Welcome to the Shit Show

    If you like to spend your night being tied up and beaten with bamboo reeds then last night was for you.  Last night was the first Presidential debate of this election season.  Leading into the event I had several discussions with some friends of mine and we laid out our strategies for each candidate.  For President Trump we agreed he needed to hammer points about his record as President, limit interruptions and let Biden talk himself into corners, and most of all not seem like he was beating up on a deteriorating old man.  For Biden we thought he needed to come into the debate and prove to people he was not in mental decline, solidify his positions on major topics, and present a more presidential appearance.  So when it came time for the show I was excited.  As most of you know I am not a fan of most liberal ideas and tend to lean toward conservative thought.  I did not vote for Trump in 2016 because I was unsure how his brash behavior would work in world politics.  Since he was elected I have tried my best to overlook his personality and focus on the policies and executive orders he has been passing and promoting.  Based only on these things I can say he has done a lot of great things for our country.  Unemployment was the lowest of all time prior to the pandemic across all races.  Our economy was the highest it has ever been.  Middle and low class Americans saw an over $5000 increase in their take home pay due to his tax cuts, while during Obama/Biden's 8 years it was only a little over $1000.  He negotiated new trade deals with China, Canada/Mexico, and others which gave us a much better position than at any previous time.  He negotiated peace deals in the middle east between Israel and multiple Muslim states. He reduced our troop levels in all of the war zones and was the first President not to enter any new conflicts despite reports he was going to start WW3 with Iran.  He nominated and had two conservative leaning Supreme Court justices confirmed and will have a 3rd before election day.  So from a conservative perspective I support his agenda and the things he has accomplished.  

    With all of that in mind I reemphasize that his strategy should have been to hit points from his record and avoid coming off like an asshole.  Unfortunately he interrupted from the very start, talked over his time limit, was combative with the moderator, and of course lowered himself into name calling.  He did every single thing that my friends and I hoped he would avoid.  He did not present himself like a confident and accomplished President but more like a braggart and arrogant bully.  Once again the negative personality traits over shadowed his accomplishments.  He did however make some good points.  He asked Biden if he would pack the Supreme court if he won to which Biden replied "I am not going to answer that question".  He pointed out that Antifa was a hateful organization which is destroying US cities and Biden responded with "Antifa is an idea not an organization", which everyone knows is false.  He attacked Hunter Biden and his ties to Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese groups which paid him millions of dollars.  Biden's response of "That has been disproven" and "That is just false" just don't hold water.  Over all Trump made good solid attacks but they will fall flat due to the excessive rants and attacks throughout the debate.  

    Now VP Biden also failed to meet most of our ideas for success.  He at times wondered in his thoughts and the moderator had to remind him of what they were discussing, he would be stumbling over his thoughts and was saved by Trump and his interruptions on several occasions, and he failed to solidify his positions.  He did however seem to be the more adult candidate.  He approached the debate from a more Presidential position.  There were only a couple of times he lashed out back at Trump and came off weaker.  Biden hammered on the Covid-19 response which was an expected tactic but fell short due to the fact it is a worldwide pandemic and every country has struggled.  He did a good job of debate tactics.  When he would be interrupted he would stop talking and then request the time back from the moderator.  At one point Biden was asked if he called the Democratic Mayors and Governors to stop the violence in cities like Portland and Seattle to which he responded "I am not in elected office" which I thought was a cop out due to the fact he called himself the "Democratic party" on one of the first questions.  He rejected the idea he supports the green new deal but a few sentences later said "The Green New Deal will pay for itself".  He failed to solidify positions as he tried to position himself between the moderate and radical left.  He also had good attacks but I think had way too many times he rambled and failed to get to the point.

    At the end of the night I feel like neither candidate "won" the debate.  Biden had a much better performance than many of us expected and Trump was well Trump.  I watched the aftermath on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.  Fox rallied behind Trump saying he was aggressive and showed great leadership.  CNN "fact checked" the debate but only Trumps comments and then called him a liar.  MSNBC also fact checked but seemed to rely on the Biden got the best of Trump line.  All in all every station said things like "That was the most chaotic debate I have seen" or "That was a shit show".  I absolutely agree with both of those statements.  I would summarize with this, I thought they were both childish with the name calling, Trump more so than Biden.  I think they both talked over each other and the moderator too much, more so Trump than Biden.  No new revelations were brought to light and all the expected talking points were hit by both candidates.  I do not think any minds or votes were changed with this 90 min debate.  I also feel like Normal people who are not into politics will most likely not watch any future debates due to this being so chaotic.

