tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69455304202569209832024-03-20T05:07:44.489-04:00The Future's DomainSkewed views from a skewed mind....laugh, and you may learn something.G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-15340643311685379932019-07-16T23:44:00.002-04:002019-07-16T23:44:20.899-04:00The Privilege<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="218re" data-offset-key="bd85q-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="bd85q-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">When I am at lunch, I watch them come and go.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4ojik-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">They sit at a table together, laughing like they don't have a care in the world.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bqu7p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="asnek-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">If they want to, they can blast their music loud as hell.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="617jn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="tv9f-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Or if they care to debate politics, they don't worry about if things get heated...or even better, if someone overhears them.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a1579-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="aeffp-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">They have their vision of America....beautiful, the flag, respecting those who serve, a cold beer and football.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8cuvq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="77ebk-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Statistically the majority of them get to live to be old, retire, die in peace.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="brs7a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9711n-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, and the American dream is still alive and well.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="160f3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6kqg6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I watch them as I eat, taking a sip out of my glass, wondering what the fuck that is like.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3sac8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dddl9-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The other day I was going on break and an older woman saw me in my middle-aged dad shirt, dad shorts, looking about as threatening as a rose petal. She sped up her pace, grasped her purse tighter and got to her car as soon as she can, looking back at me several times as she walked away.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="etrp2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e7v8u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I laughed.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6o99g-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fveb6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I know people will say I was imagining things. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="q97l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="218re" data-offset-key="2kb3-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="2kb3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But then again, this is the portrait that is the country I live in.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1adjj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="90ha5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I saw the president said folks who were legally elected to, because their skin was brown, to go back to their country...even though these people were either naturalized citizens or BORN here.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="85psq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="66pgk-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I watch them eat, and damn they are comfortable. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fnqtc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6pfr6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I wonder what the fuck that is like.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="66p7c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cgbqb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I look behind me, and finish my last French fry, pay my bill and begin to walk out of the door.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ah7mn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9et1a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Someone is coming in with their friends, laughing. One of them hold the door for me, and I smile, just as my mother taught me, thanking them for the gesture. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cievr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4v6ij-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">They are all comfortable.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4eni2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="218re" data-offset-key="b1cc5-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="b1cc5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Damn, I wonder....what the fuck.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-30135109552519946022019-02-09T20:17:00.003-05:002019-02-09T20:17:31.987-05:00Silence Is A Copper Penny<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="df0l-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="df0l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I have been mostly quiet for the past 2 weeks or so, an occasional hit and run post when it was too much to resist. While doing so it has driven me crazy, it is the wise thing to do at this point; the seeming fruitlessness of it all kept me up at night.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3oo33-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="21jtn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">My wife says my heart is too damned big sometimes.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dpadj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="epnu1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">However, there is a simply matter of right and wrong, despite whatever political, religious, philosophical or whatever views you possess, and this fact...not fake news, not motivated by anything but love for all humankind, has caused me to use my fingers, even for a brief moment in time.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="103u5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4h7pq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4h7pq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I read comments from folks based on what is going on in the world, and to be my normal "forward" self, it is just fucking nasty. Evil, mean spirited, unformed, bigoted. