HISTORY, CIVICS, AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY PART 1

HISTORY, CIVICS, AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY PART 2

HISTORY, CIVICS, AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY PART 3

HISTORY, CIVICS, AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY PENSACOLA’S FIVE-FLAGS DISPLAYS

THIRD WILL AND TESTAMENT

Strange how I can write, but cannot read.

How I can speak, but cannot listen.

Goddamned rain–pouring again.

Of course it’s climate change.  Our planet has gone through these on a regular basis since its birth.  Global warming, global cooling, global warming, global cooling.  It’s the natural cycle of our planet.  We just don’t notice the regularity of these climate changes, because our lives are so brief.

The last climate change like this one, with a tendency toward global warming, occurred twelve hundred years ago.  It affected everyone of course–all over the planet.  Yet its effect on the Norse is what we remember most.

That last global-warming climate change caused severe drought in Scandinavia. And the Norse–traders before the ninth century–became the raiders for which we remember them today.  Hunger can make one mean–and the Norse, the Vikings, were very hungry.

Andy Warhol said that in this time everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. There was just one catch–contained in that forecast itself–one word.  Everyone. All seven billion of us.  We are the anonymous ninety-nine percent.  Just as only one percent has all the money, only one percent has all the fame–or infamy.  And Americans, at least, have never been as shallow as they are now–in this goddamned Digital Age.  They used to listen to experts.  Now they only listen to celebrities.  Famous celebrities like Nikki Haley–and infamous celebrities like Dylann Roof.  And what’s the difference between Dylann Roof, the piece of White trash who murdered nine people in a church, and Nikki Haley, the piece of White trash who exploited Dylann Roof’s mass murder for her political career?  The difference is that Dylann Roof rots in a federal prison–he will never get out alive–while Nikki Haley lives it up on the 42nd Floor of the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan.  Yet ultimately, Dylann Roof and Nikki Haley are guilty of the same crime.

Am I right in my assessment of these two partners in violent crime–one in a very low place, and one in a very high place?

What does it matter?

Nothing I say is of any consequence–because I’m neither famous nor infamous. I’m not a celebrity.  I’m not a star like our goddamned President.  As aforementioned, no one in this Digital Age listens to experts–everyone only listens to mindless, worthless celebrities.

I could channel the voice of God, and it would make no difference, would it?

If you don’t think White people can be poor, I can prove you wrong.

There are as many poor Whites in the United States as poor Blacks–possibly more.

Americans need to understand that what are believed to be racial and ethnic conflicts in the United States are actually class conflicts.

These are ancient conflicts that span all the earth and all humanity.

In Europe, these conflicts are blatant–none pretend they don’t exist.

But in the United States, they’ve never been blatant–none but the poor have ever even admitted they’ve existed.

And no one listens to the poor.

I think this is because our government was founded on ideals of equality. Ideally, we’ve always been equal in the United States–but realistically, we’ve never been.

This is just one reason why this posthumous extermination of the Confederate States of America is so devastating to the United States of America–the epidemic ignorance of American history is spread more widely and deeply by politicians who censor American historical flags and monuments, without the consent of their constituents.

So Digital-Age Americans, already dangerously ignorant of American history, are made more dangerously ignorant by politicians who trample all over their First-Amendment right to freedom of speech.

And lies told by the victors over the vanquished are no longer questioned.

Lies like those told of the War between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America.

The United States won that war–so the United States has written the history of it. And of course that history is full of lies–as any history, which is always written by the victors, always is.

This is how the politicians of today become the dictators of tomorrow.

This is how America ends–then the world.

The Digital-Age United States is quickly becoming a dystopia–a nightmarish blend of the dystopian novels, 1984 and Brave New World, and the 1984 dystopian film, The Terminator.

And this is happening because Digital-Age Americans are allowing it to happen.

The Thought Police are the media magnates, the soma is the smartphone.  Yet instead of fusing machine and man physically (re the cyborg (cybernetic organism)), this unrestrained Digital-Age technology is fusing machine and man emotionally, mentally, and spiritually–the heartless, mindless, and godless smartphones are making their users heartless, mindless, and godless.

The more agonizing this Digital-Age hell becomes, the less influential and consequential my words and actions become.

It truly is strange how much more easily I can write than read.

How much more easily I can speak than listen.

I’ve always been this way.

This house is a cage with an open door.

Not only do I have neither the means nor expertise to execute the Dishonorable Nikki R. Haley–I have neither the means nor expertise to escape this cage.  Or this time.

