, this world is being transformed into the Kingdom of God.

I have a family. I’d love to be able to support them by writing. Someday, that might be a reality, but in the meantime, every little bit of your support helps. If you value my writing and this blog, and you’d like to be a Patron and give a few dollars a month, you can do that RIGHT HERE. If you’d like to leave a tip or “boost” a post on Facebook, you can give on PAYPAL. These things help so much. What also helps is this: When you connect with something–whether it’s something I’ve written, or something someone else has written–SHARE IT. Share it on Facebook. Share it on Twitter. Don’t be afraid to rattle the cage a bit. Conflict can be uncomfortable and messy, but, again… There are children watching. Show them how to say something when saying something isn’t easy. Disfunction attempts to make speaking up so uncomfortable that people don’t say anything… And when people don’t speak up, things don’t change. And there are some things that really need to change. Be better than disfunction. Be brave. 

 

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

I Was Relieved To Find Out The Des Moines Shooter Looked Like Me

Posted on November 4, 2016 by theboeskool

Whenever there is yet another mass shooting in this country, there is this period of time–the time AFTER the news of the shooting breaks, but BEFORE the announcement of the description of the shooter–where I feel this deep sense of uneasiness. I felt that feeling again recently as news broke of two police officers in two different locations near Des Moines, Iowa who were shot down and murdered as they sat in their cars. I mean, there are all sorts of things that go through my head when I hear news like this: I think of the officer’s families, I think about other officers on duty with someone walking around targeting cops, I think of the insanity that is our gun laws… But one of the first things I think about is wondering what the person doing the killing LOOKS like. After hearing about this shooting, I thought, “Please, don’t let this person be a black man claiming some sort of connection to the Black Lives Matter movement.” And I thought, “Dear God, don’t let the shooter have a Muslim-sounding name.” So it came as somewhat of a relief when I heard that the suspect they had in custody was named Scott Michael Greene, and he looked like this:

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Looks like me… Only I’m way more bald, handsome, and happy. And way less murdery.

Consider that for a moment. I was relived that the shooter was a white man–Well, he IS a white man. Strange how we seem a lot less likely to need to use the past tense when the shooters are white… For some reason, they always manage to bring them in alive–Even when they are KNOWN to be armed and dangerous–Even when they have killed multiple people–the authorities bring them in alive, and give them a nice, fair trial. But somehow, black folks pulled over for a broken taillight keep getting killed for reaching for their wallets a little too fast. Anyway, the shooter IS a white man. He is just a bit older than me. We both have beards. Man, even our BEARDS are similar… We both have some reddish color, and we both have a little bit of grey in the chin. And they didn’t mention it, but I’d be willing to bet this guy identifies as a Christian. And even with all those similarities, I didn’t even CONSIDER the possibility that people might look at me differently because I look like this killer: White guy, in his 40’s, Christian, reddish beard with grey in the chin. Now THAT’S privilege.

Relieved. That’s how I felt. I didn’t want the tragic murders of these men to be fuel for ignorant people to have even more of a reason to hate people who are different than them. But a lot of people jumped the gun, and started blaming Black Lives Matter as soon as the news came out that these officers had been shot.

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But, of course, it wasn’t a Black Lives Matter protester. It was a person fitting the description of the vast majority of mass shooters in the country: A person who looks like me. White. And male.

Imagine–JUST IMAGINE–the reaction that there would have been if the killer’s name had been TYRELL Michael Green… EVERY black man and woman would have paid the price  for these killings in some way. And even though one of the few things all Black Lives Matter groups share is a commitment to non-violence, I want you to IMAGINE the reaction if the killer had claimed to do what he did in the name of BLM. There would be talk of WAR. Or if someone claimed this killing had something to do with Islam, how many people would just file this away as “proof” that Islam is a religion focused on killing people, instead of a religion of peace?

But when the killer is a white guy, we don’t make those kinds of leaps… We just assume he must be “mentally ill.” When the killer claims to be a Christian, we don’t start accusing Christianity of not being a “religion of peace,” or talking about putting “a moratorium” on anymore Christians entering the country… We just assume he’s not a “real Christian.” That’s one of the perks of being white in America: When a criminal looks like you, he’s a “lone wolf,” but when he looks like “them,” he’s proof that your fears and prejudices are warranted.

A couple weeks before Scott Michael Greene decided to murder two separate police officers as they sat in their cars, he had a run in with two other officers. He was upset when he heard that some local high school football players were taking a knee during the national anthem, so he went to a game and started waving around a confederate flag. He was asked to leave by school officials, and when police got involved, he got out his phone and took this video… saying they were infringing his 1st Amendment rights. Watch it here:

Now that he has been identified as the shooter, his video is now peppered with over 1000 angry comments, but if you go down far enough in the comments, Greene himself writes about why he was upset. Here is a screen capture of his comments:

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Just in case you’re reading this on your cell phone and that print is too small, he wrote, “I was offended by the blacks sitting through our anthem. Thousands more whites fought and died for their freedom.” Then, a week before killing two cops as they sat in their cars, he wrote, “However this is not about the Armed forces, they are cop haters”  (On a side note, I’ll give you one guess as to who Scott Michael Greene was supporting in this election… As well as every Twitter account but one who prematurely and FALSELY claimed that these murders were committed by someone with ties to Black Lives Matter). And here we are, only two days removed from the ambush killings of two white police officers, and the story is already fading from the headlines. But I guarantee you this story wouldn’t fade so fast if a black man had killed those officers. You’d see his black face on every news channel. And they would mine every bit of his social media presence to find even a HINT of racial anger… And then racist people everywhere–already upset over Beyoncé singing on the CMA Awards–would fan the flames of anger and fear, and allude to a “race war.” But never mind, never mind… It wasn’t racial–It was a WHITE guy, right? He was probably just crazy. Cue talking points about mental health, needing more “law & order,” “guns don’t kill people–people kill people,” etc…

But this WAS racial. It was a racist, confederate flag waving man, who has had MANY run ins with law enforcement, was known to call people “niggers,” who was upset about “the blacks” not standing for the anthem, and then very angered that some white police officers made him and his confederate flag leave the football game. Angry enough to kill people, it seems…

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Like Hope, only awful…

Here’s the thing: If you want to be afraid of someone, stop making it about what they look like, and consider what they believe. The real danger is an ideology of “Do things my way, or else.” And this is the main reason Trump supporters scare the actual hell out of me. It’s not because I need a “safe space” or “trigger warnings.” It’s because they tend toward “Authoritarianism,” which is the belief that we need to enforce strict obedience to authority–especially that of the government–at the expense of personal freedom. They follow a man who idolizes Vladimir Putin, who intimidates, imprisons, and kills people who are critical of him. They follow a man who wants to make it easier to sue the press if they write something he doesn’t like. They follow a man who encourages people at his rallies to “knock the crap” out of protesters, and offers to pay for their legal fees. They follow a man who hints at “second amendment people” taking care of Hillary Clinton. They follow a man who claims that the election is rigged and the polls are fake when his numbers are down, but has no problem with those numbers when they show him gaining. And all it takes is a little bit of stupid to transfer that kind of rhetoric into actions like this Trump supporter who planned a mass shooting at a Mosque. Or the actions of these Trump supporters who are doing arms training in their militias for how to fight back if Hillary becomes president. Or the actions of a Trump supporter like Scott Michael Greene.

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Deplorable is as deplorable does.

Here is something true: The kind of people who wanted the murderer of those two cops to be a black man or a Muslim are the kind of people who are voting for Trump. The kind of people who were relieved that the killer WASN’T a black man or a Muslim are the kind of people who are revolted and terrified by the idea of a person like Trump in a position of power. If you are a person like me–drenched in privilege–you can either use that privilege to gain more power and keep others down, or you can use that privilege to help the people who don’t have your advantages… Which kind of person are you?