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ek8ip-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e0q86-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The ol' "My way or the highway" method, no matter who else it hurts, is the rule of the day.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1m14m-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fgufr-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fgufr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">My wife uses the same technique when it comes to me doing the laundry.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8lg41-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cs7fs-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="cs7fs-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Shrink a couple of bras and shirts, and a guy can't touch the ERA...sigh.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="gkdp-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2k6rh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2k6rh-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The biggest thing though I've noticed is how quick folks jump on someone when they have no idea what is is like to walk in that person's shoes. To be able to experience what someone that isn't you goes through every day; .to NOT have the advantage you may have that allows you to avoid it.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8l750-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fm58k-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fm58k-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I don't know what it is like to be a gay man. No clue on because you have a particularly religious belief you must be a terrorist. Because you have a p***y you are only to be conquered, are stupid or (supposedly) the weaker sex (despite the fact that most women outlive men by about 10 years on average), so you should be listened to (and paid) less. Because of the color of your skin you are a rapist, absentee father, guilty, and bad the day you were born...</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c7q46-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c7q46-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="86h9p-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="86h9p-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="86h9p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">....despite the fact that most of the crimes these folks are accused of are committed by the accusers.</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6srra-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6srra-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="777ed-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Right and wrong are easily twisted to fit the shoes that folks refuse to wear instead of the facts and evidence laid bear for them to see.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7e11e-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cs9kd-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I have a dear, dear, dear friend who I am happy to have in my life. While we disagree on our worldview, her view of the world is something I wish were true. As far as she is concerned, I am just Greg, my son with Autism deserves help that isn't cost prohibitive, this is still the land of the free....of opportunity, where an ideal of being judged on your character is more important than what each lie every generation is taught over and over again takes precedence. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1c8c0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3s9e4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Where being kind to each other and taking care of those who are not blessed enough isn't perceived as weakness or laziness on those folk's part.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="597im-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="cfksg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">My friend's heart is SO big. It is almost a marvel to experience, because I wish that all of us (or at least the majority of us) could match its size. Oh Lord, what a wonderful country and world it would be. </span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2qi34-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2qi34-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="101vp-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="101vp-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">A long time friend of mine sent a response to a discussion I started that so disheartened me, so cut me to the soul, it caused me to back away from trying to get folks to see that we are letting a small minority destroy ourselves, as well as continue to hate and distrust one another. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9j75s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="bvt2c-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bvt2c-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bvt2c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I know my words will continue to fall on deaf ears. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6k9hn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fqiil-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">That is a pity.</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="95hfc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="95hfc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="43f6j-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="43f6j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">My silence will probably continue (well, mostly silent). I know I can't change the world (or the 120+ folks who see these ramblings on facebook).</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="bau0a-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bau0a-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bau0a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="fserq-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fserq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fserq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But I won't give up.</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5v8at-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5v8at-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="8f3ob-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8f3ob-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="8f3ob-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I am a parent of a child that, as I write this, broke the 67th set of headphones in the last 3 years, gouged his brother so badly that his finger bled, and who is now hitting his wall uncontrollably and refusing to go to sleep.