    When it comes down to it both candidates failed to win the debate but it is America who lost the most.  Welcome to the Shit Show.

Seven Deadly Sins- Wrath

   

    We have finally made it to the end of this series!  So why did I save this one for the end?  The answer is simple, just look at 2020.  This year has created such hate and animosity among everyone that the videos and news stories write themselves.  So 2020 is an election year.  Normally this means the country watches millionaires and billionaires get on stage and discuss why the other guy sucks and what they are going to do to benefit the little person in America.  We then go vote for who we think is going to make the best changes for us and then watch for 4 years as nothing changes.  This year it is different.  We are seeing the same rich people argue over us but the way of reacting to things has changed vastly.  We have seen a dramatic spike in violence, hateful actions, unlawful behavior, and all kinds of things that most civilized people would not stand for, until 2020.  I am not sure if it is because we have been locked down all year or if it is the far left pushing us into a place where they can have the most impact on our form of government.  

    Lets start with the biggest story in decades, Covid-19.  At the beginning of the year we were made aware of this terrible pandemic coming to our shores from China.  The President shut down travel from China and immediately was called xenophobic and racist.  That action alone saved hundreds of thousands of lives according to Dr. Fauchi.  Then we saw policies put in place in New York and other cities to put older people who had the virus back into nursing homes causing thousands of deaths, this too was blamed on Trump and the federal government even though it was the state Governors actions and policies.  We began to see the breakdown of civility in stores and street corners of masker and non-maskers screaming at each other and in some cases committing acts of violence.  They were doing this due to being locked away and lied to about how to best prevent people from dying.  Each side having their experts and scientists to fall back on.  Truth is nobody knows for sure what the best way to prevent it is.  So people turn to wrath and lash out at their fellow countrymen.

    Next we saw cities burned to the ground all in a call for racial justice.  A video came out of George Floyd which showed a police officer kneeling on his throat while George screamed he couldn't breathe.  Eventually he died and it was deemed a homicide at first.  Since then a separate autopsy has been done and showed he had a large amount of fentanyl in his system, enough to kill most people, and that led to his breathing issues, not the knee on the neck.  Also another video came out which showed him complaining he could not breathe while standing next to a police car long before he was taken to the ground.  None the less a huge protest broke out under the banner of Black Lives Matter.  These protests shortly became violent and many businesses were destroyed, many people were attacked and murdered, many cops have been seriously injured or murdered, and all the while these rioters recorded it all while celebrating and laughing about it.  When did this become the normal in our country?

    I believe that Wrath is the worst sin of all.  It not only hurts those around you but it destroys the person themselves.  It clouds your judgement and makes you do and say things you would not normally think of doing or saying.  It preys 100% on your emotions.  Every single act of violence done this year was instigated using an emotionally charged point of view.  This year we have seen an explosion of the idea that all cops are out every day hunting down and killing black people, even though the statistics prove otherwise.  We have had driven into our brains that systemic racism exists in our country and we must burn the entire system down to stop it.  We have been told all white people are racist and must pay penance for the past crimes of all white people to minorities.  Our children are being taught from a young age that their skin color makes them racist whether they know it or not.  That their skin color is the reason they need to apologize.  All of the anger and disorder we see can be directly linked to this sin.

    So what can we do to stop it if it is indeed emotionally based?  Learn to listen, think and then act instead of react.  Wait for all the facts to come out before passing judgement on people.  Go off the grid for a month and see if your world view doesn't change.  Love one another and don't force apologies for things people did not do to you.  Make it a point to find positivity and avoid negative people.  And most of all and most important, THINK FOR YOURSELF!!  If this blog, the tv, or celebrities are what you base you opinions on you are absolutely wrong.  I know these times and especially this year have a lot of us on the verge of snapping but we need to be strong.  Have faith and believe it will get better.  The sky is always darkest before the dawn.  Know we will get through all of this and if we choose to love and celebrate our diversity we will in the end build a much stronger and prosperous America.