Vote. Vote, vote, vote, vote, VOTE!!! Don’t get discouraged. Don’t get despondent. Don’t get depressed. VOTE! If you feel yourself getting angry, let it turn into fuel that you spend on doing what you can to help. If you (like me) are so tired of sounding like a broken record, remind yourself that there are only four more days. Do not be so overcome with sadness that you don’t take a stand against this awful, awful man. And then, whatever happens after November 8th, there is going to be so much work to do either way. All over the world, there is a rise in authoritarianism. In Russia, with the Brexit vote, in Turkey with them jailing thousands of teachers, professors, and journalists… If America is worth a shit, it must stand against it. Trump’s overt channeling of anger against journalists is SO DANGEROUS. It is not an exaggeration to say that if we allow a leader like Trump, something like this blog might soon get me thrown in jail. VOTE! Take your friends to vote! Don’t give up!!!

Also, just in case: Twitter, Facebook, or Support Me.

Posted in 2) Politics, 5) Not Quite Sure | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Hillary Clinton and the Bitchy PTA Mom

Posted on November 2, 2016 by theboeskool

I was thinking tonight about how insufferably bitchy a lot of PTA Moms can be… with their annoyingly pushy Type A personalities, and their in-your-face way of saying what’s on their minds, and their incessant “expectations of excellence.” Ugh, right? They’re always working hard enough that it makes you feel a little bit guilty for you NOT working that hard. And they always seem to be in a little bit of a hurry, and a little bit pissed off… Probably mostly because other people aren’t working as hard as them. I know this sort of mom very well… I’m married to one of them.

But I’ve known her type for a long time. I was a kid to whom most things came fairly easy. I never had to try very hard to get by. And somewhere along the way, “not trying very hard” became part of who I am. All I had to do was just sit and listen in class, and–without taking a note, without ever taking a book home–I could manage to pull off a straight B+ average. But every once in a while, there would be something we HAD to study for… And you know who I DIDN’T ask to borrow their notes? Guys. Mostly because the majority of them didn’t take notes either, and the ones who did took notes that looked like a toddler ate a bunch of pencil lead and threw up on a paper. But there were MANY girls who took notes. Girls did their homework. THEY were the ones you wanted in your group when you did a group project… God only knows what kind of a shit show of a project would have gotten turned in if there was a group filled with a bunch of little jack asses like me.

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When it came time for needing notes, there were some girls who we knew not to ask. They always seemed to get a little “bitchy” about handing over their hard work to a slacker like me. But I could always find at least one. I’d be charming. Or funny. I’d spread it around, so it didn’t seem like I was taking advantage… You know what? The more I think about it, maybe things DIDN’T come that easily to me. Maybe I wasn’t as naturally smart as I thought I was…  Maybe I’ve just been riding the wave of my privilege so long that it started to feel like natural ability… Maybe I just had some really hard-working females around me who helped me out.

Or a mom who worked as hard as hell to make sure that I had everything I needed… While my Dad didn’t pay his child support, and slowly killed himself with drugs and alcohol. Fuck.

But yeah… My wife is one of those Bitchy PTA Moms. Right now, she is sitting in her office (our converted dining room, whose floor is covered with every manner of God-knows-what that she uses to make sure our kids’ lives are filled with every kind of excellence they wouldn’t receive if I was their only parent), and do you know what she is doing? She is putting hours and hours of work into working on the program for the play that our oldest daughter is going to be in. She is doing this while she has other work piling up from her photography business. Earlier today, she drove some girls on the middle school soccer team to their game after school. This weekend, she spent time making amazingly creative Halloween costumes for our kids–something she does every freaking year. Later this week, she will go to our youngest’s school, and she will spend her time packing food for hungry kids to take home for the backpack program that SHE STARTED… Because kids who are hungry don’t learn very well. Sometimes she has help, and sometimes she doesn’t. But guess what… That shit ALWAYS gets done.

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This is the kind of shit she does. Excellence. And she does it all by shopping at thrift stores…

Sometimes she can be a little abrasive. Sometimes there are some fireworks between her and the other Type A PTA Moms who specialize in getting shit done. All the other bitches. Because you know what those bitches do? They get shit done. They put together fundraisers that allow your kids to have nice things that the school system doesn’t pay for because we don’t want our taxes to go up $5 a year. So when someone inevitably complains about something not being right in this year’s program for the play, she might seem a little “bitchy” when she explains how the deadline for having it done was a month before the actual play, and things are bound to change between tonight and the performance. And she might seem a little “bitchy” when she gets in your face after you complain about how all the kids in our county get free lunches, but YOU probably aren’t working on making sure poor kids get the nourishment they need. And I might feel like complaining about buying organic-freaking-apples for the sack lunches we send our kids to school with instead of those garbage meals they feed them at school… But you know what? I think I’ll let it slide.

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Serious question… Who run this mother?

And there are a lot of people out there who say things like “Hillary Clinton just rubs me the wrong way.” Yeah. She rubs you the wrong way like that girl in high school who you KNEW not to ask for her notes. She rubs you the wrong way like the girl in the group project who called you out for not doing your fair share of the work. She rubs you the wrong way like the girl in college who didn’t laugh at your joke, because she didn’t think it was very funny. She rubs you the wrong way like that Nasty Woman at the office who is trying a little too hard to impress the boss with her hard work. She rubs you the wrong way like a “bitchy” PTA Mom who seems a little too uptight about everything being perfect… Or who doesn’t have time for your nonsense, because there is shit that has to get done. And it all gets done while enduring our male fragility. So instead of criticizing her “likability,” I’d prefer that you’d just say “Thank you” for that new computer in your kid’s classroom. You ass.

I leave you with perfection from Louis C.K. Please watch it. And you should probably also read this masterpiece. We need a Mom in the White House… Not a child.

I’m. With. Her.

Post Script: I promise I’m sick of this election too… It’s is genuinely hurting me. It is hurting my hope. It is hurting my faith in humanity. I see despicable actions, and I immediately assume the person doing them is a Trump supporter… Sometimes unfairly, sometimes not. The other day, a guy drew an ejaculating penis on a credit card slip and gave it to a young woman I work with at the restaurant (along with his number)… I hate that I was immediately certain that the sort of person who would do something brazenly offensive like this was the sort of person who would vote for Trump. I hate that if I see white supremacists or confederate flag flyers or people who hate Muslims or immigrants or queers, I automatically know who they are voting for. I see pictures of women wearing “Adorable Deplorable” T shirts, and I feel like giving up. I’m feeling depressed. I’ve maybe got one more blog post in me before the election. This man doesn’t need to just lose… He needs to lose BADLY. Please, PLEASE VOTE. Like Louis said, “If you vote for Hillary you’re a grown up, if you vote for Trump you’re a sucker, and if you don’t vote for anybody you’re an asshole.” I understand that there are reasons to not vote for Hillary… But there are NO good reasons to vote for Trump. 

Posted in 2) Politics, 3) Bathroom Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

An Innocent Man Has Been In Prison For 24 Years… You Can Help Him

Posted on October 22, 2016 by theboeskool

Imagine, for a moment, being falsely accused of a crime. A BIG crime… Murder. Imagine being 18 years old, and being arrested for a crime you didn’t commit. Imagine the prosecutor offering you a plea deal to possibly get you out of prison in 25 years or so if you just admit to killing a man you didn’t kill, but telling you that if you plead Not Guilty, you’ll go to prison for the rest of your life. Imagine being a poor, black kid who can’t afford a good lawyer… so you get assigned a public defender who is working on his first murder case. Imagine thinking that there’s no way you could be found guilty for something you didn’t do… And then, as the trial goes one, being not so sure. And then imagine hearing that word… “Guilty.” Followed by a word which–until that moment–had always been a word you had loved… “Life.”