</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2ht6r-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2ht6r-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="6gp42" data-offset-key="bsd1l-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bsd1l-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bsd1l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">All the while as his mother, who just pulled in from work, simply wants to eat and go to sleep.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="5o241-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2pec-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">These are my shoes.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8su2h-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I am confident that most are afraid to find out what is like to slip them on.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-28053564388259111222018-12-16T10:22:00.001-05:002018-12-16T10:22:25.862-05:00Rudolph Tried to Represent<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Good morning everyone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Last night I put up a picture of my youngest son with Santa Claus, which we have taken every year, on a popular social media site. I got a lot of “likes” and a few “loves”. Not surprising; not to brag, but he is a cute kid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is always easier to smile or approve of the good things in life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The thing I have noticed about social media in the 10 years I have used it is that when you put happy things on it (birth of of a child, cute pic of the kids, awesome vacation pics) people are quick to “like” or “love” it (depending on what platform you are on; it seems that Facebook has become the place for middle-age and older folks to hang out, so I can’t speak for the more “hipper” places to hang).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">After getting little sleep (and dropping the husband ball; see my earlier post) my mind wandered (as it is wont to do) about this little factoid that entered my consciousness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As a person that has seemingly burned a lot of bridges for pointing out all the ugly of the world, I know that people can’t face that things are not well for a lot of people in America (never mind the rest of the world), but whenever I put up something to soothe that ugly, man, the likes are coming in abundance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">At least when it comes to Noah, anyway (which I can’t hate on; he is a pretty special kid, despite his sometimes difficult moments).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">But I write to those who bother to read what I have to say to wonder out loud why we can’t, as human beings (hell, I am just as guilty; I need to go to the dentist for periodontal cleaning that I have semi-blow off for 9 months...that after not going to see a dentist due to fear for 20 years)deal with the ugliness in life...or worse, trying to fix it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I have had a few people tell me that they appreciate me speaking out, despite the obvious damage that it has done to my standing amongst those who know me. I believe it is the only reason I haven’t gone silent. I wanted to reference the recent “controversy” about “Rudolph” real quick. A lot of people have blown it off because it is a kid’s show and should remain that way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I dig that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">However the fact remains that the show was made in the 60’s, and it is rife with bigotry and sexism. However, since it is a “kid’s show” (hey, I watch it every year and I am 49 years old) and it was so long ago, I’ve seen plenty of people say that people are “oversensitive”, etc etc. And yeah, I know the characters realized their mistake and changed, blah blah blah. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Of course this is coming from folks who think (or believe) they are not affected by the same things today that took place 54 years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Once again, covering up that damn ugly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sort of like makeup...but like an old joke I heard once, “I may be fat, but you’re ugly....and you can’t run that off.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or run away from.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It’s too bad that the real world couldn’t be like “Rudolph”...you know, when folks wake up and realize the ugliness we are all guilty off and recant, improve and learn from.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">But those kid pictures are still cute.</span></div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-11074620495705498742018-10-14T12:14:00.002-04:002018-10-14T12:14:29.371-04:00The Fairy Tell of the Biggest Dick (ergo Manhood)<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Beyond the Noah drama I just posted about, I woke up with a thought that I wanted to expand on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What, exactly, makes up a Man?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now as a 49-year-old adult male (at least in the eyes of the law...wait, the law is different for folks like me...we will just go with “in general” and call it even) you would think I would qualify as a “man.” I have facial hair, deep voice, testicles (well, depending on how cold it is) and will probably die at least 5 years before my wife (probably more like 25, since my wife is not only Caucasian, women in her family seemingly live forever). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">So physically, I am a man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">However, we all know that isn’t the entire story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Every society has its own definition of “manhood.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Men are supposed to be strong, not letting their emotions get the best of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are supposedly (even tho in this world, this antiquated idea needs to die) to be the head of the household, the bad guys who do the disciplining, the “rock.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can’t be punks, ready to beat the shit out of each other to prove how much of a “man” we are in society’s (and our loved ones) eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">My father always gave me crap because I was (OK, at times still am...hey, I’ve gotten better, damn it) sensitive and would cry when my feelings were hurt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Described me in not so pleasant terms too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When I got out of 8th grade, I got a watch for a gift (I was obsessed with watches). About 2 weeks after I got it, I was mugged at knifepoint. The local kids told my pop...and he promptly humiliated me for not fighting back. Didn’t wear a watch again (including the fact that I am allergic to the nickel in cheaper watches) until I got an Apple Watch (aluminum). