Wow! Long Beards, Rifles & Subtitles

 We live in such a hypocritical society! These Duck Dynasty dudes truly personify American values at their core. People are so quick to get bent out of shape over words depending on who's uttering them. Our outrageously biased  liberal media demonises everyone who is not on board with their widely poplular and publicised belief system. I can be pro-humanity and in opposition of homosexuality. Let me break this down. I love homosexuals and have professional and personal relationships with individuals who subscribe to that way of life. I share those same relationships with individuals who are, abstinate,  promiscuious and others who don't provide me with any information about their sexual preference or exploits. There is a flood of support in favor of Phil Roberston's comments regarding homosexuality and I'm on that same side because those comments are biblically based. I don't support hate no matter how you shade it but I have a right to speak up for my personal and spiritual value system and that doesn't make me intolerant of diversity or a bigot. I also  support Chic-fil-A COO Dan Cathy in that I stand behind God's values over man's preference or acceptance.This is where some  LBGT supporters will stop reading and I'm cool with that.  

On the other hand an American born man who needs subtitles to translate his conversations makes rediculous claims about perceived racial equity and folks are getting pissed off. Go figure. His feelings about blacks truly reveal the pulse of the American education system, political system, and cleary the judicial system from the supreme court all the way down. Honestly the Duck  Dynasty version is probably more humane than what's coming out of the mouths of countless law enforcement officials and it's no different from the whitewashed versions of slavery and the Reconstruction Era that were and are still taught throughout our public school system across the nation.  

Our nation has done a terrible job of documenting historical events with accuracy and integrity and as a result we live in the "Era of Obama".  This is the distorted  belief system where having a president who's DNA and heritage can be traced from causasion roots in Wichita, Kansas to the Blackest roots in  Nyang''oma Kogelo, Kenya creates a supposedly 'Post Racism' society where there is a level playing field, equal opportunity and access to the American Dream. All of these benefits are feasible  if you just pull yourself up with your bootstraps, work hard, earn your way of the employment food ladder of success and life will be grand. Yeah right! That's about as legitimate as calling us, "one nation under God indivisible with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all." Were are in the age of "Relative Righteousness"...which simply means, "It's right and good if I say it as regardless of the end results and consequences. Morality at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by Diving Forces. 



Just a side note: Isaiah Washington(from Grey's Anatomy) and Tim Hardaway(from the Miami Heat) lost their jobs for comments concerning gays and there was no outcry of support for those men. I guess you have to be a rifle waving white male to have the conservative right wing and Fox News cosign for your comments and use the 1st Amendment to justify it. It's the same story when we watch YouTube clips of police officers using radical slurs and beating the breaks off of unarmed men, women and children. Somehow there's always just cause for it and they are suspended with pay until the media steam cools off then it's back to the obscene normality of our moral deficit. I support the "Post 9/11 Post Patriot Act" Constitutional Rights! Wow! What happened to those?

The Drama of Dealing with Certified DJANGOS!!!!

I went to the coffee shop last Tuesday night not because of technical difficulties with my wifi but because my son and I couldn't hear ourselves think let alone get work done.  After working 11 hours at my job I made it home to the familiar smell of my neighbors low budget bammer weed and ridiculously loud music.  Just as I was welcoming a guest into our home to engage in a very serious conversation, we were distracted by an auditory explosions of BOOM BOOM BOOM! The sound of an obese orangutan attempting to beat through the wall of my apartment created a chorus of chaos.   No, it wasn't L.L. Cool J's Booming System. Honestly, it wasn’t even a good system. It was just a loud annoying blasting of bootleg speakers blaring out the bogus sounds of every wack rapper who currently plays on the radio and internet.

As my ears consumed this menacing melodic meal I began to internally vomit in my mind. I got settled in and prepared to pay my neighbors a visit in hopes that we could engage in some quick community conflict resolution. I managed to contain my inner “Show Nuff”  as I quickly cast out thoughts of jumping into the air and forcefully hitting the ground with their freshly smashed sound system crushed in to tiny little pieces of plastic, metal and wires beneath  my feet. I patiently knocked on the door for about 2 or 3 minutes but they couldn’t hear me because their music was too loud.