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This is Cyrus Wilson and his family.

For a man named CYRUS WILSON, this situation was not at all imaginary. It happened… And it is STILL happening, as 24 years later, he is still sitting in a prison cell for a crime he didn’t commit. Here is the timeline of the case:

July 20, 1992–Cyrus Wilson is robbed at gunpoint by Christopher “Crip” Luckett. His car is stolen and stripped of its rims, tires, and stereo. Cyrus tells a police officer about the robbery, but is told that since he is a minor, he can’t press charges. His mother doesn’t press charges either. After the car was found a few days later, it was towed to his aunt’s house in North Nashville… Inoperable. It never got fixed.

September 15, 1992–The body of Christopher Luckett is found near the Edgehill housing projects in South Nashville under a chainlink fence, shot in the face with a shotgun. Police question juveniles in the area, and Rodriguez Lee (who was 16 at the time) gives them conflicting testimonies. He says that he saw Cryus and his best friend Benji pull up in Cyrus’ car, pull a shotgun out of his trunk, and chase down and kill “Crip” Luckett… Despite the fact that Cyrus’ car was unable to be driven… And despite the fact that Benji was in a Juvenile Detention Center on the night of the murder. Even though the detectives realized Rodriguez Lee’s story couldn’t possibly have been true, they continued focusing their investigation on Cyrus because of what happened with Luckett stealing his car.

When they interviewed Lee later, this time he said he was with Cyrus and Rashime Williams (Cyrus’ 17 year old cousin), and they chased Luckett down together, and that Cyrus was the one who killed him. Rashime is pressured into testifying against his cousin under fear of going to prison himself. You can read many more details RIGHT HERE.

September 18, 1992–Five days after his 18th birthday, Cyrus Wilson is arrested for criminal homicide. He waives his right to have an attorney present during questioning, because he felt like he didn’t need one if he’s innocent. There is no forensic or scientific evidence against Cyrus, but they build a case based on the testimony of Rodriguez Lee, Rashime Williams, and a person named Marquis Harris, who testified that he witnessed the murder from a window at his house (even though it was later proven he could not have seen the crime scene from his window). Cyrus Wilson spends a year and a half in jail waiting for the trial to begin…

January 31, 1994–Cyrus Wilson’s trial begins. He is assigned a public defender, who is defending his first murder case. At the trial, Rodriguez Lee testifies that he never saw Cyrus on the night of the murder… They clear the courtroom, and the prosecuting attorney tells him that he is close to perjuring himself. When the jury returns, Lee returns to the agreed-upon story of seeing Cyrus shoot Luckett with a shotgun he was given by Lee.

February 1, 1994–Cyrus Wilson is sentenced to life in prison. He is still there today. He has always maintained his innocence…

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Imagine this was your brother… Your father… Your friend.

And even though the trial ended, the quest for justice has not. In 2008, Wilson’s family got their hands on a signed note written by the prosecuting attorney that admitted to the fact that the witnesses were unreliable. It said, “Good case but for most of Ws (shorthand for witnesses) are juveniles who have already lied repeatedly.” The family tried to use the note to get Cyrus a new trial, but in 2012 the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the note wasn’t admissible as evidence, and wasn’t enough to grant him a new trial. After that ruling, both Rodriguez Lee AND Rashime Williams have signed sworn affidavits saying that they lied in their testimony about Cyrus Wilson. You can see copies of their affidavits HERE. In addition, Marquis Harris wrote a letter to the family apologizing for his role in Cyrus Wilson’s wrongful conviction. To top it all off, a forensic scientist has testified and found that the shotgun shells found at the scene of the murder DO NOT match the ballistics of the shotgun to which Cyrus Wilson had access… Information that was not made available to the jury at the time of the trial. <–And that right there is a sentence that I want to end with about 100 exclamation points. You can see the forensic report RIGHT HERE.

So let me summarize:

  1. Cyrus Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison–with NO physical evidence connecting him to the murder other than the testimony of juveniles who had lied many times before, and whom the prosecuting attorney admitted were unreliable witnesses.
  2. Both of the main witnesses have signed sworn affidavits saying that they lied about their testimonies in the case, and that they were PRESSURED into testifying against Cyrus Wilson for fear of being blamed for the murders themselves.
  3. Ballistics tests on the shotgun shells found at the murder scene show conclusively that the shells were NOT fired from the shotgun to which Cyrus Wilson had access.
  4. Cyrus Wilson has been incarcerated for over 24 years of his life, convicted of a crime he did not commit.

If your reaction is anything like mine, you’re probably thinking, “There is no way… That can’t POSSIBLY be true!” That’s what I thought too, because we want to believe we are living in a just society. But our society is only as Just as we DEMAND that it be. If people want to argue that these facts don’t necessitate setting him free, fine… Argue that. But at least–AT THE VERY LEAST–these facts necessitate him getting a new trial.

So what can we do?

Please listen… If you’re anything like me, this election has left you with a renewed sense of how nearly impossible it is to change things. I have dreams of changing the world, but in reality I can’t even change the mind of some dip stick on Facebook who thinks that Snopes is part of a vast, liberal conspiracy. We can try to encourage people to vote for honest, competent people of integrity… But in the end, my vote counts the same as a vote of the lady who thinks that man-made global climate change is a lie invented by Obama and his Muslim friends to take our attention away from how vaccines cause autism. There are problems that are too big for any one of us to solve… Probably too big even for a whole lot of us working together to solve in one lifetime. We can work against systemic racism. We can struggle against sexism. We can speak up for equal rights. We can fight against the injustice of our criminal “justice” system. We can speak out against a broken and archaic religious theology that paints God as a monster who is going to have the vast majority of the human race tortured for all eternity. We can stand up for the rights of the poor, and aspire to end the drastic economic inequality in the world. But none of these problems are going away… At least not any time soon. 

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Cyrus and his daughter. You can help get an innocent man out of prison.

But here is one thing we CAN change: We can make a hell of a lot of noise about a man spending nearly a quarter of a century in prison for a crime he DIDN’T commit. I had never heard anything about this case before… until last week a friend mentioned it while talking with our Church about racism. And I’m betting most of you haven’t heard about it either. I called the office of Glenn Funk, the Davidson County District Attorney, to ask what they are doing about this clear injustice. A nice enough guy named Ken Whitehouse (who handles media relations) told me that they are reviewing a number of cases. I asked if there was any idea how long that process might take, and he said he didn’t know. I asked if public pressure had any effect on that process, and he assured me that they carefully review all the cases and that they don’t want an innocent man behind bars. I want to assume that is true, but if Cyrus Wilson has been wrongly imprisoned for his entire adult life, there is probably going to be a significant financial settlement involved in trying to make that right… And there are probably some pretty powerful people who don’t want that to happen. But I believe that if we make enough noise about this, it will be impossible for them to ignore any longer.

It is easy right now to let myself feel cynical and hopeless. But there is a man sitting in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He has a family. He has been there for 8800 days, and every extra day he spends in prison is one day WAY too many. So please–PLEASE help me spread the word. Share this post. If you are on Twitter, you can tag Glenn Funk () and demand that he reopen the case. Give the Davidson County D.A.‘s  office a telephone call. Their number is (615) 862-5500. Call them up and ask them how many days are too many for an innocent man to be sitting in a jail cell. People started a Change.org petition a couple years ago, but only 712 people signed it… I KNOW there are more than 712 people out there who care about an innocent man rotting away in Riverbend Prison for doing nothing more than being poor and black. Tell people about Cyrus Wilson’s story. Let it make you angry… and let that anger spur you into action. Share this. Like “FreeCyrusWilson” on Facebook. Make some noise. Especially if you live in Middle Tennessee, but even if you live in another state… We might not be able to change the world, but we can change the world for one person.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted in 2) Politics, 5) Not Quite Sure | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Trump Looked At A Little Girl And Said, “I’m Going To Be Dating Her In Ten Years.” Here’s The Video.