Seven Deadly Sins- Sloth

    So this is the 6th of the 7 deadly sins and possibly one of the hardest to explain and understand.  I have always had the idea sloth was just the embracing a state of laziness.  In researching I found it has much deeper meaning in spiritual, emotional and physical ways.  

    In spirituality sloth shows itself in a lack of energy or focus on peoples duties to God.  In our history we have always had a culture steeped in some form of spirituality.  Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, or any other religion we have always found a way to focus on teachings of loving one another and taking care of our neighbors.  When I was in school we were taught the Golden Rule or treating others the way you would like to be treated.  This was an early foundational brick for our schooling and society.  This simple rule makes sense because no one I can think of would treat others like crap as they themselves would not want the same treatment.  In recent years we have seen a huge spike in non-spiritual, agnostic, and atheist followers.  We often hear the phrase "You don't need to believe in God to treat people right" which is true on its face.  But early learning from the bible and other religious texts can give children the base to form habits which allow for good treatment of others.  I personally think the under valuing of religion in our society has led to a great decline in treating others well and loving all humans.  

    Emotional sloth is the second way we see this today.  It is most prevalent in diagnoses of depression and the higher rate of suicide due to that illness.  In 2017 we saw 47,173 deaths from suicide.  That is 14.5/100,000 people!  Depression leads to apathy and apathy leads to isolation and thoughts of suicide.  We have seen what was once a slow and steady rise in depression rates rise quickly since the year 2000.  Has life gotten harder?  With the creation of our newest technology we have seen huge reductions in the number of people being out and involved in their community.  From dating apps to online shopping everything we used to do which allowed us to interact with others have been brought into our homes.  Churches and other communal gathering places have been reduced thanks to the reduction of faith.  The electronic and physical isolation prevents us from facing those around us who we should be caring about.  This isolation also leads to depression and feelings of loneliness.  

    The physical sloth is laziness.  We as a society have become more obese than ever before.  This isn't due to us eating so well, it is the exact opposite.  Because we can have any food we desire at any time and the quantity of the portions is much larger than anywhere else in the world we have become fat.  Kids today do not go ride bikes, run around the neighborhood, and basically have become media sponges with video games and Netflix.  Those things have led to a major increase in child obesity rates and child diabetes rates.  As adult we are not much better.  We tend to go into work and while sitting at our desks snack all day.  Then go home and are too tired to cook so Ronald McDonald feeds us.  Then we sit on our couch and binge Netflix or watch TV.  This sedentary lifestyle has allowed us to become the fattest we have ever been.  We don't go on walks, ride bikes, go on hikes, or any other activity that would help reduce those numbers.  

    So what can we do to prevent falling victim to these things?  My solution starts with faith.  Get involved with a church.  Most churches have some form of scouting, get involved in that.  Take time to spend with your families.  Set aside one day every weekend to do something outside or that requires movement.  Get to know your neighbors and don't be afraid to go ask if they need help with lawn maintenance, home projects, or any other tasks they may be doing.  Have neighborhood BBQ's and make those connections.  You will find by increasing activity and eating good home cooked food that your waistline might just start to shrink a little bit.  If you are struggling with depression or feelings of not being enough or being unwanted please talk to someone.  While suicide relieves the pain of the person it passes it onto the survivors left behind.  Don't hesitate to reach out, someone will be there I promise.  Sloths are amazing animals to see in zoos but being one at home is not something anyone needs!

Seven Deadly Sins- Greed

   

Greed is described as "intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food." In our society today we have been raised in an environment surrounded by marketing firms, advertising, and a culture defined by greed.  In my blog about envy I referenced people being hateful to others based on things they had.  This is a huge factor in people being greedy and braggart.  So let’s tackle each of the items pointed out in the definition above.

