A Mirror to Government Control: Are Dems Right?

August 16th, 2009 | By Sonnie Johnson

My sister came to visit me this week. She brought her friend. Not like that, he is just a friend. In fact, he’s been our friend for over a decade. That means I’ve seen him up, down, and every level in between.

O.K. We get into a conversation about politics. He isn’t a Barack Obama Fan nor did he vote for John McCain, he hates all politicians. But it doesn’t stop there. He also hates the military, the police, and all other government entities. He says, “I don’t believe any of them have my best interest at heart”.

Then he starts, “The government should pay for healthcare, jobs, food, house, and everything else because it’s not fair”. “I work two jobs and don’t have money to feed myself, that shit is fucked up”.

So I ask, “What kind of car do you drive?” He looks at me for a moment before he tried to rationalize his answer. See, he doesn’t have a place to live, his job cut back his hours, and he drives a 2005 BMW. A couple months ago, he was in a car accident. Guess what, no car insurance and no health insurance; so his check is being garnished to pay for the repair to the other person’s car.

None of this is mentioned in his original tirade about the state of our Government. Nothing about his own self-responsibility or lack there of. He made all the same mistakes I’ve made. He’s spent money on the here and now and not planning for the future. The only difference, I understand these were my mistakes and not that of the government. He, on the other hand, looks toward the government as a scapegoat.

Let me give you a little more back round before I make my point. His father was in the military. They traveled all around the world before they retired as a military family in Virginia. His father worked a blue collar job and his mother worked in Academia. They didn’t make alot of money, but they raised three kids in a nice neighborhood and they always had food and clothes.

His father doesn’t complain about his life, his father takes what comes like a soldier. They decided to sell their house and now my friend is mad, “My father worked his whole life, it ain’t right they have to sell the house”. Well, the father sold the house because he didn’t need the space or maybe it was to let the last chick in nest know it was time to branch out on his own. They still are home owners, it’s just now, they don’t have a mortgage because they own a smaller house.

While in the process of moving, the father fell from a ladder and hurt his back. He went to the hospital and when all was said and done, he owed a $7,000 bill. My friend was mad all over again, “My father served in the military for 20 years, he shouldn’t have to pay anything when he gets hurt”. His brother and sister, on the other hand, split the bill and paid it off for their father.

My Point

Throughout this post, I’ve referred to this person as my friend. The truth is, I’ve never really treated him like a friend. When it’s time for “grown folks” conversation, he always reverts back to someone else. I don’t have the tolerance for that. Example: We were in the deep country at my Aunts for a cook-out. He walks up to me and starts to talk. Normally, I’d blow him off and run as away as fast as I could, but this day I stayed and listened.

He told me he wanted something different for his life. He was tired of trying and trying but never getting anywhere. I knew he was full of it. I knew he was just talking to hear his own voice but I listened. When he finished, I felt bad because he was going through a lot of the same things I was going through. He was sad, unsure, and scared out of his mind at the idea of what the future held for him.

You ever experience a time when you’re not thinking of prayer, yet God enters your head? Well, I had one of those moments. I took the time to sit and talk with him. I told him, “we keep going through the same things because we keep doing the same things. We have to self-analyze and figure out what faults we have that are keeping us down.”

Now, I gave him every opportunity to admit a self-fault. Like, I had to apologize to him because during the course of our conversation, I started yelling at him. It is a fault I have but I own up to it. (Quite often, I’m ashamed to admit) But he stood in my face and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He stood there like he did everything right and this is his reward.

Actually, he continued to do everything wrong and this is his punishment. He actually looks through the Bible and finds the verses that excuse his laziness or explains his inability to persevere. I quote the same passage to him every time. “To thine own self be true”

He told me upon leaving my house, no matter what the conversation, he always leaves with a different perspective on life. But this is what I don’t understand, I’ve been talking the same way since…….forever. How can I constantly keep changing your mind?

As flawed as I am, I still know one thing to be true. The only person I can really trust is myself. That means I have no choice but to look in the mirror and recognize my faults to make sure I’m trustworthy. Just as you would examine the acts of another to determine their level of trust. If in that self-analysis you refuse to look at self, then you’ve got a problem.

If in that self-analysis you refuse to look at self and turn your focus to government, then we’ve all got a problem. “By the people and for the people” used to be a good thing. Religion was front and center for majority of Americans. They believed in God’s word and that meant “reaping what you sow”. If you want food, you have to plant crops and hunt for meat. If you wanted to survive winter, you had to plan properly in spring, summer, and fall. If you wanted to be treated with respect, treat others with respect first.