Posted on October 13, 2016 by theboeskool

Okay. Listen… This is just getting too ridiculous. They just released video of Donald Trump speaking to a little girl on an escalator. He says to the little girl, “Are you going to be going up the escalator?” She answers, “Yeah.” And he says, “I’m going to be dating her in ten years. Can you believe it?” Here is the video…

Now… I’m not going to tell you about how I have daughters myself… I’m not going to ask you to imagine him saying something like this to one of YOUR daughters… Or your sister… Or your whoever… You don’t need to be related to a young girl to understand that this sort of thing is inexcusable. It is gross on every level… Whether you know little girls, or not. Just listen to her voice… Listen to the sound of her saying “Yeah” to a 46 year old man, and then listen his response, and ask yourself: “What kind of man is this?” What kind of man says something like this to a little girl? In what universe is this funny?

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Little did young Kevin realize, the “Wet Bandits” were far from the most dangerous characters he would meet in his time spent Home Alone… Here we see Donald pointing to a really hot eleven-year-old he saw in the lobby.

Trump supporters: Seriously… It’s time to abandon ship. And here’s why: I guarantee you this is not as bad as it’s going to get. This is not the worst piece of audio that they are going to release… Not by a long shot. It’s going to keep coming, and you need to pull the rip cord earlier rather than later. I don’t care whether you call yourself a Christian or not… Abandon ship! It doesn’t take being a religious person to realize that this stuff is completely beyond the pale. It’s only going to get worse from here on out. Don’t be like Jerry Falwell, Jr. (pulling the BS “We’re all sinners” defense), trying to defend the indefensible, and ruining any chance of an honorable legacy. Be like the students and staff of Liberty University, who wrote this amazing letter:

“In the months since Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed him, Donald Trump has been inexorably associated with Liberty University. We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history. Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him.

A majority of Liberty students, faculty, and staff feel as we do. Donald Trump received a pitiful 90 votes from Liberty students in Virginia’s primary election, a colossal rejection of his campaign. Nevertheless, President Falwell eagerly uses his national platform to advocate for Donald Trump. While he occasionally clarifies that supporting Trump is not the official position of Liberty University, he knows it is his title of president of the largest Christian university in the world that gives him political credentials.

Associating any politician with Christianity is damaging to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But Donald Trump is not just any politician. He has made his name by maligning others and bragging about his sins. Not only is Donald Trump a bad candidate for president, he is actively promoting the very things that we as Christians ought to oppose.

A recently uncovered tape revealed his comments bragging about sexually assaulting women. Any faculty or staff member at Liberty would be terminated for such comments, and yet when Donald Trump makes them, President Falwell rushes eagerly to his defense – taking the name “Liberty University” with him. “We’re all sinners,” Falwell told the media, as if sexual assault is a shoulder-shrugging issue rather than an atrocity which plagues college campuses across America, including our own.

It is not enough to criticize these kinds of comments. We must make clear to the world that while everyone is a sinner and everyone can be forgiven, a man who constantly and proudly speaks evil does not deserve our support for the nation’s highest office.

Jesus tells a story in the Bible about a man who tries to remove a speck of dust from his brother’s eye, while he has a log stuck in his own. “You hypocrite,” Jesus says, “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

We Liberty students are often told to support Donald Trump because the other leading candidate is a bad option. Perhaps this is true. But the only candidate who is directly associated with Liberty University is Donald Trump.

Because our president has led the world to believe that Liberty University supports Donald Trump, we students must take it upon ourselves to make clear that Donald Trump is absolutely opposed to what we believe, and does not have our support.

We are not proclaiming our opposition to Donald Trump out of bitterness, but out of a desire to regain the integrity of our school. While our president Jerry Falwell Jr. tours the country championing the log in his eye, we want the world to know how many students oppose him. We don’t want to champion Donald Trump; we want only to be champions for Christ.”

It’s bizarre how one inexcusable, disqualifying scandal just gets kind of forgotten as news of the next inexcusable, disqualifying scandal comes out. It’s as if we can only handle one giant shit-show at a time… And suddenly, the “Grab her by the pussy” thing seems like it was a really long time ago. But it totally wasn’t… It was less than a week ago. And here we are, watching a video, and listening to the republican candidate for president make a comment sexualizing a little girl. Remember when you thought it was a really big deal that the pastor of Barack Obama’s church had said some controversial things in the past? Think back on that. Think about if a video like this one would have come out with Obama saying something like this. Imagine your reaction… And as you’re thinking about that,  also try to remember this very important bit of wisdom:

And yes, I realize that these particular events didn’t happen yesterday. Ten years is a long time. When Trump bragged to Billy Bush about being able to force himself on women and commit sexual assault because of his fame, he was only the spritely age of 59. And he was just a pup when he sexualized a little girl on an escalator–He was only 46! Barely old enough to know better. Some people believe that he has changed since then… Me? I’m not so sure. Common sense just tells me that the sort of human being who would say these sorts of things (not to mention the growing charges of sexual assault, as well as the child rape case against him) is not very likely to change… Especially at this late age. The guy who bragged about his daughter’s figure and said, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her” might just be showing his true colors. This one sentence should have been more than enough to keep this man as far away from the White House as possible. Just a reminder what that looked like…

Maybe this general grossness is why, when Donald went in for a kiss after the second debate, Tiffany treated him like a creeper at a bar…

But again, these videos are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s history of perversion. Wait until they start playing clips of his conversations with Howard Stern. The question is not whether or not Trump has any decency… We know the answer to that. The question is whether or not WE have any decency. Besides, people who do things like this NEVER CHANGE. 100% OF PERVERTS GO BACK TO THEIR WAYS. SADLY, THERE IS NO CURE. How I can I be so sure about this, you ask? Well, I guess I must have read it somewhere…

ABANDON. SHIP.

Do you love this blog? Is it something you value? You can support it by becoming a PATRON. You can leave a tip on PAYPAL (which, if you want to, you can designate to be used to “boost” a particular post on Facebook so more people see it and read it). You can share it with the people in your social media circles. Or you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I’m dead serious, though… We are better than Donald Trump.

Posted in 2) Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

This. Explains. Everything.

Posted on October 12, 2016 by theboeskool

I don’t know what I can write to get you to feel how passionately I believe what I’m about to tell you. If this is the first time you are reading something I’ve written, you have no real reason to believe me… But if you are reading something of mine for the second, third, tenth, hundredth time, I want to ask you a favor. Here it is: If I have ever written anything in the past that you have ever valued, trust me when I say this… You have GOT to watch the documentary titled “13TH.” It is on Netflix right now (you can stream it), and it is the most valuable, important documentary I have ever encountered with regards to understanding racism in America. Not just an “I hate black people” sort of racism, but the Racism that is at the heart of the SYSTEMS in this country. It deals with slavery, prison, government, and all the important history of how those things have shaped our world and our way of seeing things.

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I am not going to put up a bunch of statistics… Everything is in the film. I’m not going to try to retell what the makers of this documentary have said… It is perfect and powerful exactly as it is. I am simply begging you–BEGGING YOU–To watch this documentary. It is so good. So strong. So important to understanding this mess we find ourselves in. Some of you know I’m a Christian (please don’t hold that against me), but even as a Christian, if I had to choose one thing that every person in this country needed to do: Either 1) Read the Bible, or 2) Watch the documentary “13TH,” the choice would be easy. I would have us watch this documentary. I am completely and utterly serious.