 

The first thing address is wealth.  That would be the obvious one of the three as most people thought of as greedy tend to be wealthy.  In a capitalist society how can greed be a bad thing?  I mean we want to become wealthy and have the ability to have nice things right?  The problem in this is twofold.  In having the ability to get anything we want we forget how special things can be.  We forget what it is like to work hard and have to save to achieve the goal of buying something you want.  But more than that it leads us down the path of the selfish desire referenced in the definition.  Look at the children of the super wealthy.  We see far too many of these children who never have to work for anything struggle with finding an identity and fall into other ways of finding joy like alcohol and drugs.  Many of these kids are assholes quite honestly.  They feel as though everyone should coddle them and give them what they want.  We see them yell at someone who refuses to do these things.  Recently in Lancaster we saw rioters arrested and given a one million dollar bond to be released.  The parents of one of these kids is threatening to sue the city for setting such a high bond.  This is a perfect example of the issue at hand.  This girl is a "Kappa Delta sorority sister and an “ally” of a black rights organization at the pricey private college she attends."  The college she attends charges around 60k/year to attend.  She comes from a wealthy family.  Her father stated he had spoken to his daughter but did not discuss what had happened on Sunday but did not think she was capable of doing anything wrong.  My problem here is the fact he spoke to his daughter and his first question wasn't "What in the hell did you do to get arrested!”  If my children ever called me from jail I would want to know everything that happened and what their part of it was.  She exemplifies the problems I stated above.  She obviously has no desire to be held accountable for her actions and her father is obviously ok bailing her out.  Wealth is a good thing but there is a fine line between wealthy and greedy.

 

The second thing stated in the description is power.  This one is a little more unseen than wealth but they actually go hand in hand a majority of the time, with wealth comes power.  The best example I can think of from modern news would be Epstein Island.  We saw numerous amounts of wealthy people traveling to his island to engage in sexual activities with minors as young as 14.  These events went on for years unknown to anyone outside of that group of wealthy and powerful people.  Once it all came out Epstein was arrested and sent to jail where he died of suicide while being monitored in a suicide cell.  None of the other rich and powerful people have been arrested as of my writing of this.  Many of these people were prominent politicians, actors, and high powered business people.  So why would they be able to avoid the punishment for what was done?  Quite simply, money and power.

 

Lastly they use food as an example.  The Covid-19 pandemic has really brought this to the forefront.  When people were being told to lockdown in their homes for 15 days the world went crazy.  Toilet paper of all things became so scarce people would stand in lines for hours just to fight over a 4 pack of generic tissue.  Then we saw our meat supply shrink due to shipping and other things and all of the sudden meat shelves were bare.  So while food is the example I think it applies to any other thing in our lives.  When you stockpile more items in your home then you could possibly ever use and prevent your neighbors from getting any I think you have become greedy and that is a prime example of another downfall in our society.  There once was a time you could go to your neighbors and borrow a cup of sugar or maybe some tissue but today we avoid our neighbors and horde things just so no one else will have something we do not.

 

As I said in the beginning we have been raised in a culture that teaches greed on every level.  If you see a guy in a new car you become envious when you should be applauding his success.  When a pandemic hits you horde items when you should be sharing them with people around you.  When you finally can afford all the things you could ever need or want you should be giving back to people less fortunate.  And finally I have known people who will give you $10 and you asked for $20 the problem is that may have been their last $10 and they gave you everything they had.  Greed causes so many people to break from friends, family and business partners every day.  If we do not begin to break out of this cycle and realize we take nothing with us when we die, a casket is only so big.  There is things much more important than wealth, power, or nice things.  Love one another and stop the hate.

 

Seven Deadly Sins- Lust

    We have reached the midpoint of the seven deadly sins!  With all of the focus on Netflix and the new movie "Cuties" I could not think of a better time to tackle one of the easiest sins to fall into, lust.  For those of you who may not be aware of the film here is the description from Netflix:

"Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family's traditions when she become fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew"

Now that description sounds innocent enough.  In reality the film follows Amy as she becomes fascinated with her neighbor Angelica and a twerking group called Cuties.  The dance group is an adult-style dance group which is a stark contrast to her Muslim family and their beliefs.  Throughout the film the eleven year old girls wear scantily clad outfits, use very sexual adult grinding moves, and become more accepting of using sex to accomplish their goals.  In one scene Amy steals her uncles cell phone to post pictures onto social media.  He catches her and demands she return the phone.  She slowly unbuttons her shirt and pants offering herself as "payment" for using the phone.  He of course stops her but she runs into the back room and locks the door.  Once there she removes her pants and takes a "crotch shot" and posts it onto her social media account.  It is this kind of scene that makes this sexualization of young girls all the more disgusting.  In another scene she is in a mosque during prayer and while the adults are performing the prayer ritual she is in the back on the phone watching pornography.  The immediate backlash was a hashtag on twitter #cancelnetflix which had an impact on the company causing a huge loss of income.