Yet no one has ever had the means or expertise to escape a time.

I had a .30-06 a long time ago–with an excellent scope.

It was the only gun I’ve ever owned.

Sometime in my twenties, I sold it.

As I recall, I didn’t really need the money–I was just angry at my father, who had given it to me as a Christmas gift in 1983.

A thug stole it from me in 1984–along with fifty dollars I was going to use for Christmas gifts.

I agreed to a plea deal with the thug–he’d show the police where he’d ditched my rifle, and he’d pay back my fifty dollars that he’d gambled away.

In return, I’d allow the felony charge to be dropped to a misdemeanor charge–and he’d only spend thirty days in jail.

I really hope he turned his life around, after that–giving to his community, rather than just taking from it.

Before President-elect Trump nominated Nikki Haley for a cabinet position–and Democratic and Republican politicians confirmed her for it–I only regretted selling my .30-06, with the excellent scope, because I’d hurt my father’s feelings so much.

Now I regret selling it because I no longer have it.

A .30-06–with an excellent scope–can take down a large deer easily.

And it can take down a diabolical politician even more easily.

A diabolical politician like the Dishonorable Nikki R. Haley.

Who exploited a mass murder for her political career–and is living it up in Manhattan for that exploitation.

Who blamed that mass murder on a flag–just to dodge any discussion of gun regulation.

Who began a posthumous extermination of the Confederate States of America–carried out almost exclusively by Republican politicians like her–which is destructive as hell to the United States of America.

Who places the demands of the Israeli government above the needs of the American people.

Who exploits her position as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations–the American people having had no say, whatsoever, in her attainment of this position.

The only good thing about Nikki Haley is her looks.

And she knows how to use her looks to get anything she wants–she always has, and she always will.  She’ll just keep getting more and more and more.

Unless someone stops her–someone with the means and expertise to stop her.

And a .30-06.  With an excellent scope.

What’s that you’re thinking?

That violence is never the answer?

That I’m such a terrible person for calling for the execution of Nikki Haley?

That killing her cannot be justified, no matter what she has done, is still doing–and will do when she becomes the next president of the United States?

That all lives matter–even those of diabolically evil politicians, like the Dishonorable Nikki R. Haley?

Then stop mindlessly talking, texting, and tweeting on your mindless smartphones–over mindless matters, with your mindless Digital-Age playmates.

And contact President Trump.

And tell him to remove that goddamned Nikki Haley from his cabinet.

And just in case he ignores you–which he will almost certainly do–remind him that you can get him out of office more quickly than you put him in office.

Oh, you don’t think you put Donald Trump in office?

If you voted for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries last year, you most definitely put Donald Trump in office.

Why, you’re more responsible for Donald Trump’s presidency than those who voted for him in the Republican primaries last year.

You’ll be more responsible for Nikki Haley’s presidency too.

Keep calm, and tell President Trump to remove that goddamned Nikki Haley from his cabinet–now.

On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof murdered nine people at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

I am so tired of being punished for his crime.

You should be tired of it too.

A LETTER TO EVERY EDITOR

What’s strange about the blind system by which submissions are approved or rejected is that it often does exactly the opposite of what it’s intended to do.

In the last edition of the Emerald Coast Review I had the smallest amount of my submitted work published–since before I joined the West Florida Literary Federation in 2007–because I hadn’t been attending the monthly open mics in the two years before its publication.  I hadn’t been keeping in touch with the regular attendees of the open mics–and I especially hadn’t been reading my work.

Attendees of the open mics remember what’s read at the open mics–and who reads it.  So when they’re appointed to read submissions to the Emerald Coast Review, they know who wrote the submissions–they remember who read them at open mics.

Also, every writer–as you know–has a unique style.  So even if what one submits hasn’t been shared at an open mic, those who are familiar with his or her style still recognize it.

Then there’s prejudice by readers toward any submission.  Because we’re all prejudiced–and we always will be.

Your readers–who approve or disapprove every submission for the Emerald Coast Review–are extremely prejudiced.  Because they’re human beings–and all human beings are extremely prejudiced, and always have been.

This validly criticized politically-correct culture–which is a direct consequence of unrestrained Digital-Age technology–is arguably the best display of human prejudice in human history.

In the third part of a video presentation I gave on Pensacola’s Five-Flags Displays, I compare the censorship by religious conservatives in the past to the censorship by secular liberals in the present.

