Nothing Personal

“The art of being in human is to tell them what you feel.” By Bill Brown fall 1988. Not much has changed in 21 years for me; i still believe that true effective communications comes when people have the courage to tell others what they really feel and risk being perceived inhuman. Nothing personal, just a battle of ideas. And believe me when i say battle. You don’t have to look to hard to find it. Ask a teenager i remember once being told not to discuss these topics in mixed couple, religion, race and politics. Tonight the context of the battle i will discuss them all. To give you a quick look into how i think so you can understand what i think. -F. Scott Fitzgerald once said "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." when i say inhuman i mean not caring or being insensitive to others ideas. I will admit, sometimes i can careless about what some people think, but i always try to acknowledge their right to have an idea. And why did i say tell them what you feel instead of what you think, i believe that “out of your heart you speak.” And there is the battle.

So where do i begin? Religion, race or politics, lets go with the most obvious race. I don’t know if you are aware of this but i am black. How do i feel about being black or better yet how do i feel about other races. In the united states being black has meant so many things. We have gone from niggers to coloreds to african-americans. Me what do i feel about race….. I don’t know. I know some people use the color of peoples’ skin to justify hatred ,violence and even murder. I acknowledge the conception and the need for the civil rights movement and affirmative action, but i don’t feel they’re the best answer for our country. Follow me. Slave trade wrong, 1/5 of a person wrong, terrorizing people because you fear they would seek revenge for past victimizations wrong, and making laws that make others affirm acceptation or give special treatment to a group of people. Is not all right maybe half right but not all right. I believe human right trump civil rights, you can’t have civil rights if you don’t recognize someone’s human rights. Yet in the political world everything is ass backwards.

TO BE CONTINUED