And then, if you could, I need you to tell people about it. In some way, let the people in your life know how important you think this movie is. Use your voice to spread the word. The world needs to be educated about this. Every single person–every ethnicity and color–needs to see this film. Share this post, share a review, share how it made you feel… SHARE IT. And then, after you share it, look for a way to help. Show up. Give money to one of the groups that is working to educate people and fight against this cancer on our society. But please, Please, PLEASE!!!! Go to Netflix, search “13TH,” and watch it. If you don’t think it’s 100% WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF YOUR TIME, you can feel free to unfollow me and never pay attention to another word I say. I am staking my entire reputation on the worthwhileness of this film. PLEASE! Alright… You’ve wasted enough time reading this. Go watch it right now…

Posted in 5) Not Quite Sure | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Top 10 Excuses For Donald Trump’s “Locker Room Talk”

Posted on October 8, 2016 by theboeskool

Since the release of the video/audio of Donald talking with Billy Bush and bragging about sexually assaulting women, I have had an enjoyable time watching his supporters squirm while trying to excuse his inexcusable actions… All while defending their decision to still give him their votes. I have compiled some of the most popular excuses I’ve come across:

10) “She was asking for it.” Seriously though, did you see that dress? Besides, Melania said it was alright…

9) “At least he tells it like it is.” Unlike Hillary Clinton, that lying whore… It’s way better to be OPEN about being an awful person than it is to be a person who FAKES caring about kids as she tirelessly spends 40 years of her life falsely working in public service.

8) “Bill Clinton said a lot worse than that.” I know this one works, because my kids do it all the time. Me: “Son, why did you call your sister an idiot?” Son: “Bill Clinton called her a lot worse than that!” Works every time…

7) “That was a long time ago.” He was young and immature. What’s that? He was married to his third wife at the time, and already a 59 year old grandfather? Yeah, but eMails, and a private server, and [trails off, muttering something about a Blackberry]…

6) “If God didn’t want us grabbing women by the pussy, why did he shaped them to be so grabbable?” Blame God, not Donald. Actually, little known fact: The handle to the bathroom door in his master bedroom is solid gold woman’s vagina… I’m kidding, I’m kidding… It’s actually gold plated.

5) “We’re not electing a Pastor-In-Chief.” It seems this policy has changed since folks were making a case against voting for Barack Obama… Plus, ABORTION!

4) “Quit being so Politically Correct.” Political correctness is literally killing this country!

3) “Oh right… Like YOU never bragged to Billy Bush about being able to grab a woman by her pussy.” Come on, we’ve all been there…

2) “BENGHAZI!!!!” Someday in the future, when misled extremists on the “Christian Right” detonate their suicide vests, they will yell this word, unaware that Secretary Clinton was investigated almost 10 times (at great expense) over what happened in Benghazi, and yet the republican commissions who investigated found no wrongdoing whatsoever for her.

1) “That was before he was saved.” Also, didn’t Jesus say a little something about “the person who is without sin being one to cast the first stone?” Checkmate, bitches…

So there they are: The Top 10 Excuses for Donald’s latest embarrassment (by the way, I’ve decided to refer to him simply as “Donald.” He is nothing more than a fake last name, so “Donald” it is). Don’t worry, I’m sure people will have another chance to use these excuses over the next month or so… Whenever he says yet another thing that embarrasses our country around the world, and confuses the citizens of other countries as to why this buffoon even has a POSSIBILITY of winning the presidency. Listen, I don’t want to spend too much time defending Donald’s words. In the interest of equal time, here are Robert De Niro’s thoughts on the guy. **Spoiler Alert: He’s not a big fan.

https://video.vice.com/en_us/embed/57f835027a5f594018877374

I told myself I was only going to write a quick list and then go to bed, but I feel like I really need to say this last part:

The truly gross thing is not that he said the things he said… The REALLY gross part is that–for many of you–THIS is what it took for you to speak up and finally say this guy is a sleaze ball who does not deserve to be president. He’s been saying this shit all along… He’s just been saying it about people you don’t know. You didn’t feel compelled to speak up when he characterized Mexicans as rapists and criminals, and blamed them for our country’s economic woes? You didn’t feel compelled to speak up when he offered to pay the legal fees for people who beat up BlackLivesMatter protesters, or refused people entry to his rallies simply because they were black? You didn’t feel compelled to speak up when he suggesting killing the families of terrorists and suggesting keeping all Muslims out of the country?

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It was just “Locker Room Talk,” and he’s “sorry if you were offended.” Not sorry that he said it, mind you… Sorry if YOU were offended.

And now some people are all “I’ve got a mother,” “I’ve got a sister,” etc… Do you not know any Hispanics? Do you not know any black folks whose faces you can imagine his words affecting? Do you not have Muslim friends who you could imagine being kept out of America because of their religion? But NOW you’re mad?!? It shouldn’t take these “That could be my daughter/sister/mother” revelations in order for people to care enough to speak up. It wasn’t him talking about dating his daughter, it wasn’t him alluding to the size of his penis during a presidential debate, it wasn’t him accusing Obama of not being a “real citizen,” or any of the thousands of other horrible things he’s said. The fact that it took an audio recording of him bragging about sexually assaulting women, going after a married woman, and being able to grab a woman by her pussy if he wanted… If this was the level of grossness you had to see coming from Donald–the “straw that broke the camel’s back” of your conscience, if you will–then you’ve got yourself one truly messed up camel. 

But I suppose better late than never…

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“What can I say? I am who I am…”

If you love this blog and want to support it, you can. HERE and HERE. Otherwise, share it… Or I’ll grab you in the you-know-where. That’s right… Right in the conscience camel.

Posted in 2) Politics, 3) Bathroom Humor | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Christians Should Be Rooting For As Many Abortions As Possible

Posted on October 7, 2016 by theboeskool

Ah yes… ABORTION. That age-old issue that, for the past 40 years or so, has been able to galvanize “the Christian vote” behind politicians whose platforms–other than that one single issue–are about as wholly unChristian as platforms can get. It’s that one issue that allows evangelicals to somehow rationalize voting for people who demonize the poor, fan the flames of war, rationalize torture, close our borders to aliens and immigrants, and celebrate putting one’s own interests before the interests of the group as if it were some sort of virtue. And it doesn’t just “allow” them to vote for those anti-Jesus issues… Almost magically, abortion COMPELS evangelical voters to feel genuine guilt–as if they are sinning directly against The Almighty–if they DON’T vote for a candidate who is anti-poor, pro-war, pro-torture, anti-immigrant, and pro-“Me over We.” Abortion alone justifies the startling incongruity we see between what Christians profess to believe, and how Christians vote. And nowhere–and at no point in time–has this incongruity and hypocrisy been as evident and exaggerated as it is in this year’s presidential election.

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Genius from Nick Anderson.

Seriously though… The devil himself could call himself “Pro Life,” and most people calling themselves Christians would slap a “Beelzebub 2016” sticker on their cars.

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“There has to be some form of punishment.” ~ Donald Trump, speaking about women who get abortions

Here is the power of abortion to the Single-Issue Evangelical Voter: Just four short years after compromising their principles (the belief that Christians could only vote for other Christians) by voting for a Mormon, evangelical voters are already ignoring the right and moral pleas of that same Mormon, and deciding to vote for a man who is–by any estimation–about as far from Christ-like as any citizen this country could offer up. An imaginative and talented fiction writer would find it difficult to come up with a character more perfectly opposite to the person of Jesus than the actual person of Donald Trump… And yet Christians everywhere are planning on voting for him. People in the Christian Right have done such a complete 180 that they are now saying things like, “We’re not electing a Pastor-In-Chief… We’re electing a Commander-In-Chief.” With a straight face. This is the power of abortion.

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So very, very tragic… But at least Jacob is in Heaven, right?