I cite the censorship of the two funniest novels I’ve ever read–The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn.

As I explain, The Catcher in the Rye was censored by religious conservatives, in the past, because it is laced with profanity–particularly the word, goddam.

And Huckleberry Finn is censored by secular liberals, in the present, because it is laced with the word, nigger.

But I also explain how–just as the religious conservatives who censored The Catcher in the Rye had never read The Catcher in the Rye–the secular liberals who censor Huckleberry Finn have never read Huckleberry Finn.

And censorship is born of prejudice.

Religious conservatives censored The Catcher in the Rye because they were extremely prejudiced of The Catcher in the Rye.

And secular liberals censor Huckleberry Finn because they are extremely prejudiced of Huckleberry Finn.

The majority of your readers were extremely prejudiced of my submission because it had the word, Goddamned, in its title.  And the majority of Southern Americans–of any age–have a strong aversion toward that word.

In fact, there was a study done, years ago, on what television content most offended viewers in different regions of the United States.

West Coast viewers were most offended by gratuitous violence.

Midwestern viewers were most offended by gratuitous sex.

And Southern viewers were most offended by profane language.

Then of course I strongly criticize this Digital Age in my submission.

I choose not to have a cellphone–but none of your readers likely make that choice.

I choose not to have a Facebook or Twitter account–but none of your readers likely make that choice.

So how do you think they felt, reading my submission?

Here was some high-and-mighty, old bastard who had the audacity to criticize their Digital-Age lifestyle–and unashamedly declare it, in the very title of his submission, to be damned by God!

Of course your readers rejected my submission–I would have expected that.

That’s why I would expect you to override their decision.

You’re the editor-in-chief of the Emerald Coast Review.  You have your prejudices, of course–but you’re almost certainly more intelligently discerning than your readers are.  And you’re obviously far more experienced with evaluating writing, based on its literary merit–as well as its historical, anecdotal, psychological, sociological, and philosophical merit–than your readers are.

Then there’s the anonymity of your readers.  They have an idea who we are–but we have no idea who they are, until the Emerald Coast Review is published.

So there’s no skin off their noses–they don’t have to answer to us, as to why they’ve rejected our submissions.

This is like a jury trial in which the accused never even sees or hears the anonymous jury until the judge has already sentenced the accused.

So as the judge in the trial of my submission, Parts 1 and 2 of DEALING WITH THE GODDAMNED DIGITAL AGE, I respectfully ask you to overrule the decision made by the anonymous jury.

I respectfully ask you to include it in this upcoming edition of the Emerald Coast Review.

DOES GOD EXPECT US TO DO GOD’S WORK?

The Creator of this conceivably infinite universe–indeed, conceivably, an infinity of infinite universes–is perceived by us as Yahweh, God, Allah, the Great Spirit, and numerous other names, including the Creator.

And the Creator is perceived by us as masculine, feminine, or neuter (he, she, or it), or none of these–or all of these.

Yet in most English-speaking countries, including the United States, the Creator is most often perceived of as God, and as masculine.

Many of us are averse to using the name, God, though they need not be–it’s just a name.

And many of us claim that there is no God (just as many of us claim that God belongs to them–that God favors them, or their group, above all others, or all other groups).

Those of us who claim that there is no God usually point to the apparent absence of God’s intervention in human affairs–indeed in this universe, at all–as evidence that there is no God.

Yet the possibility that God chooses not to intervene–that God sees the truth, but waits–doesn’t occur to them (i.e. they consider themselves atheists, when they can more accurately consider themselves deists).

Many of us believe that God intervenes in all human affairs–indeed that God intervenes in every individual aspect of any, or every, individual human being’s life.

Some of these tend to praise God for everything that goes well in their lives–but blame themselves, others, or no one, for everything that goes badly in their lives.

Others of these tend to praise themselves, others, or no one, for everything that goes well in their lives–but blame God for everything that goes badly in their lives.

Those of us who believe that God chooses not to intervene–that God sees the truth, but waits–can avoid the dilemmas faced by those of us who believe the reverse.

Yet we cannot avoid the question why.

If God chooses not to intervene in human affairs–indeed in this universe, at all–why?

Is God indifferent to us?

Is God unaware of us?

Or is God totally interested in us, totally aware of us–yet expecting us to act as God in this universe?

Does God expect us to do God’s work?

WHAT MAKES NIKKI HALEY SO DISHONORABLE

“Fair play seeks what is right–not who is right.”