Now we believe we must reap what our forefather’s have sown. They were slaves, so we should be treated better BY GOVERNMENT. They were persecuted, raped, and ripped from their families, so we should be taken care of BY GOVERNMENT. They were whipped, hung, and called every name but the child of God, so GOVERNMENT STAND UP AND DO WHAT”S RIGHT.

Did we forget to mention, Government made us slaves? How flawed are you personally, if you overlook all of this just to avoid looking at yourself in the mirror? You can blame Government for putting crack in the inner cities but are willing to let them take over your healthcare. You can blame Government for capitalist theft in inner cities, then let them become responsible for job creation and economic leadership. You can blame Government for failing to educate, then allow the entire Public Education system to be run by Unions that endorse more Government.

If you blame Government for all these mistakes and grievances, why would you want them to have more control over your life?

A. You are in the controlling body of Government and you understand the amount of power coming your way. Our founding father’s didn’t know what they were doing. You can’t trust the American people to make decisions for themselves, they refuse to even look in the mirror. We need centralized power to enrich people’s lives by telling them what to eat, what to drive, where to live, where to work, and how many kids to have. They will love us because we will structure their lives for them and if it doesn’t work, they won’t have any power to change it back. WIN WIN

B. You don’t care. Government will do what they want to do, why bother? I’ll do me and that’s all that matters. Plus, Barack Obama is black, he knows what’s up!

C. Slavery wasn’t all that bad. I mean, this time we wouldn’t actually have to wear chains. We’ll be more like the people in Cuba and Venezuela. We’ll already know who to vote for, so we don’t have to pay attention to politics. Who cares if we no longer have freedom of choice, that means we don’t have to think for ourselves. Who needs a mirror anyways?

D. I’ll keep blaming Government as long as it means I don’t have to self-analyze.

If the majority of Americans pick an answer to this question, we are getting government we deserve. Even worse than that, the Democrats would be right, not in their campaign pledges or well put together speeches, but in their overall focus. If we become a nation not willing to fight for our own freedoms or our own right to make mistakes, then I can’t blame them for usurping that power. It would be like a Nanny walking past a baby and not picking it up.

Give your power away and someone will take it. Don’t set firm morals and beliefs and someone can come along and change them. Forget we became the greatest nation in the world because of individual strength and the Government will collect and consume until there is no more value in the individual.

Dormant Thoughts

August 8th, 2009 | By Sonnie Johnson

Mary had a loaded gun, loaded gun, loaded gun

Mary had a loaded gun, whose aim was straight and true

And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went

And everywhere that Mary went, best believe her gun went to

She carried it shopping one day, shopping one day, shopping one day

She carried it shopping one day, which was against the rules

When the rapist came her way, came her way, came her way

When the rapist came her way, she knew just what to do

I’m I a fool

Turning nursery rhymes into preventing crimes

For overseers to chime/ in and so it begins

The release of my dormant thoughts

Jack and Jill went up the Hill to reach the American Dream

Jack got lazy, Jill got shady, what the perfect team

I mean, why climb the Hill for water

Instead of waiting for it to come down stream

What’s less intrusive, hard work or a broken dream

It would seem, the broken dream

Because with it comes a life time of what could have been

Buried in Jack and Jill’s dormant thoughts

Baa, Baa, Gold Sheep have you any wool

Yes, sir Yes, sir Three bags full

One for myself

One for government

One to help others when moneys’ finally spent

Or lent to other sheep so they can produce as well

You get more water when you build more wells

But the sheep clearly sees the writing on the wall

So instead he hibernated all through the fall

And when winter came, the sheep was nice and warm

While government ignores those freezing in the storm

In his dormant thoughts, the sheep wants to reach out to you

but he knows that means the government is coming too.

Pat-a-cake, Pat-a cake, Congressman

Make me a bill as fast as you can

Pork it

Don’t read it

And stand with shoulders tall

Because the bigger we are

The harder we fall

And crawl/ back home

To hear the voters say

Our dormant thoughts lead us astray

Little Barack Obama/sat in the corner

Eating his budget pie

He stuck in his thumb

Doubled the sum

and said What a good boy am I.

And our dormant thoughts reply “WHAT”!?!?!?!?!?