So listen, Christian voters… I have a proposal for you. A “Modest Abortion Proposal,” if you will… Maybe you’ve been thinking about this the wrong way. Follow me here:

In your estimation, being a Christian is about “saving souls,” right? Our job–here on planet Earth–is to get as many souls into Heaven as possible, while also saving them from the endless torment of Hell. So let’s say it turns out that a fetus at six weeks IS, in fact, considered by God to be a fully-formed human being with an eternal soul… Let me ask you a question: What do you think happens to the souls of babies who get aborted? They couldn’t POSSIBLY get sent to burn in hell for all eternity, right? They’re innocent! Not even the god you’ve been sold (who sends the vast majority of the humans who have ever lived to be tortured forever) would be so awful as to send an aborted baby soul to hell. So really, worst-case scenario is that the aborted babies get to go to heaven and live in eternity with Jesus. That’s a pretty sweet deal! Streets of gold, and all that…

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Poor little disappointed babies, living forever in the eternal bliss of paradise…

But imagine if that baby was carried to term… What are the chances that baby grows up to be a person who makes it to Heaven? Like 1 in 100? That means that about 99 out of every 100 babies that are born are going to spend all of eternity getting tortured. Those are TERRIBLE odds! Think of all the different pitfalls for babies who are carried to term–They could go to the wrong church, they could believe the wrong things, they could go to a secular college, they could end up choosing to be gay, they could convert to Islam, they could vote democrat, they could get pregnant and end up getting an abortion… There are literally millions of things that could end up getting them sent to hell.

I mean, sure, we’ve also got to be concerned about the souls of the women getting the abortions… But think of it purely in terms of numbers. You have a 100% chance of the baby’s soul going to heaven, but if a woman decides to have an abortion, there is always the chance that she will repent of that action later, and then she gets to go to heaven too! So for two people–mother who carried to term and child–there is only about a 1% chance of each of them getting into heaven. But for two people–mother who aborted and the aborted baby–the chances of avoiding hell skyrocket to about 50% (100% for the baby, and 1% for the mother… Or higher! with the possibility of a death bed conversion). I like those odds! You’re still batting .500, and that kind of average would put just about anyone into the Soul-Saving Hall of Fame. Anyway, worst-case scenario is that justice is served and the abortionists are sent to hell. “Vengeance is mine, declares the Lord,” right? They’ll pay for their actions by being eternally tortured for 100 billion years with 100 trillion years after that… Right next to all those grown babies whose mothers selfishly decided to carry them to term and send 99% of them to burn in Hell.

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Get used to that fire, kid… Chances are really good you’re going to be seeing a whole lot more of it where you’re going…

So as you can clearly see, working toward forcing all women to carry their pregnancies to term–even in the cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger–is literally working toward filling the hot halls of hell with 49% more souls than would be there if you went ahead and let women have their abortion. It’s math, people… If you believe that a fetus–at any point after conception–is a fully-formed human with a soul, and you also believe that the chief concern for Christians is saving souls from going to hell, then you should be rooting for as many abortions as possible.

See? And just like that, I’ve released you from feeling compelled to vote for a racist, bigoted, xenophobic, openly misogynistic, narcissist megalomaniac who seems to actually be proud of the fact that he represents everything that is wrong with humanity, but still has managed to swindle the votes of the simple-minded and misled… Simply by slapping a “Pro-Life” button on his very expensive suit.

You’re welcome.

If you’re new to my blog, it should be pointed out that I am Christian…  Though, because I am not one of those Christians who believes that “Christian” = “Conservative Republican who automatically votes Pro-Life,”  I’m certain there are many people who might disagree with me using the term “Christian” to describe myself. And that’s okay… It doesn’t bother me one bit. I don’t believe that being a follower of Jesus has anything to do with “saving people from Hell,” unless you consider it “Hell” to walk around believing that God is a monster. A God who sends the vast majority of humanity to get tortured forever could never be called “Good” or “Loving” or even “Just.”And I have come to believe God is so much better than that. I don’t think Jesus is the only picture we have of God, but I think he is the best. I hope that God looks like Jesus… And that’s enough for me right now.

I just wanted to mention this in the hopes that this criticism wouldn’t so easily be dismissed as some “stupid atheist” who doesn’t get it. Anyway, if you love this blog and would like to support it, you can BECOME A PATRON and give a couple bucks a month (OR MORE, if you happen to be a billionaire real estate mogul presidential candidate). OR, you could leave a tip on PAYPAL. Or else, if you’re poor like me, you can just share the shit out of it on Facebook or Twitter. Either way, I love you guys! Also, do yourself a favor and READ THIS before posting all kinds of hate in the comments section.

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics, 3) Bathroom Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Dear White People: Stop Whitesplaining Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on September 26, 2016 by theboeskool

Have you seen this meme?

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For some reason, people who complain about “playing the race card” really love laying down this Black King…

Seems nice enough, right? I’ve seen a whole lot of people post this picture on social media. After the police killing of Keith Scott, the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina erupted in protest, and–as sometimes happens–some of those protests turned violent. Basically, this meme is saying, “Hey, black people… Cut that shit out! Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.? Remember what he said about non-violence? Violence never solved anything!”

Now, I freely admit–There was a time in my life where I would have posted this same meme. I am inspired by the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and I believe in non-violence… Not just because I consider myself a follower of Jesus and his clear, non-violent, enemy-loving call to his followers, but because I believe that non-violence simply works best. Violence, as a response to acts of violence, only begets more violence. It never fixes things–Not for long, at least… And certainly not if your goal is peace. That being said, over the past few years I have grown more and more disgusted at the phenomenon of white people bringing up Dr. King every time someone at a protest decides to throw a stone, trash a police car, or steal a television set.

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So please–PLEASE!–I’m begging you, fellow white people: If violence breaks out at a protest… Before you post another ignorant meme featuring a picture of Dr. King, or quote that one line you know from the “I Have A Dream” speech, or (God forbid) spout some awfulness about “catching flies with honey,” please consider the following points:

ANYONE CAN SHOW UP TO A PROTEST. It’s not like there some sort of gate, and only people wearing special wristbands (showing they have been properly vetted by Black Lives Matter organizers) are allowed to show up. Anyone can show up. And if you have a few thousand people show up to a protest, even if 95% of them are non-violent, that can still mean a couple hundred people who aren’t… People who have seen one too many black bodies lying dead on a street, while the white guy who murdered nine black folks at a Church gets a bulletproof vest and taken out for some Burger King. And that kind of thing can make anyone angry… Maybe angry enough to throw some fucking rocks. The fact that EVERY black person in this country is not out throwing rocks as an act of protest is already a testament to King’s legacy of non-violence within the black community. They are not angry, as Congressman Robert Pittenger said, because “They hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not.” Watch below…

PROTESTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DISRUPTIVE. They are meant to be seen. If a protest is going to be effective, it has to be visible… But if there is not a disruption, things don’t get noticed. Gather a few hundred people inside a Church somewhere to peacefully protest racial injustice, and see how many news cameras show up. Gather in a public park, and you *might* make the news… But if you and the rest of the protestors shut down a road for a short time, that might be the leading story that night (and then WATCH THE RACIST RESPONSES come pouring in). Ironically, even though most protesters want a non-violent disruption, the only time the national news seems to care is when violence breaks out… You better believe they are sending the cameras out for THAT. Then they sum up a four hour protest with a 30 second video clip of some kids jumping on a police cruiser, some tear gas canisters, and an officer face that got bloodied when it got hit by a stone that was thrown… As if that was what the whole protest was all about. The news doesn’t seem to care unless they can get a clip of a burning cop car.

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“We let you have a black president… What more do you WANT??”

