Living in   Portland, Oregon, Over-Town Miami, New York City, Huntington Beach, California, Mobil Alabama, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Austin Texas, in the little back woods of Ar-Kansas, I had at some point began to feel like the woman in the above picture. Tears for cities and people that had only began to fade in the memories.

 

As I remembered how people made me feel as a person, I had to remind myself that they are human and no one ever cared for me like Jesus, no one else could ever take the darkness from me…

This piece has a special place in my heart. $1600.00

The title of this post has been a topic of conversation since the early 80’s and heavily in the mid 90’s. 

No one could explain it and it seems to be perpetuating itself even further. We blamed Corporations from taking jobs away from the Small businesses, we blamed the increase of lease mandates on property, $10,000 to lease to own a building to run a business, with those kind of rates I had noticed there were a lot of business owners living at there jobs, we blamed everything around the board but the in-crouching need to criminalize everything.

in those specified years what were the rates of “men” getting locked up. Noticed I said men, not separating  the races cause I don’t care about race. I am talking about the male population seeing more bars of steel than bars of gold in there hands.  With no real alternative other than to return to that social meat grinder because well, the moment they are given freedom, who is there for them. A police officer that looks at the mans record and says, “ooo, I’ve hit pay dirt, my rent will be paid cause I get a bonus for bringing in scum.”

They ask, “What did the man do? He had to have done something, to deserve prison.” the answer, “Being Guilty of Guilt”

For if the man had a court appointed lawyer that cared he would have been R&R’d (Released on his Own Recompense) but that rarely happens because the man looks at the judge and says, “Thank you for saving my reputation and not allowing my family to know I ever had to look you in the eye, and confess a sin at all.”

So who is there for them?

It has not been the churches lately but they are not allowed to reach them with any truth, so they will suffer with the NIV, (That is for another topic later).

My story is not new, I am certain that there are a lot of you that can relate. There are many of you that have loved a person that you could not bring home to a family that believed in traditions that turned an individual into a monster in your eyes.

There are many of you that won’t go to a church because you don’t like how the people look or dress, or show their appreciation to a savior that chose to come for the lame of spirit.  There are many of you that look at the people of the many inner cities and feel that if they don’t learn to accept the absolute, then the hell on earth, they are living under is there own fault and like Dante’s guide  of the Inferno is quoted saying, “we are not to pity them.”

There are many of you that see a disaster and run in the other direction, see a problem and won’t fix it or state, “why do today what I can do tomorrow?” knowing that because we are believers and tomorrow is not promised to any of us that we should act accordingly.

Now I have had my faults, thus the bottom picture. I have had a time in loving my monster. I have had a time in keeping my monster away from others and I always found it amusing when so many say, “They want to take care of me, the good, the bad, the ugly.” I just cannot believe that any of us want to deal with the ugly in anyone. To love the side of someone that is hard to deal with. When that side comes up we are so quick to bash back when really the person that is yelling is really only raised there voice in hopes that you will hear them. Really I think the real lesson is that we as adults need to learn that even though I hear you, that does not mean I am going to give you what you want, or that I am entitled to do so. Yes, entitlements are bad. None of us are entitled to anything, that goes for love. Not even in marriage is a man, ‘entitled’ to his wife. If you all need lessons on how to treat your wives, or women refer to http://adventgradepress.com/the-evolution-of-woman/, I always found it so much easier to deal with people when I gave them the free will to agree with me or not. I acted accordingly depending on how much I respected the individuals wisdom. No matter how old I get, I will always ask a friend how he will perceive my actions before proceeding, simply to maintain the reputation I have left. This again is me, loving my monster.

What does this have to do with our cities you ask? Well have any of you noticed how they decided to clean up the cities. Those that I have specified in the above caption. I just want to know who voted for that? Who said, ” I really can not stand it when I go out side and the man playing music for change plays the same song, lamenting and I feel he needs to be made to leave.” if this was said, why did they not just enjoy the tune and use the music to get them on there day, no instead that man was told he was breaking the law by solicitation, though it was his music that spoke for assistance not his mouth.

Who said, “That mural on that empty wall is really an eye sore and I wish the city would white wash all the walls so we can start over..no in fact just tare down that city block. Any wall with a mural of an artist that could not keep his paints in his mothers closet, needs to go, right now.” instead of saying, “Hey where is the kid that did this, he has some talent we could use.”

While the men that never helped put up the walls or lay brick or fix a pot whole complain that there city is riddled with children that do nothing but live off there parents and friends. While the men complain that more city labor is going to a certain demographic they cannot be apart of, the Metropolis rises higher and higher.

I receive emails daily of the changes that are taking place. I have known about these changes since 1997. I ask my friends how is it that no one else knows or if they do how are they going to feel after they did not do anything. Rolled over and sold out principals just to save a few years, then question the piety of the men that would not sell out and chose to hold onto personal legacies, chose to believe, and let the cares of this world pass away.

I was in Houston not too long ago and a woman of 78 gets on the bus lamenting how  she has to get on the bus at that part of the city. Complaining about how it was never so, and these changes make it so she has to walk 5 miles away from her comfort to join a demographic of people that she would rather not deal with. Everyone on the bus can hear her and I do my best to make sure every knows she is joking and that in her old age she is entitled to feel as she does. Why did I allow her an entitlement, or the ability to voice an opinion about people she did want to deal with, cause if the shoe fits, we aught to wear it.  Her feet hurt, let her vent. A few minutes later a bunch of unruly teenagers get on the bus. This is around the same time Houston and most of the west of the US passed the bill of Open-Carry Handguns. These unruly teenagers did not like grandmas words. I did not like the unruly teenagers and decided that who ever voted for the right to have fire arms all over the place, never thought they could be on city buses filled with people of different time eras, demographics, education values, standards of living, social ethics, moral proclivities, every word in the book besides Jesus. When I was done with those teenagers I am sure everyone was in the next church service and I had a headache.

I do not want the past, I believe in progression, but I follow Jesus and I do not believe that anyone can take the darkness from me better than he.