    So why would Netflix think this is a film they need to highlight on their platform?  According to them "The film is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.  It's an award winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up and we'd encourage anyone who cares about these important issue to watch the movie."  The critics immediately slammed the platform with claims of promoting a pedophilic movie.  A movie that claims to be against the sexualization of young girls by sexualizing young girls, and this is where lust comes in.  We as a society have become so desensitized to sexual imagery, sexual movies, and all forms of sexualization that a huge platform like Netflix felt it was ok to allow such a film to be a part of their platform.  They failed to see how this not only shows but promotes the sexualization of minors!  They fail to see how this is fertile material for pedophiles to watch and use for lustful gratification.  There is no other reason for this film being made or promoted by anyone.

    Our society has also embraced apps such as tinder, grindr, and others which promote sex without any intention of trying to form meaningful relationships.  Sure back in the day bar hopping and one night stands happened but it was not as easy as swipe left and meet at the hotel.  These apps feed our lustful sexual appetites.  They allow minimal interaction for immediate sexual gratification.  That in itself shows our blatant disregard for the family unit and has led to a huge spike in single parent homes and abortion.  Lust has led to the most liberal stances on abortion ever.  We are told that it is a valid form of birth control.  The truth is birth control needs to happen before pregnancy.  I think this is due to the need for immediate sexual gratification.  People want to meet and "hook up" with little regard or thought about using protection.  This is driven by lust.

    While lust has been a driving force for mankind through all of time the modern iteration has taken a turn that is fast becoming difficult to come back from.  We hyper-sexualize children, have no regard for children in the womb, and have destroyed the family structure needed to support a civil society.  I am not going to pound the bible and tell you that you are going to hell for sinful thoughts or actions but I do think we need to reevaluate our positions on sex.  If we continue to follow this road we will continue to see our society fall and in the end we will lose our way of life.  Nobody should be ok with killing a child yet we see law makers pushing for late term abortion.  Nobody should be ok with eleven year old being sexualized for a movie, yet cuties is applauded by the critics.  Nobody should be ok with sex trafficking of minors and women yet it happens all to often.  I guess the big question I have at the end of this is where does it end?  What will be the tipping point that makes everyone say enough is enough.  

Seven Deadly Sins- Gluttony

    

    Back after a long labor day weekend and I could not think of a more deserving sin than Gluttony!  So the basic definition of gluttony is "over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items, particularly as status symbols."  As with the first two sins I have written about the connections to current American society could not be more obvious.  In the past fifty years we have seen obesity in America nearly triple.  In the early 60's 14% of Americans had a body mass index over 30.  Today that number is between 38-40%.  That alone is should raise some eye brows but it does not.  In America we waste around eleven billion pounds of food every year, that number is about 30-40% of our food supply.  With that in mind why would we see such weight gain while simultaneously wasting so much?  The only reason I can think of is that we are over producing and are not willing to share what we have with countries that have far less than we do.  

    

    Having been in the military and deployed to Afghanistan I got to see first hand how third world countries live.  The people there live in houses with no running water, no electricity, and most of the time no roof on their houses.  And I could see all of that from the village closest to the US Military base, which I have been told has been pushed forward and brought closer to what we consider normal.  The idea that we as Americans have so much while others have so little leads many people to advocate for these impoverished countries.  The biggest problem I see with that is we also have a huge population of homeless and less fortunate that we need to take care of first.  11.8% of our population live in a state of poverty.  Many struggle to put food on the table as we discard billions of pounds a year.  When we think of gluttony we think of over eating first.  With all the food we produce we should have little to no one going without a meal every day.  In school hot lunches are a privilege not a right, yet prisoners are given 3 meals a day at tax payer expense.  This is something we need to fix.

    The next thing we see in excess is wealth.  America is one of the wealthiest countries on earth.  We have no reason to have such a high percentage of people living in poverty.  And that is what most leftists want people to focus on.  It is not wrong but giving people free stuff will only increase the number of people living in poverty.  As more people are given everything the number of people who work to support that system dwindles.  Once there are more takers than givers the system will collapse.  That is why politicians such as Bernie Sanders have consistently failed to win the nomination while running for President.  The policies pushed by him and others would only bankrupt America and drive us further away from being a first world country.  We have seen rebellions of people claiming the top earners in America are the evil villains as they own a huge percent of the wealth in our country.  Truth is most of them earned it and work hard for many more hours a day to maintain it.  Not long ago we were a country that believed in hard work and earning your keep.  Now people play victim and look for the easy route to a lawsuit or hang their hopes on winning the lottery.