IT’S NOT LIKE THERE IS NO REASON TO THROW STONES. Non-violence is great, but if you don’t think there is a really good reason for people to be angry enough to take a baseball bat to the window of police cruiser, you haven’t been paying attention. King’s voice was not the only voice in the struggle for civil rights. There was no consensus among the civil rights leaders of that era that non-violence is the only way to handle things. We literally white-wash how radical and disruptive MLK was. He was not well-liked by the white people of his day. In 1964, 63% of Americans said the civil rights movement “pushed too fast,” 58% said they thought “most were violent,” and 58% believed they “hurt their own cause.” There is a reason for the violence. A lot of white folks have closets full of guns, talking about being fully prepared to kill people because they think taxation is tyranny… Well, these people throwing stones are seeing video after video of unarmed black folks being gunned down. If I was out there protesting with them, and the anger toward the injustice all around us spilled over into violence against me, I would not be happy about getting my ass kicked… But I would sure understand why it happened.

THEY TRIED NON-VIOLENT PROTEST. YOU WEREN’T A BIG FAN… REMEMBER?

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Remember this guy? Guess who else “looted nothing, burned nothing, and attacked no one?” A little someone named Colin Kaepernick. I seem to remember that whole non-violent protest not going over so well. In fact, I seem to remember a lot of people losing their damn minds over him taking a knee during the national anthem, and I also seem to remember calls for Colin Kaepernick to take his unpatriotic ass out out of “our” country. But you can learn a lot about someone by seeing which things they are offended by and which things they aren’t…

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Cartoon truth, from Drew Sheneman.

 

Now…If–after reading what I’ve just written–you’re still incapable of understanding where “all this anger comes from,” and you feel compelled to tell people of color–people you don’t know–about how Dr. King would be disappointed in them, do me a favor, and just wait a couple days… This urge to “whitesplain” non-violence to black folks using their own hero will pass… Just as quickly as the memory of this most recent “Black Life That Didn’t Matter” will pass…

Can’t you feel it? It’s only been a few days since yet another black man was killed, and we’re already starting to not care anymore. Before long, we will have moved on to other things… Soon, Keith Scott’s name will get mixed up with all the rest… All the other Hash Tags. What was the guy’s name who was killed a couple days earlier, again? You know–the one who was shot while his hands were up in the air against that SUV? Crap, am I going to need to Google it already? OH, right… Terence Crutcher. It’s hard to remember. I find myself remembering the circumstances more than the names. You know, the one who was shot as he ran away? The one who was gunned down in a Walmart for holding a toy gun they sold at that Walmart? The one they choked to death for selling loose cigarettes? The 12-year-old kid who had a fake gun, who they shot before the car even stopped moving? The teenager who was shot 16 times and executed in the street as he walked away? The one they killed by giving him a “rough ride” in the back of the van? The Ferguson one… The one who got killed because the cop said he thought he was grabbing his taser… The one who got killed for selling CDs…The one who got pulled over for a broken taillight and wound up dead? There are so many, I can’t keep them all straight. But we want so badly to believe that we live in a just society… So  we try to justify their deaths by believing that it was something they did (instead of who they were and what they looked like) that caused them to get killed. If only they had just been more like Martin Luther King, Jr., right?

Regardless, even when someone with brown skin does everything right, there’s no guarantee he’s not going to end up getting shot anyway… Remember this guy?

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The man’s name–the one with his hands in the air–is Charles Kinsey. He laid on the ground, on his back, hands in the air… And he loudly and clearly identified himself as a therapist for people with disabilities, told the police officers that the man next to him was Autistic and one of his patients, and made sure they knew that the item in the man’s hand was not a weapon, but was–in fact–a toy truck. And he STILL ended up getting shot. The officer who shot him gave some conflicting testimonies, but he ended up landing on the explanation that he was attempting to shoot the man next to him… You know, the one with the toy truck. We found out recently that no charges will be filed against the officer who shot him, but luckily Kinsey lived.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Philando Castile. After being pulled over for a broken taillight, the officer asked him for his ID. As he was reaching for his ID, Philando disclosed that he had a gun that which he was licensed to carry… The officer yelled, “Don’t move!” and proceeded to shoot him four times. We probably wouldn’t even know his name, except that his girlfriend got on Facebook Live and filmed as the man she loved died in the seat next to her. Much like Keith Scott’s wife filmed as her husband lie dying on the street… Though strangely enough, the NRA didn’t really come to Philando Castile’s defense after he was killed for having a legal firearm… Maybe the NRA isn’t as interested in defending the 2nd Amendment rights of people with dreadlocks.

But we already knew that a black man can do everything right and still end up getting shot, didn’t we? Yeah, we learned that a long time ago…

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There is this disturbing double standard where nobody cares about a peaceful protest until some sort of violence takes place… At which point, people dismiss the just cause behind the protest based on the violence that took place. And they do this using the standard set by a moral superhero. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a moral giant. He’s a hero… But he’s THEIR hero, not ours. Listen very closely: You don’t get to use the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. to tell black folks how they should or shouldn’t act. Non-violence is NOT something which is demanded by the ones with their boots on the necks of the oppressed. Non-violence is born of strength and self-control and mostly love… but it is ALWAYS the choice of the person who is being oppressed. STOP BRINGING UP MLK EVERY TIME A PROTEST TURNS VIOLENT. Seriously. Stop. If you’re white and you want to help, start standing close enough to ones who are protesting that YOUR eyes are getting burned by the tear gas too. Loving your enemies is only possible when you could have chosen to punch them square in the face. When non-violence is demanded by the people in power, it just becomes more oppression.

Let’s not mince words… I’m asking for your support. If you value this blog, I think it would be really cool to help support it. You can do this by Becoming a Patron and giving a couple bucks a month (or more). Or, you can do like Denise Armstrong did, and you can just leave a tip on PayPal. If you give on PayPal, you can designnate your money to “Boost” a specific post on Facebook so more people get to read it. Another way you can help support it is by sharing it on Facebook or Twitter… This one was good, right? 🙂

 

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics, 5) Not Quite Sure | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

The Real Reason You Hate Hillary Clinton

Posted on September 21, 2016 by theboeskool

I know. I KNOW! You hate her so much. You have made that abundantly clear. You hate her so much that you are even willing to vote for an absolute dumpster fire of a person… But have you ever really given any thought to WHY you hate her? It’s fascinating to me. I mean, I get that she is not the most inspiring public speaker. And you’re pissed off about Benghazi and eMails… Even though I guarantee you that 98% of you have no idea whatsoever what you are actually angry about–let alone having any idea about the actual FACTS behind either of those issues. But what is it that REALLY gets under your skin about her?

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I’ve decide to decorate this post with actual items you can buy at Trump rallies. See if you can spot any sexism.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about today: Have you ever met a woman who named her daughter after herself? I was listening to the Hamilton soundtrack the other day (as we have done most days for the past two months… Because it is absolutely awesome), and commented to my wife about how Aaron Burr’s wife Theodosia named her daughter Theodosia. The practice of naming a daughter after the mother is common in some cultures around the world, but it almost never happens in the United States… And yet it is perfectly normal for a man to name a son after himself. For a moment try to imagine this scenario: Let’s say you meet someone new. She is dressed for business, and she doesn’t seem super smiley. She gives you a firm handshake, and introduces herself as Trudy. You notice the little girl standing next to her, and you squat down to say hello. “And what is YOUR name, sweatheart?” you ask her, as she shyly hides behind the leg of her mother’s pantsuit. Trudy pats her daughter’s head and says, “This is Trudy.”

Now… I want you to examine the feeling that you would have as this scenario played out. If you’re anything like me, your natural (I feel like writing “natural” there, but I don’t actually think it’s natural. I think it’s something we are taught) learned response is probably something in the neighborhood of “Who does she think she is?” Now–if you can–ask yourself why you wouldn’t have had the same sort of reaction if you met a man named Brian (wearing a suit and not smiling very much) who just introduced you to his son Brian. Finally, here is the REALLY hard work: That feeling… The one I’m calling “Who does she think she is?” but encapsulates so much more… Does that feeling remind you of the feeling you get in your gut when you see Hillary Clinton? Does it remind you of how you feel when you hear her speak? Or see the way she’s dressed? Or watch her not smile enough in an interview when she’s being asked asinine questions?