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The biggest thing that occurred to me in the manhood mythos is the attitude towards sex. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Gotta have as many notches as possible on the belt, right? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The penis has caused more wars, deaths, dramas, and shitty attitudes (right, POTUS, SCOTUS, and Congress?) than anything else in the world’s history. A lot of guys think that because of that thing dangling from their crotches that they run shit, forgetting (and more importantly, WE forgetting) that they got their though the ignorance of others, much less while stepping on them to get where they are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now if a man don’t have a “Mighty Sword of Bone-age” (or your shit is more flaccid than an orange man in power) they try to prove their “manhood” in other ways (mostly in the lusty chase of power). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Stupid, but dangerous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The “manhood” thing tho, mostly hits women....hard. We have seen it recently....we have seen in for millennia. It’s why women are running for office, trying to cut that “manhood” down to the stump it should have been long time ago (just leave mine alone, ladies....I am with ya 100%). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now I believe that as an adult (male or female) you should stand up for yourself (something that it took me a long time to do, and even now I choose my battles carefully). I honestly wish that men realize that hey, we are gonna one day rot in the ground (or scattered from a mountaintop) just like our female counterparts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Look, I dig money, am semi-fond of vagina, and sorta like the strength advantage I have (well, use to have; women 10 years + older than me hit the steps at work while my fat ass is all about “Elevator or bust”). But I know (well, now almost “knew”) a strong woman who, despite her own victimization of the “manhood mystique” who taught me that no matter what, respect females and their power. I have been subject to the good and the bad of that statement more times that I can count (ergo 1990-1991, for example), so I know females are da shit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I guess my prevailing thought on manhood, both in my personal experiences and what I’ve seen, is that I wish that instead of “manhood” we can just be, well, people. Respect for what we can do, support for what we can’t. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">And fellas, if you wanna cry, cry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I saw Simon Cowell do it once.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is possible.</span></div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-15333523291319776302018-09-30T19:52:00.001-04:002018-09-30T19:52:25.918-04:00<div style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Entertainers who are people of color usually, intentionally or not, subconsciously or whatever, are usually judged more harshly than their caucasian counterparts, especially if by their behavior they are considered the proverbial "asshole" or "bitch.". </div>
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For example I hear that Kanye West changed his name to "Ye." </div>
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Now don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Kanye's music, and he is immensely talented, despite his mind-numbing arrogance. </div>
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However, don't think homeboy has quite been right since his mom died. Also, well, he does tend to put his foot in his mouth.</div>
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But the worse thing he has done, truly, has been putting his foot into his mouth.</div>
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Self inflicted, but harmless to anyone else.</div>
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Yet he his despised (and aligning himself w/Trump isn't exactly a great career move) by folks on both sides of the aisle (by the way "Ye", when you piss off your people after most Caucasians think you are an asshat, you end up on "Celebrity Fit Club" or "Dancing with the Stars." Not good for a guy who has won a shitload of Grammys).</div>
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Beyonce and Jay-Z...immensely successful folks of color, has done numerous charitable things, especially for folks of color that generally they don't advertise. Beyond Jay's drug dealer past, they have never been in trouble with the law and generally keep their noses clean.</div>
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Yet a lot of my caucasian associates can't stand them.</div>
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Of course, methinks part of it is a lot of white folks can't deal with when black folks do well....especially when they do MUCH better than the folks that are hating on them.</div>
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Jealousy crosses all barriers, but folks of color who are successful gotta watch what they say or what they do, or they get convicted...even when no true "crime" was committed.</div>
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William H. Cosby is a convicted sexual offender. He got his just desserts, and will probably die in prison.</div>
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Yet a man who, let's face it, lied his ass off under oath on Thursday is probably gonna get, IMHO, the most powerful job in our country. </div>
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Ted Kennedy got a female killed in a car accident. Served in congress till the day he died.</div>
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Now Clarence Thomas (who I personally think is a scumbag, race be damned) did get away with shit. So did OJ (even tho the dumb as, after getting away with murder, robs somebody and goes to jail anyway).</div>
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So ever so often famous folks of color get a pass.</div>
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But no matter what argument presents itself to me, you will never convince me that assholes are judged more harshly when the tan doesn't fade away over time.</div>
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Personally if you are a bitch or a dick, I could care less if you use aqua net or cocoa butter.</div>
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But as I said before, when you are guilty the day you slip out of the vagina or the c-section, it isn't good to add asshole to the mix.</div>