Grandma, Medicine, The Mob & Freedom

August 8th, 2009 | By Sonnie Johnson

I have one conception that stays relevant in my mind, if I ever need to go home, Grandma has a roof for my head, food for my daughter, and uplifting words to get me back on my feet. Does this make her an ideal candidate for any medical service she needs? I mean, she is the rock and corner stone of our family, the reason we make sure to gather the grand kids together multiple times a year. Will Medical Boards consider this when deciding if she should get a new hip or medicine for her cataracts.

What about her contributions to the church, will they count? I mean, she is the first one to the church on Sunday morning and the last one to leave when the entire church is clean and ready for the next service. She never misses a revival or a special event at one of our sister churches, does this put her in the get help category? She tithes her full 10% every week, even if it means she can’t go on a specific trip or play bingo on a specific night.

I’m not finished yet. My grandfather passed 10 years ago, but I got to hear his story before he died. He grew up in Midlothian, Virginia, with confederate flags and good ole’ boys that made his life hell. So, he bought a house right in the middle of all their land and is still owned by my family today. Then he married a black woman whose family also owned land right in the heart of the racist. And they had five children, who weren’t afraid to go to the newly desegregated schools because they had Daddy right beside them with a gun. I can’t tell the story like my Grandmother can. Are her memories and ability to share those stories with my daughter when she is old enough to understand worth giving her medicine to ward of dementia?

Forget all that, she is my Grandmother. She gave me the love of reading and problem solving. She gave me compassion and a true sense of what God can do in your life. She gave me morals, values, and the discipline to follow both. She gave me the best Candied Yams and Sweet Potato Pie I ever tasted. Now, she reads to my daughter, corrects her behavior with an authoritative tone I have yet to master, and she still cooks for me just because I ask. She worked her whole life and in her old age she should not have to go to a Doctor and have a talk about how she wants to die.

You would think President Obama would understand that this is the source of most of the outrage in America. When he was on the campaign trail invoking memories of his Grandmother’s last days, he wasn’t talking about her lack of care. He wasn’t talking about how she was refused medicine or turned away for service. He wasn’t complaining about how her doctor told her that it would better for her to die than to spend a couple hours filling out health insurance forms.

This leads me to question, WHY? Why would Obamacare want to limit the number of elderly in America? Just look at what Grandma’s and Grandpa’s do for us. The number of Grandparents as head of house continue to increase in America, almost doubling in the last 15 years. These are primary caregivers for a lot minority children. If the grandparents weren’t there, these kids would become wards of the state. Would that make it easier to force mandatory volunteerism, I mean, they already have the downtrodden on the actual government role.

Or maybe it’s to correct the mistake of one of America’s most Liberal Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt. It’s hard to push for more entitlements when Social Security is going broke. There are more baby boomers than there are people to pay into the system and some how the inadequate health care in America is keeping them alive longer. How do we fix this? Maybe we get rid of the baby boomers. You know, kill two birds with one stone. Gain total control over the government and be able to say “look we saved Social Security”, even if you’ll probably die before you can collect it.

I think the true intent is shown in the response to the opposition to healthcare overhaul.

Grandparents, especially minorities, remember what it’s like to live with no true freedom. They remember the true MOBS. They remember torches that burned down churches, noose’s that hung actual flesh, and words, that could not be excused by “sticks and stones”, because they were placed in the rule of law. Our grandparents remember signs that read “White only” and no matter what side they were on, they can remember the feeling of separation that caused.

So, maybe they don’t want anyone to connect the dots when the healthcare mandate is different for those close to power, when the list reads “Politically connected only” or “Because you Contributed”. They don’t want us to stand up and fight like our Grandparents did. They don’t want us to refuse to let the Government tell us what doctor we can see and which procedure we can’t have. They don’t want us to think we have a choice in the matter. So when Grandma says, “I remember when the government didn’t have access to your bank account”, we can reply, “she crazy, I’m glad we didn’t spend that extra money to get her prescription filled.”

The liberals have started going after our children through school textbooks, but all that can be washed away by a single summer spent with a Grandmother or Grandfather. Victimization could be wiped out with true stories of what it takes to get to the American Dream; hard work, determination, focus, and faith. See how none of that involves Government. That’s the problem. Government wants to get into every area of your life but first they have to take care of the people who choose to be independent because it’s all they know. They’ve spent their entire lives taking care of themselves and now the have to yield control over their lives to a board that doesn’t have a clue what they mean to their family, community, or to the youth that needs the influence of someone that’s been there and done that.

Or maybe it’s just cost effective to let Grandma die and save a 20 year old. Maybe, as Americans, we place too high a value on unconditional love for our family. Maybe we should take a poll. How many Americans would kill Grandma right now if it meant healthcare would pass?