    As I have watched our society begin to crumble and have seen the rise of hate, distain of success, envy of what others have, and violent outbursts I find myself wondering how fast this will fall or if we still have time to stop it and rebuild our great country.  We see people eat until they cant stuff any more into their mouths, starve for likes and fame on social media platforms, greed and envy turn brother against brother, and most of all the selfishness that comes with thinking the world owes you and you don't need to work to succeed.  A quick look at history will tell you when every great civilization has gotten too big and too successful the seven deadly sins creep in slowly and then before they know it they fall.  We have gotten to that place here in America.  We have gotten to a point of almost no return.  You may not be able to change the world but every action you take creates ripples that will grow larger through time.  Be nice to your fellow man, share everything you can, and most of all be aware of what you are doing.  Take time to smile at someone today.  Take time to share a meal with someone less fortunate.  Change starts with us, but then again maybe I am just a glutton for punishment!

Seven Deadly Sins- Envy

    

    In the second of seven blogs about the seven deadly sins and how I see our country and society today falling into them I decided the next logical step from Pride is Envy.  The definition of envy is: A feeling of discontent and ill will because of another's advantages, possessions, etc.; resentful dislike of another who has something that one desires.  If you read the definition and cannot immediately see the connection to what is going on in todays world I hope to be able to highlight what I feel exemplifies how envy is a major contributing factor.

    The term "white privilege" was coined in 1988 by Peggy McIntosh.  She wrote a paper titled "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies."  In this paper she gives 46 different examples of White Privilege.  Some of these include:

"I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time"

"I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me"

"If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live"

"I can be reasonably sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me"

"I can go shopping alone most of the time, fairly well assured that I will not be followed or harassed by store detectives"

In the years since she wrote this paper the term has referred to a "Power structure inherent in American society that disproportionately benefits white people while putting people of color at a disadvantage."  This perceived power structure is the main driving force behind the envy destroying our society today.  Black people are raised to believe that due to the atrocities of slavery in the past they are starting from a place of immediate disadvantage.  That for every step a white person makes to get ahead they will have to take five.  They are often told the system is against them.  That the white people look down on them and will always harbor racism in their hearts, even if that is not true for almost all Americans.  These factors alone are the physical respresentation of "A feeling of discontent and ill will because of another's advantage".  By raising children to always feel inferior it creates the next generation of discontent and ill will.  Only when we begin to raise our children to feel as though they can achieve anything no matter what skin color they were born with can we begin to stop this sense of envy.

    During the 2011 Occupy movement the slogan we are the 99% was widely used.  This movement took to the streets to protest what they felt was the inequality of the rich, or the 1%, or in other words the upper class being better than the lower class.  It was a movement towards class warfare.  The idea that we must rise up and "Eat the rich" or take their wealth and give it to the poor to meet this perceived equality is another real world example of envy.  We were told by the leaders of the movement that the 1% should be taxed at almost 100% to ensure the poor could be raised up and brought our of their economic hardship.  In reality that would do nothing but create a greater wealth vacuum and ultimately lead to the death of millions.  Being envious of others wealth, poccessions, houses, etc. leads to hate.  This sense of inequality can lead you to feel hopeless and that can lead to crime and violence.

    So how can we overcome envy and begin to create real change?  I propose we teach our next generation the greatness of our country.  The fact that we are the one of the only countries in the world that has ended slavery and taken strides to make equality and founding principle of our society.  Stop teaching the under privileged that they cannot overcome their hardships.  Stop highlighting skin color as a benefit or disadvantage.  Stop making criminals into heroes.  Teach our children to respect real heroes like police officers, firefighters, EMT's, and soldiers.  Celebrate our freedoms and ensure that future generations know what our constitution says and why it is important.  Instead of teaching how evil our founders were teach about the great things they did even though they were imperfect.  Push for two parent household and show the benefits of having strong family values.  Teach good morals and find a reason to bring God, Allah, or some kind of faith into our lives.  Only when we do these things can we overcome not only envy but all of the other evils that are destroying our once great country.