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I feel like I’m being magnanimous when I assume that Trump supporters are just stupid instead of being straight up evil… Is that weird?

I had that same feeling. When Hillary Clinton tried to get universal healthcare passed during Bill’s presidency (and before I was somewhat aware of all of the prejudices inside me… All of the thriving racism and ageism and sexism and all the rest), I can clearly remember thinking “Who does she think she is? Nobody elected her… She needs to know her place!” And the interesting thing is that I don’t think that feeling about Hillary–that sense that someone’s getting a little too big for her britches–is limited to men. Not by a long shot.

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Nope, no sexism here. Carry on…

This idea–the one that says women are one way, and men are another–is not an idea which is given up without a serious fight. But the “expanding of human consciousness,” that IS something that is a natural process. It is the process of becoming aware of our prejudices… And being brave enough to question them. And as we go through that process, we feel we are wiser and more loving and more honest. Not more *than you* necessarily… Just wiser and more loving and more honest than we were BEFORE. And we want that for you as well, so we try to get people to see things differently… But those conversations rarely go well. Trying to explain how the subtleties of sexism are woven into the very fabric of our nation and culture is very difficult when you’re trying to explain it to someone who doesn’t have the capacity to see it. Some folks don’t yet possess the kinds of self-awareness needed to discover the subtleties and nuance of systemic problems… Especially problems to which they are complicit. To them, it just comes off as accusations of an overt offense. If I speak about the realities of sexism in the way our nation treats Hillary Clinton as a candidate, many of you hear me accusing you of hating women. “Are you telling me I hate women?!? I LOVE women! Don’t you DARE tell me I hate women… MY MOMMA WAS A WOMAN!!!”

This fragile, defensive, angry reaction to the truth that the world is more complex than you thought it was… This is one of the main things that slows down people “getting it.” Being told that there is something you “don’t get” is an offensive process. In the past, this process was sped along by the introduction of facts… Fact that were many times brought to us through journalism and science. But in an attempt to slow down the natural process of people “getting it,” people attempt to discredit journalism and even science as biased and false. For example, if you heard that unarmed black people are five times more likely to be killed by police than unarmed white people, you might be nudged toward accepting that systemic racism is a problem within our police force. But if you can simply reject the data as being biased or even false, you can safely stay right in your comfortable, ignorant place. The other option is you accept the data as truthful, but you rationalize that it is truthful “for a reason.” “Yeah, unarmed black folks get killed more often by police, but it’s because they should have just complied. Or because they try to run. Or because their parents should teach them better. Or because they just naturally get in more trouble. Or because they’re just worse…” And this is the beating heart of white supremacy.

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All in good fun, right? Quit being so sensitive. Political correctness is killing America…

Another belief that slows down the progress of human consciousness is the thought that “We’re past that already.” This is the sort of belief that thinks racism is over because we elected a black president. If you believe the lie that a disease has been cured, you’re going to work a lot less hard to cure that disease. And if Hillary Clinton gets elected president, sexism is not just going to magically disappear either… In fact, if you look at what has happened since Barack Obama has been elected, the push back against the discomfort of change will likely make things worse for a while. Oprah being really rich disproves neither racism nor sexism. Did you know that it hasn’t even been 100 years since women have been allowed to VOTE?!? There are a lot of people walking around who are older than a woman’s right to vote. Women weren’t allowed to compete in the Olympic Marathon until 1984… Too fragile. And the ban on women serving in combat in the U.S. military was not lifted until 2013… You really don’t think that Hillary Clinton’s vagina is a significant part of the reason you are so triggered by her candidacy?

Please take a moment to read this post by Humans Of New York…

Some eMails were recently leaked between Colin Powell and a very wealthy republican donor. Powell calls Trump a “national disgrace” and an “international pariah.” In those eMails, he also had some things to say about Hillary Clinton. He says that “although she is a friend,” he was critical of her age, her greed, and her “unbridled ambition.” Think about that for a moment. When–WHEN?!?–do we criticize powerful and wealthy men for their AMBITION? In men, ambition is a virtue… Why does it suddenly turn into a vice when the ambitious person has a vagina? Trump is 70 (two years older than Clinton). He wears his greed and ambition around like a medal… And yet, people hate Hillary Clinton because they believe she “just wants more power.” Imagine–if you can–the possibility that Hillary Clinton has looked around and thought, “You know what? I think I’m the best person for this job.” The audacity, right?!? How DARE she? WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?

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Just look at how “bitchy” that face is…

Or imagine the outrage if Hillary Clinton was on her third marriage, and this time she married a model who was 24 years younger than her… What is it that allows you to overlook that sort of action in a 70 year old spray-tanned man, but if you see it exhibited by a woman, it enrages you? A friend of a friend said, “America is way more sexist than it is racist… And it is TOTALLY racist.” I believe this is true… And not just because women weren’t “given” the right to vote until 50 YEARS after that right was “given” to black men. I believe it’s true because this election bears it out at every turn. We have an election between a very experienced and intelligent woman, and a man who is easily the most unqualified, offensive, and aggressively dangerous candidate in the history of this nation, and yet people are considering voting for him because “there’s just something about Hillary I don’t trust.” Or because you don’t like the sound of her voice. Think about the word “shrill” for a moment… Is that a word reserved for women? Maybe you’re just not used to the sound of a woman’s voice who is in a position of power… 

I don’t love everything about her. She’s too hawkish for me. I’m afraid that because of the sense that she isn’t “strong enough,” she could feel pressured into military action that will only make things worse. I don’t like the prison policies for which she is partially responsible. I think she’s too close with Wall Street and big banks. But even though these things are concerning to me, she has my vote. Do you know why? Because she is persuadable. She is competent. She is reasonable. She is a person who listens, and she considers other sides. She is not an ignorant buffoon who–when asked about who he consults on issues of foreign policy–would ever say something like, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things,” and “I speak to a lot of people, but my primary consultant is myself, and I have a good instinct for this stuff.” 

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One side says “Trump That Bitch.” The other side says “Love Trumps Hate.” Which side are you on?

And in the midst of the deep sexism of this country (and the boys club that is Washington D.C.), she has had to work twice as hard to get to where she is today… All while smiling enough but not too much. All while wearing fashionable clothes that aren’t so fashionable she won’t be taken seriously… Clothes that say “I’m powerful,” but clothes that aren’t too manly–Even though “manly” is a synonym for “powerful.” All while enduring stupid questions and stupid criticisms with a smile on her face, because an angry woman is a turn off to voters. And if–while she is working twice as hard to be taken seriously (even though pneumonia)–she works herself to the point of exhaustion, it won’t be looked at as a sign of how bad ass she is… It will be taken as a sign of her feminine fragility. But she can’t ever let out the giant “SCREW YOU, YOU SEXIST BASTARDS!” that has no doubt been welling up inside her for 40 years because–again–people are freaked right out by angry women.

Well, I’m a white man–I can say it. SCREW YOU, YOU SEXIST BASTARDS! You act like you are upset about eMails… or the Clinton Foundation’s donors… or the four Americans who died in the attack on Benghazi… But what you are really upset about is that the person who wants to be in charge has a vagina.

Is this blog something that you value? If it is, please consider BECOMING A PATRON and giving a couple bucks a month. I usually write about 1-2 blog posts a week… that’s a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me. I’d appreciate your support, and I think my wife would as well. My wife is the kind of strong, competent woman who laughs a bit to herself when I’m referred to as the “head of the household.” Much of the time, she is the one who gets things done, and I’m so thankful for that. When you give, you help legitimize the time I spend writing these posts… And that means a lot. Thank you.

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