Patience

The professor in class asked a question about the patience displayed by the main character of the Shawshank Redemption movie Andrew "Andy" Dufresne who is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine for murdering his wife and her lover.

The question being to put ourselves in his place and describe the Patience needed to make it.

Now I would like to point out that for one, Andy’s patience ran out as he eventually escaped after realizing the limits and futility of his own patience, second you do not have to imagine what it would be like to live through this since in real life there are hundreds of former prisoners who have been wrongly convicted only to be released later after the truth inevitably emerges from the darkness.

They are experts in the matter and could give most Buddhist Monks a run for their money on what it means to be patient.

I have watched these men, through the media, as they embrace their freedom with a calm that to me is so shocking that it borders on terrifying.

How does someone maintain their sanity after pleading, screaming, bargaining for anyone to listen that they are innocent?

How do you control of your emotions, and achieve a level of peace KNOWING that you are paying for a crime you did not commit?

All the while caged like an animal surrounded by men who have committed REAL crimes against their fellow man and who have built a culture in those prisons were the weak are preyed upon and the solution seems to be to become a predator.

How do you not let hate eat away at your soul and lash violently out at the world trying to make it feel the pain you suffered with all those years stuck in time as the rest of the world kept turning, not just leaving you behind but forgetting about your existence all together?

How do you not let the stress kill you, or for that matter how do you not kill yourself?

I can only speculate on what it takes, because I have never walked in those shoes and I pray that I never do.

Hate would be my close friend in there, my confidant, and my support.

The only thing I can think of is that these men have consciously or sub-consciously practiced a combination of mediation, denial, hope and faith.

Meditation to clear the mind of all distractions and allowing for focus.

The denial of the despair that creeps into you and allows you to accept your fate, abandoning the future.

Hope that your freedom will be given back to you.

And finally, faith, faith in the world that it will open its eyes and see your innocence.

This is what I believe will allow them to ease the stress of their minds and hold on to their sanity and eventually leave prison still human and maybe better off than what they were before.

That is what I think it would take to come out of their alive. Alive and at peace with not only yourself but those around you and more importantly those who are responsible for your incarceration.

I cannot say that I am that type of person who would have the types of tools to make it out. But seeing men like the ones who did make it out gives me hope at the very least.

The GOP Declares War On Sanity.

Fake Protesters At Health Care Town Halls


I knew the GOP could get low down dirty like no other cold war political propaganda machine but the tactics of late is out right would be despicable if it wasn't so pathetic.



Are you serious?

This is the best you can do?

Sending in town hall busters to spread chaos?

The Public Health care Option is what it sounds like, it is an option.

You can stick with your own provider if you like and if your provider gets run out of business because of the plan, guess what?

They went out of business because they couldn't compete with a better service and you were the last to know.

Welcome to capitalism which would be the opposite of "fascist" and "socialist" BS charges they the GOP have made against Obama.

You got to treat these people like certain bloggers.

If there ranting and raving about something yet are not offering an alternative solution or better yet not even addressing the issues there mad about, than yes they are full of it.

And you should back away from them slowly, do not engage in conversation about the topic with them, cause you cant win arguing with nuts, and do the research your self.

Start by going here to Health Reform.

Than there is this little gem right here.


Damn!

They didn't even try with this one, how stupid can you be?

OK this shit ain't funny any more, these quacks are trying to hold the nation hostage with there insanity.

They are trying to drag the country and than the rest of the planet into an abyss of ignorance and fear.

There is absolutely no rational reason for not having a public health care plan, and if your Representative is saying there is than I am going to call it like I see it, the bum is in the pocket of the lobbyists and he or she needs to be removed from office.

Don't let the suckers sucker you.

You are getting screwed and not in a way you like.

DO NOT DRINK THE KOOL AID!!!!!

Public Service Announcement 10: MOMS

This is not about MILFs, (I'll save that for another time).

MOMS is actually a acronym for Missing Or Murdered Sisters, a group of residents in North Carolina has placed a digital billboard up in their community showing the faces of the the missing and murders of black women the city of Rocky Mountain (read here).

5 of the murders are connected which is a sign that there is a serial killer out there who is targeting black women with similar backgrounds.

The murders date back to 2005 and progress has been slow in solving the cases as well as very little public attention given to it.

There are a number of reason why this might be, first being that the women are all black.

In a society that sees very little value in the lives of blacks in general, even among our own, the sad truth is the lives of black women are seen as doubly cheap and thus expendable.

To add on to this the life style of the women, who struggled with drug addiction and engaged in prostitution, may have consciously or subconsciously allowed the public to dismiss the murders all together as something of a "natural" occurrence to people in that life style.