Seven Deadly Sins- Pride

    

I wanted to take the next few blogs and examine our current world and how I se us falling into the seven deadly sins and why this is a problem for us as a country.

    With pride being commonly listed as the deadliest of all and the root of all evil I figure it is a great place to start.  Pride is both self-respect and arrogance at the same time.  Having pride in your children, family, job, etc. can propel you to do great things and inspire you to work hard to accomplish goals.  But when pride becomes arrogant and egotistical it can lead to selfishness and isolation.  An understanding that we all have things we can be proud of without excluding others.  Pride has led us to believe we may not need religion or belief in God.  Pride has divided us as Americans.  Most of all pride has sewn the seeds of hate and vitriol we see in our society today.

    The phrase "Pride comes before the fall" is paraphrased from Proverbs 16:18 which states "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."  This was written as a warning to all people that once we let pride take over it is only a matter of time before we as a civilization fail.  Pride prevents people from being compassionate, understanding , and most of all loving to one another.  In recent months we have seen some cities devolve into chaos with riots, murders, beatings, arson, and many other violent crimes.  This is due to the rise in pride stoked by our politicians and other community leaders.  Various people from these groups have told their followers that they deserve more.  That they are better than the other side and should be allowed to have things the way they want them.  Terms like social justice and economic justice are used to drive division and tell groups of people they are starting from a point of disadvantage.  Every day we se another video of someone being killed by cops and citizens alike and it further drives the narrative that "our side" is being treated unfairly.  It furthers the idea that we need to band together by race, gender, sexual identity, or any other characteristic we can think of.  That is where pride comes in and becomes dangerous.

    We have seen more and more posts about brown pride, gay pride, white pride, etc. and each and every time it is accompanied by a video or audio showing how another group is denigrating us and treating us unfairly.  So why is that?  The answer is simple, hate.  The people that drive this are driven by hate.  That hate comes from their own sense of pride, or in this case ego, that they are superior to everyone else and anyone who disagrees must be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.  In reality most Americans are nowhere close to any of those things.  If you listen to the left and their politicians you would think we are living in the early 1900's and still immersed in slavery.  They want us to believe that black people are starting from a place of disadvantage and all white people are trying to hold them back.  Including the police.  We have been told that the police are hunting down and killing black people every single day.  You would expect the numbers of those "murdered" by cops to be in the thousands or millions when in reality last year only 9 unarmed black men were killed by police.  Conversely 19 unarmed white men were killed by police.  I know people will say "You don't understand, the cops are always pulling me over" "I cant go into a store without being followed" "People look at me and I can just tell the hate me". Why would these be common responses to the facts at hand?  Because in that community they are taught from a very young age that these things are what is happening.  They are taught they cannot overcome their starting point.  And when someone rises from that environment and becomes successful they are outcast and called a coon or uncle tom.  Why would leaders like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson not highlight these successes?  Why do they canonize the criminals killed by cops in the act of committing crimes?  Very simply, it makes them rich.

    We see pride on the other side too.  White Arian Nationalist also exist.  We still see Nazi flags and hateful rhetoric in our society.  This is also wrong on every level and 100% is due to pride becoming arrogance.  In recent months we have seen these two sides clash.  We have seen whites killing blacks, blacks killing whites, and both races killing themselves in record numbers.  The worst I have seen was a video where a large group of black people was forcing white people to kneel and apologize for their skin color and the crimes committed by white people of the past.  If the races had been reversed the white people would have been arrested for hate crimes.  Just yesterday I saw a video of an old white man walking down the street and a young black man runs up from behind and smashes him in the head with a brick.  The people recording start cheering and approving of these actions.  Why is this ok?  People should be stopping this from happening!

    Pride has become the best representation of yourself in our society.  People have turned away from a sense of community and love for one another.  In every single great civilization we saw the same thing happen.  And just like every single great civilization I think we are beginning to see the fall of a once great nation.  Sure we have had terrible things in our history but even today we are one of only a few nations which has banned slavery, struggled to make equality a reality, and treated everyone with equal respect and justice.  I truly believe we live in the land promised by God to be the breeding ground for all people to come together and show the rest of the world what greatness really is and can be.  It is my pride in America and belief in God that gives me hope we will overcome this before Pride truly comes before our fall.