Once the door opened a mad faced midget who I'm quite accustomed to seeing greeted me with a, "Wasssup? Is the music loud?" Now I'm thinking to myself "DJANGO! You know good and well that the volume of your music is outrageous and disrespectful.  It's eardrum deafening and it’s too damn loud for 8:30pm on a school night when I have work  to do and my son is busy pretending to study for his final exams." I refrained from giving him the blues and settle for a nice, "I can't hear you! It’s so loud I can’t think” Now it wouldn’t be so bad if this were taking place on a Friday or Saturday night. I would expect that given that I live in the heart of the Infamous 7^th Ward where them hard heads dwell.  Honestly I would expect it in the 3^rd Ward, 9^th Ward, Garden District,  or the Central Business District too but I digress.

I walked away and 10 minutes passed before the music was taken down a notch and when I say a notch I mean that in the literal sense.  I temporarily reflect on how this same young cat stopped me to ask if I would help him find a job because, “Mannnnnnnnnnnnnnn it’s hard out hear and they aint trying to hire nobody.”  Needless to say, I gave him 3 different leads on jobs and he took no initiative to move on any of them. He even had the audacity to ask me if I would go and write down all of the information for him, while he played on his smart phone right in front of me. Ironically this jobless youngster was hosting a disturbing the peace party and breaking noise ordinances that haven’t even been established yet instead of preparing for some employment opportunities but that’s neither here nor there. 

 Back to the present time.  My annoyance went on a date with disgust and together they conceived and eventually gave birth to abhorrence. The strong feelings I was holding were not towards my neighbors themselves.  My emotional angst was focused on their actions of sheer  40oz foolishness,  weed blowing weed buffoonery, time management tomfoolery, and sheer ignorant shenanigans.  At a time in my life I indulged in both illicit practices and the ignorance as well and I make no excuses about it. There difference between my neighbors and me was that I didn’t include innocent bystander s in my stupidity.

   

 I eventually gave it that old college try and went out a 2^nd time to peacefully persuade them to turn the music down. As soon as I opened the door I was greeted by a smiling faced man who said, “Hey is the music too loud?” I replied emphatically, “Yesssssssssssssss! “ And I prematurely thanked him for what I thought he was going to do.  Now this is when ignorance began to reign and it was a melodic monsoon of moronic behavior .  The master of ceremonies or deejay started to strategically play music that mated the voices that were shouting on the other end of the wall, “Man fuck  that shit! This is a birthday party man. Fuck them niggas.”  For the next 20 minutes or so my son, our guest and myself were are graces with a playlist of perversion that basically told of where we could go and what we could do if we didn’t like their loud music. 

Out of fear our guest vacated the premises when she saw the route I was taking. Initially I called and text my landlord and he was absolutely no help at all. He suggested that I call the police. I called the police and they told me to call the Crime Stoppers.  I called Crime Stoppers and they told me to call the police. I called the police back and they told me to call the non-emergency police line. I called the non-emergency police line and they told me to call the police back. And these clowns wonder why people take the law into their own hands. At the end of the day I just prayed for those clowns and took my son to the coffee shop so they we both could get some work done. Crazy Right?!? 

Memories of Mandela and my Mixed up Thoughts...

To call Nelson Mandela an advocate for justice would be a gross understatement. This faithful freedom fighter invested his talents, time, career, freedom and ultimately his life to forcefully oppose the evil system of apartheid.  The South African government used legislation to impose institutionalized racial domination through means of economic oppression, separatism and extreme violence. The aforementioned methods of inhumanity made up the system of apartheid.

It’s one thing to voice an opinion about  what you believe in but it’s a whole new dimension  to physically place yourself in harm’s way,  dedicate your life to meet the needs of others and risk your life to stand up for justice and freedom.  Nelson Mandela not only practice what he preached,  he allowed his heart to pump pure passion as he fought  oppressive white domination, violent racism and aggressively  advocated for a true democratic society. 

Soldiers can be made by studying military strategy and combat training. True righteous warriors are born out of painful circumstances and seemingly hopeless conditions.  Mr. Mandela’s life is an example of a modern day King David. His Goliath was an entire National Party of South Africa. Mr. Mandela’s story was also likened to that of Israel’s son Joseph when he was sold into slavery and later on falsely imprisoned.  It truly boggles my mind how any God fearing, faith professing believer in Jesus Christ could cosign abhorrent actions like these. But then again I do live in the same America which hosted millions of uninvited guests (kidnapped and enslaved Africans) and continues to accept only minimal responsibility for the atrocious crimes of inhumanity.

Nelson Mandela has been a faithful freedom fighter whose impact on South African and the World will echo in the hallways of time until the clock of life as we know it ceases to tick. His life will be missed but his legacy will never be forgotten.