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It rarely turns out well for us, no matter how many zeroes you have following a number in your bank account.</div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-14291546004817638252018-08-05T20:16:00.001-04:002018-08-05T20:16:27.358-04:00Dying to tell yaAnd now, something morbid from G. Eric Francis...<br />
<br />
I haven't worked on the book in more than 3 months. I recently swapped out my iPad Pro (mostly to pay for my trip to MI a couple of weeks ago) and decided to pick up the new MIcrosoft Surface Go. It is a quaint little thing, relatively easy to type on (once I got used to it; having big hands sometimes can be a biznatch) and while I will be a Mac guy 4ever, I have also swapped out most of my apple products besides my main computer (to once again help cover my trip).<br />
<br />
Anyway, I am getting off subject here...onto the morbid part.<br />
<br />
I have always thought about my own demise, since I was a teen. I know that isn't something one should dwell on, but the fact that one of these days I will no longer exist (now that I am less than a year from 50 getting closer every day) sort of bugs me....as well as fascinates me.<br />
<br />
Let me get you to the bug me part.<br />
<br />
After watching an episode of "CSI" several years back where a body had decomposed to the point that it was simply black muck sort of gave me the creeps. It is hard enough to be black in America, but then to become black muck really sucks.<br />
<br />
The one advantage of that is at least the police can try to beat me my muck, and I can have revenge by splattering into their orifices. <br />
<br />
Gag on that, a-holes.<br />
<br />
Another thing is having my body on display, more bloated than I was in life, for folks to say "goodbye" to. <br />
<br />
Wait, that is going with the expectation that anyone would come to my funeral; my oldest has told me more than once that he hopes I go first. <br />
<br />
Well loved, I am.<br />
<br />
Then there is the other alternative of my body's disposal...cremation. I know, I know...why should I care what happens to my remains....I WOULD BE DEAD, right? I guess that since I have cooked enough dead flesh on a grill, the idea of being tossed in a cardboard box (mingling with paper is the ultimate paper cut) and tossed into an over w/o at least seasoning (I am a black man....we gotta have our seasoning, damn it) is not appealing.<br />
<br />
Then again, neither is being slowly eaten by bugs while I become a burnt milkshake.<br />
<br />
Ok, creepy part over. Here is the fascinating part (and the inspiration of my current project, providing I ever finish the mofo).<br />
<br />
My mother told me when her brother died that right before she got the call the iron that she was using "moved." Now this tale has changed into more supernatural stuff as I got older, but she stuck by her story.<br />
<br />
In my nearly 1/2 century on Earth, I have seen some inexplicable shit that science cannot explain away. I know a few of my associates are agnostic or atheist, but the fact that I have 2 sons (where medical science said one should have died because his umbilical cord ruptured) tells me something is more powerful than us out there running shit. <br />
<br />
With that being said, it has made me questioned my life's decisions.<br />
<br />
I have broken a few commandments.....more than once. With that being said, and assuming Christianity is the truth (something else driven into me by my mom) I am screwed.<br />
<br />
This makes me go back to the whole roasting my body like I was a dead pig in a smoker.<br />
<br />
If there is a soul, well, damnation awaits if I croak before I figure things out and I change.<br />
<br />
Then you gotta look at the other argument. <br />
<br />
Supposed the agnostics and atheists are right, that we are basically no more than organisms that expire....AND THAT IS IT. <br />
<br />
It is humbling to know that the ants that I killed this morning and I are equally irrelevant.<br />
<br />
It's a bummer, cuz it makes me regret not being a bigger male slut, or a massive asshole (even tho I have been a mid-sized asshole once or twice...Mrs. Flagler would confirm this). <br />
<br />
I mean, what is the point of accepting a savior and being a good person when I missed out on a lot more fun?<br />
<br />
This is my daily internal struggle, to be honest. My teen is on the atheist side, since his Aspergers riddled mind cannot accept something he cannot see, hear or touch. <br />
<br />
Is he right?<br />
<br />
I guess that is where I am in the middle. If he is right, well the worst that awaits me when my time is up is muckville. <br />
<br />
If he is wrong, well he won't be attending the family heaven reunion....and I might be right there next to him doing the whole biblical "gnashing of teeth."<br />
<br />
Yeah, I paid a little attention in Sunday School.<br />
<br />
The biggest thing tho, as I end this so I don't burn my ranch red potatoes with five cheese dish in the oven, is that my fear that I didn't matter. Very few people are remembered hundreds or thousands of years after their death. I guess that I'd be more cool about what is inevitably coming if when I go, as long as those folks who I beat to the death finish line still draw air, thought that I mattered.<br />
<br />
I think there are a few of those folks out there.<br />
<br />
But sometimes the silence makes me not so sure.G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-9860814199578899512018-07-04T10:59:00.001-04:002018-07-04T10:59:26.376-04:00The "4th" Time I've said this<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="dc2cj" data-offset-key="7h393-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="7h393-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">America.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9n9sv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I could say a lot of things about the country I was born in; hell, I have said a lot of things in the past.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="84r39-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">When I think about the United States, I think of a great actor, performing a role for 242 years. Even though that role is Oscar-caliber, you can see that ultimately it is just great acting.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4vmij-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now America isn't all bad (at least at the moment). Once upon a time folks could come here and hope for a new life, the way the place started in the first place (and most of its descendants have forgotten). We can (once again, for the moment) disparage our "elected" leaders if we don't agree how they are wielding the power we have bestowed upon them.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="77v91-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">They used to call it "Freedom of Speech."</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="jbvd-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I remember when I came to Indiana some 23 years ago, waking up in a town called Ellettsville. The first thing I said to my former girlfriend was, "Holy shit, we are in Mayberry."