More than any other teaching I’ve ever heard in my life, I try to live by this one from the late Zig Ziglar.

But politicians, like Nikki Haley, do exactly the opposite–everything with those bastards is a double standard.

While Nikki Haley was reluctantly doing her obligatory survey outside the scene of Dylann Roof’s massacre of nine parishioners of Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, she was approached by an NBC reporter.

The reporter asked Haley if she would consider doing anything at all to strengthen the gun laws in the state of which she was governor.

Haley indicated she absolutely would not.  She made it very clear that Dylann Roof’s gun had nothing to do with that mass murder–and that only Dylann Roof was to blame.

Haley made the arguably valid statement that whenever something like this happened, everyone wanted to blame it on something.

Then Nikki Haley did exactly that.  She blamed the mass murder committed by Dylann Roof, in Charleston, on a Confederate battle flag beside a Confederate memorial monument in Columbia, South Carolina.

Nikki Haley implied that a Confederate battle flag displayed beside a Confederate memorial monument had inspired Dylann Roof to murder nine people in a church. She emphatically suggested that a flag had caused the murder of nine people.

Republican Nikki Haley began a program of gross infringement on our First-Amendment right to freedom of speech, simply to avoid any discussion of our Second-Amendment right to keep and bear arms–a program that is still being carried out, almost exclusively by Republican state and local politicians.

Nikki Haley cared not about what was right, but who was right–who being the Republican Party (the Republican Party being the darling of the NRA).

Now, as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, she’s threatening the United Nations Human Rights Council with a U.S. withdrawal from it–because, as she claims, the United Nations is “bullying” Israel (the Zionist State)–which has been bullying Palestinian Arabs since 1948.

Nikki Haley cares not about what is right, but who is right–who being the Republican Party (the Republican Party being the darling of the Zionist State).

Everything with Nikki Haley is a double standard.

Nikki Haley will tell anything but the truth, expecting enough people to buy her lies–no matter how preposterous.

And sadly, enough people do.

This is why the Dishonorable Nikki R. Haley is the most dangerous politician in the United States today.

And she will remain so, unless enough people stop buying her lies.

Fair play seeks what is right–not who is right.

Nikki Haley seeks the opposite–and takes it for granted that enough other people will do the same.

This is what makes Nikki Haley so dishonorable.

THE ULTIMATE COST OF CENSORSHIP

I last visited New Orleans in the summer of 1991, when I was 25.

It was a wonderful experience–so much to ponder.

One night there, I stayed at the Cornstalk Inn Hotel, in the French Quarter.

Among the many sites I’d seen that day was a slave market–just down the street from this bed-and-breakfast hotel.

According to the legend of the Cornstalk Inn, Harriet Beecher Stowe was among the many notable guests who had slept there–and she was inspired to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, after visiting that slave market.

Of course that slave market was still in business when Harriet Beecher Stowe was there.

And of course I pondered what that must have been like–seeing people being sold like cattle.

That slave market was still there, in 1991–as it still is today.

It was far older than that historic hotel–in fact, it had probably been built by the French.

And if it hadn’t have been there, I couldn’t have pondered anything.

Before Mitch Landrieu’s term is up, he’ll almost certainly destroy that slave market too.

And at this point, he might as well.

After all, I can never again ponder the historical significance of the Battle of Liberty Place, in New Orleans.  Nor can I ever again ponder the historical and cultural significance of U.S. Secretary of War and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, U.S. Civil Engineer and Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, and U.S. Lieutenant Colonel and Confederate General Robert E. Lee–all three men greatly, and validly, admired by the United States and Confederate States, alike.

This is the ultimate cost of this posthumous extermination of the Confederate States of America.

This is the ultimate cost of censorship–especially government-imposed censorship, executed by self-serving politicians, with no regard for the constitutional or civil rights of their constituents.

HOSTILE TAKEOVERS

“When the demons are so suspicious, how can the son later make any good connection with adult male energy, especially the energy of an adult man in a position of authority or leadership?  As a musician he will smash handcrafted guitars made by old men, or as a teacher suspicious of older writers he will ‘deconstruct’ them.  As a citizen he will take part in therapy rather than politics…”

“…in traditional cultures, the older men and the older women often are the first to speak in public gatherings; younger men may say nothing but still aim to maintain contact with the older men.  Now we have twenty-seven-year-olds engaged in hostile takeovers who will buy out a publishing house and dismantle in six months what an older man has created over a period of thirty years.”

Text from Iron John: A Book About Men, by Robert Bly, 1990