That type of thinking is cruel and dangerous.

These women were human beings first.

These women were someones mother, daughter, sister, cousin, and or friend.

Some one at one time or another loved them and will miss them.

No one can be certain what the circumstances in their lives were that led them down this path but I have learned over time a turn left instead of right, a choice taken or not taken, a choice forced upon you, can easily be the difference maker on whether you become a CEO or First Lady or a junkie and or worse.

What I am certain is that if given the right amount of time, attention, and help anyone can change, but these women were robbed of even that small opportunity, something they were at the very least deserving of having.

Surely their lives were worth that small price.

And despite the pattern who is to say that the next woman would not be a stand up citizen in society?

A single working mother on her way home from a long day at work.

A college student rushing to class to take her final.

A house wife shopping for the kids.

A young lady starting a job in the career she worked hard to get.

Whose to say it wouldn't be you?

That control is not in your hands, it's in the hands of a predator who sees you as prey.

He is the judge, jury, an executioner, playing God with someones life.

If not for their lives than what about yours?

I joke around about I thank God I was born a man but not really, it's hell out here for women and black women rank last in that category, that needs to change like yesterday.

Symphony from Essential Presence put me on this and has provided the links for contact info with the residents and to make donations to keep that billboard running.

I'm sure what ever you can spare would be more than appreciated, it could save lives.

That's all for now, back to our regularly scheduled debauchery.

So What You Going To Do Now Goodell?

I never liked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.



Nothing personal, it's not like I was hating him for no reason he earned it.

You see when he first got the gig, (which I was happy about because people kept bouncing the idea of Condoleezza Rice which would have drove me nuts), I said cool.

Like any incoming administrator he wanted to set the rules down. Show people how he wanted things run, and what the goals were.

His platform was to protect the brand that is the NFL, cause unlike other sports the teams and the league are bigger stars than the players, that's the way they set it up.

And protecting the bran means cracking the whip on misbehavior of players around the league who couldn't keep their nose, hands and penises clean.....literally.

No more boys will be boys, it's men will be men from now on.

How can you argue with that?

but than my radar started going off, the one that automatically kicks and fills me with an extreme dislike for people in authority who I think hold too much power.

Power with no checks and balances and no sense of justice.

You see it kicked in with Adam "Pacman" Jones who got suspended for getting in a fight.

Now trust me Adam did enough to warrant something, like the Stupidest N@#$ in the World Award, but the back of my mind kept saying "how do you justify suspending some one who hasn't been convicted of a crime?".

Than there was Chris Henry, another nominee Stupidest N@#$ in the World Award for who caught a suspension for allegedly punching some kid in the face.

Charges that never made it to court but didn't stop him from getting a suspension.

Again there goes that radar.

There are some more names on the list that you can say deserved it but the one that sticks out is Mike Vick, suspended before he ever got to court, for a crime against animals with the old commish toying with the idea of suspending him even longer now that he is out of jail.

My radar went ballistic during this period.

No this guy has a little too much juice and no one is questioning him about it.

Not the media who in reality hate professional athletes out of pure jealousy and revel in their falls.

Not players who cant seem to understand that they are basically working on a plantation were the teams will use and spit you out with little to know compensation.

Not the Player's Union, who by their very definition should be all over Goodell's butt when ever he looks side ways at a player, which only confirms my belief that they are in cohots with each other thus giving it to the players from both ends.

Not a word.

Roger Goodell is the Dick Cheney of football prosecutor, judge, executioner and 0 accountability.

0

But hey I believe if your not going to help your self than why should I say anything?

If the players want to act like a drunk teenage girl on prom night........


......that's on them.

I cant do nothing for you man.

But wait whats this.......it seems that one of the league's golden boys has got his dip stick caught in the door.


Ben Roethlisberger


Two time Super Bowl champ all around good guy, one of the NFL's favorite sons, has been accused of rape.

Now personally, I'm not buying it.

There are too many holes in this story.

BUT

In the Kingdom of Goodell accusation is enough, Ben doesn't have to go to trial, he if he settles out of court it might as well be a guilty verdict.

If he goes to trial well than he should be suspended like the other players who who never made it to trial before be told to get to stepping.

The only way out of this for Ben is if the accuser got up there and said, "hey I'm lying I was just trying to get a check.".

That's the only way given Goodell's track record.

Now if Goodell doesn't do anything........well I'm going to call a spade a spade and say this is some racist bullshit.

And that goes for the Union too if they open their mouths up now.

And maybe that will wake the players up to see how there is not much difference between this..........


.....and this.......




So basically all I am saying is what the next move Goodell?


It's on you now.