</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3n4mo-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now I have throughout the years raged against the machine due to America's racism, sexism, and bigotry. However I cannot deny that since I've been in Indiana, I have been treated fairly decently. Most of the police officers I have encountered have been pleasant folk, and I am, on the most part, left alone (except for a couple of instances I have mentioned in the past).</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9ogt-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7697m-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I also recalled the other day a story I posted on FB many moons ago in jest about going to a "redneck bar" to pick up dinner (broasted chicken; sigh, I miss that shit) and saying that I hope I make it out of there alive.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="c7lm4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The irony in what was a sincere ribbing of the past is that now it is the reality of the present.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="djt8s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">In today's America, as I was telling to a friend recently, a lot of people who I used to roll with, have drinks with, laugh with, and for a few of them even slept with (don't worry, all Pre-C) have flipped their lids open to show there true selves. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="atc9p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">You can do that when you know there is no chance of repercussions for your actions (at least in this life, anyway). I have walked away from long-term relationships, and that makes me sad.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fupdc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">This is the true America, put to sleep by political correctness, now awakened to it s true self after an attempt to have all folks to be equal and judged on their character, in the hopes that our government will do what is best for all its people...</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="brr4k-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="557pp-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">....even the ones that don't look or live like them.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bsjk4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I guess, as I sit here sleep deprived because our son cannot sleep past 1 am anymore on this 242nd birthday of the land that I am from, I cannot celebrate the great actor it has become. The role that it portrays was once about opportunity, now it is showing the world that it is an ugly thing, freed for the first time in decades to scream that if you don't fit into what is an "American", you can get the hell out...</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="39r5u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">...or we will put your children in cages. Or shoot you because of your skin. Or because you have different sexual organs you are less than. Or because your soul tells you you are supposed to be with a different sex (or BE a different sex) you are an abomination. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dbnid-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Or if you are my son and you can't understand why he rages, we will shoot you like that lady shot that giraffe that is all over the internet.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9i20l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">And don't let me get started on the American Indian; shit, they are the only folks a tier below the folks I just listed.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="drtoc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">So yes, I will be grilling a steak today. I will enjoy my day off, because at least last time I checked, I am simply G. Eric Francis, author and federal employee, payer of taxes, obeyer of laws, good friend to those who deserve it. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7frkh-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But I cannot give an Oscar to an actor whose performance is finally beginning to truly crack for the world to see that is all it was....an act.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-27533164334193573072018-06-22T13:40:00.001-04:002018-06-22T13:40:20.616-04:00The Notes we should all listen to<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The first album I think I got on my own was Prince’s “Purple Rain” (I know, big shocker; I still actually have the vinyl from 1984). I also spent anything I had on 45’s (you young folks may have to look that shit up). Now a lot of my music was R&B or hip hop, I also had Queen, Bon Jovi, lots of top 40 stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I know the music I selected wasn’t meant for me. I mean my cousin visited me here in IN once and looked at my sideways when a Metallica song came on in my playlist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now I wasn’t always that enlightened; I have mentioned in posts before that a former friend tried to turn me on to CCR (that’s Credence Clearwater Revival for those not inclined) and I thought it was “white music.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now don’t get me wrong, CCR wasn’t trying to reach folks in the Bronx with their sound. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">But as I learned about more and more styles of music, constantly seeking new music that I may not have been exposed to, I realize that even if the songs were written for a certain audience, music doesn’t give a shit who is listening to it, as long as it makes you feel SOMETHING.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I hear Chicago,I think of a lost romance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I hear Chuck D spit, I am proud that a black man is speaking out at injustice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I listen to Shawn Mendes....sigh, I hated the kid’s voice, but I have a soft spot for singer/songwriters...ok, not sure yet, I’ll get back to ya.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In short, a song always brings up some sort of memory or feeling, whether it is song by a boy or a girl, hip hop to grunge to classic rock to Mr. Nelson. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I even has so many soundtrack scores I can’t count.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Shit, I have 500 “Glee” songs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">OK maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that, but while I have only watched 5 minutes of the pilot (just didn’t catch my interest) I love a great set of voices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The point is that we should be more like music; just a bunch of notes getting along to create something beautiful. I think that is why the 25 minute drive to and from work 5 days a week is one of the few highlights of my life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It lets me imaging what we should be like, but no one wants to turn the dial to the right station.