New Year, Same Old Bullshit (Parable Of The Ten Virgins, Eight.)

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the House of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors...

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

...

The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angkar are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive. ~Dith Pran, The Killing Fields

It's New Years.

This shit was the first thing I saw when I got up this morning.

So, meet the new year, same as the old year?

I've known at least since I took Social Studies as a Fifth-Grader in California that you have to be a citizen of a country to vote. Fun fact, both of the schools I went to out there were pretty diverse, but in the Catholic school in particular at least half my class was Latino...and there was probably a plurality of us who were military dependents, mostly the kids of troops from the nearby El Toro and Tustin Marine Corps Air Stations. (The Lutheran school I went to was the same way, but had a greater percentage of white kids, naturally.)

The only reason for people to be this damn ignorant is because they want to be...

Ignorant, yes; Ignorant and racist, is more likely...these people want to have somebody to hate.

Doesn't matter who it is, or why. It's a cult. Death, wealth, hatred...what else is there to modern "Conservatism?" Note I say that as a former Republican myself, who came up in an environment that was at least...different from this.

The thing is, a hell of a lot of these Latino migrants nowadays come from more conservative countries like El Salvador and Guatemala. In point of fact, they come here to do jobs that Americans will not do. (Increasingly, this includes construction jobs that were totally dominated by white dudes 20-30 years ago.) Trust me, these dudes come into my work in American flag hats and Under Armour hoodies fully bedecked in the symbolism of Americanism all the time, and they buy American cigarettes and mostly drink American beer and partake heavily of American capitalism. (Which is also why Republicans seem to increasingly hate Capitalism, itself.) 

If Republicans actually wanted to...and wanted to get and keep an electoral knife in their belt that they could use against Democrats basically forever...they could treat those people well, make them a constituency and ya know...get them to vote Republican. It would be easy, I'm not joking. Those people are no different than we are.

But then the Republicans couldn't be as hateful, or as ignorant, and they'd have fewer people to be cruel to, or something. The only way people like Donald Trump will ever stop attacking stuff like citizenship and voting is if they're the only ones who get to have it.

And they'd gladly inflict all the torments of Revelation on the rest of us for no better reason than to try to show the Power they think they have.

You can't reason with this shit, you can only defeat it...and then be prepared when they want to fight you because they lost.

But you have to show up and vote your own damn self. You have to be a better citizen.

And that's our task for this New Year, isn't it?

Seven

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Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch ye therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. ~Matthew 25:1-13