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-18711337958976721312018-04-19T12:12:00.001-04:002018-04-19T12:12:36.960-04:00Request for privilege used<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Before I begin, it is my hope that you read the following with an open mind, as I try to appeal to your good hearts and souls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Over the last several years I have alienated people who I have had relationships with on several levels (friendships, past romantic relationships that now are friends, etc) over the matter of race. It has cost me support as I have chased my dreams, since a lot of the posts I have shared on this platform has caused discomfort and disgust, anger and rage. However I feel that talking about what is going on in the country is important, because it affects me and my children. Many of you are parents; if your kids were threatened in any way, you would do anything to make sure they were as safe as they can be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I am no different from many of you, and I only wish that we can all co-exist in this space in history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">But I have to address my Caucasian associates and friends, including all of those who have agreed with my view that things are just not right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">It is exhausting to try to explain to you that we live in two different worlds, where the privileges promised to all isn’t that way in real life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Every day I read about how people like me, people who live different lifestyles that are not acceptable to you, people accused of horrible things simply because they worship a different God than you do, or ultimately because they are not Caucasian they are view as less than human. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I am aware that the media slants things to their audience; there hasn’t been GREAT journalism in decades, where the simple truth is told to inform people about the world around them. I am also aware that this platform has been abused to shape the mindsets of everyone...including voters, obviously. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">But what is obvious is this....hate has been the blood that has coursed through this country’s veins since its inception. It has, in my nearly 48 years, had me walk on eggshells, trying to fit into a world that obviously doesn’t want folks like me around (to a point, anyway). It has broken my heart, as I see people that I thought were friends run away because I have a desire to be treated like they are, judged based on my actions, not because of better resistance to the sun. It also tears me up when folks I have know who are gay, folks that I’ve know that are Muslim, folks that don’t fit into the bright, light and white America that obviously they are threatened that will be taken away because people don’t want to go back to separate bathrooms, hangings, harassment, and basically treated like dogs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I have personally listened to the stories of folks of all backgrounds, offering my ear and friendship, not giving a damn that you didn’t look like me. Despite some of the lessons of my parents, children of the segregated south, I simply refused to accept that someone was lesser than I was....or I was lesser than them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">It is why I get so irritated with my Caucasian friends at times. While a lot of them mean well, they at times simply don’t get what folks who aren’t like them go through. All I ever hear a lot of the time are excuses, not change. There are a few warriors out there (they know their names, so I won’t go there) who know things are messed up, and are doing what they can for change. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">We as human beings are so afraid of things or people different from them, and we react with hatred and rage. Perhaps I am weird, but that is bullshit. Inquire, ask, learn about folks different than yourselves. Stop listening to the outside noise and actually just say, “I don’t get you...can you please explain why you are, well, you?” I am not saying that we will all hold hands and sing “We Are The World.” Not blind to the fact that will ever happen; we are too flawed. Hell, I know I am on the hell express for my hangups. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I guess, even if I am simply writing this out as self therapy, that to those who only see me as Gregory F Flagler, author, husband, father and friend, not really giving a damn that I am of African descent and sexy (had to toss ONE joke in there) try, truly, to take yourself out of your much safer position and look at wha it’s obvious. There are no crisis actors here. Kids are still dead. Black people are still dead, even if they are guilty of shit. Gay folks are being discriminated against (pretty confident that a member of the LGBQT community can shoot a gun in the armed forces). All these things that are happening to everyone BUT YOU are real, and it sucks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Y’all wouldn’t tolerate it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Why should we?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">A friend of mine said “not all heroes wear capes.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">This isn’t about being a hero. This is just a desire for understanding, acceptance (and hell, even if you can’t, stay in your yard) and allowing folks who obey the rules of society to simply live.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Fear excluded.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-22821934362727061082018-03-23T17:47:00.001-04:002018-03-23T17:56:06.687-04:00Caucasians....what up? (Or "To The Blancos, Part Dos)<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7ausv" data-offset-key="1leg5-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="cot7a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sigh.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="20tg1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Something has been on my mind for a while, and since I am not one who keeps things inside (except when someone uses my body wash....looking at you, 15-year-old), I am gonna spit it out and hope my friend's list doesn't get reduced to 1.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9jktu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Ok, all jokes aside. I will warn you...this will probably honk some of y'all off, but most of you don't invite me out to beer anyway, so hopefully, you will try to get where I am coming from.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dhvia-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Caucasians make me nervous....and tick me off.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8p4om-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Let me explain for a little bit, and hopefully, you will be open-minded and see why this has been weighed on my mind.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6h14q-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">As you can see by my profile, about 90% of my associates and friends are Caucasian. Some of these folks I've known in one or the other for decades. A few of them I've kissed. One or 2 of them I've been intimate with. Now while that may be TMI, there is a method to my madness. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="h4k2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">As I got older and learned how the world works, I remembered how my mother always drilled into me that you simply have to keep an eye on Caucasians, because you will meet very few of them who judge you solely on your character. I know this is a narrow view in hindsight (and some may say somewhat racist), but this a woman who grew up in a time (and in the Deep South) where she couldn't go into the same bathrooms as a white person.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2c00p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Really couldn't blame her for her worldview, even though in her successful management career she befriended many a melanin-light individual. However, once I got to college I wanted to learn about folks that I was rarely around unless I went to my fairly integrated church.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="acm8c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I won't rehash the story about my fascination with Caucasian women in my youth; the entirely different world that Caucasians lived in made me want to get to know them, see what they think...see what they thought about this kid from the Bronx who really never fit in anywhere he went. One of my dearest friends was a white female from a small town near Buffalo, NY (who I wish I still spoke to, but life happens). She never (as far as I could tell at the time) looked at me as Greg the black guy. We were simply D & G, who loved to play pool all the time, saw a few flicks, and in her drunken state, the safe guy she could lay down in bed with and know she wouldn't be molested (even tho I wouldn't have said no if she made a move on me...lol). </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="15f6r-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Greatly influenced by comedians like Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, etc, I thought the best way to fit in was to be funny. While this served me well (especially in my whore-ish 20's), I never gave the view of the real "me"; I tried to be accepted in their world (I.e. the "safe, non-militant black guy") instead of simply being judge on, once again, my character (which from time to time was questionable; I once lied about having a brain tumor in Junior year; when I fessed up, I was one lonely dude for 6 months or so).</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="adejb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Once I left college, I still semi-tried to be the "safe one", not even thinking that the people I called associates and friends thought of me as anyone else but Gregory F. Flagler. Sure, I grew up in NY, sure I learned not to trust the police because of what (some of them) did to people who looked like me, and my mother and father's lessons always were on the cusp of my consciousness. However, it never occurred to me that people that I hung out with would be afraid that perhaps I wanted to be on their level...hell, to be just an American citizen, pay my taxes, go for the mythical "American Dream" that I thought we all had a shot at.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4o0bl-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Then Barack Obama got elected president.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fmm3k-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now, of course, that is a high watermark (no matter what the haters may say) for what has been a traditionally bigoted, sexist and racist country in its history. But when that man took office, things that I never thought I'd see from people some I have known since my teens, came flowing out.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cfcq4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">And dear god it was disheartening...scary...frightening.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="30a8c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The memes. The bigoted comments. The blame on the media (note, as a person with a degree in Journalism, I know that the news media is all about ratings, bending to the left or the right, etc instead of actually reporting the news. They have a part in it; however they would have no audience if folks didn't believe or agree with what is being reported, i.e. the folks who watch Fox News), or "if he obeyed the police officer, he'd be alive today(um, father with the cell phone, whether or not he was breaking into cars, deserved his day in court, not his day of memorial). The fact that children who don't want to, umm, DIE standing up and some folks think they are full of shit, or so boring they cause indifference and snide comments. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="75dsk-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The United Staes is so Un-united, it is comical.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8fjj5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">And I point a lot of fingers towards the majority. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5nn6t-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I know folks that are bold enough to say something, even tho they were born with a "get out of jail and a hail of bullets and not being called a terrorist or OK to feel up women" card. I applaud them, and I hope that if they have children they teach them that the things they see today ain't right. I know there are folks who realize that while it is ok to own a gun, it isn't OK to own shit that folks in the Armed service would be jealous of. It is sad that a generation who think it is cool to ingest detergent also have the sense to know that since the adults don't have any sense they better do something so they can become adults.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8ojop-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But I am getting off track.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6jtia-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Today as I hope to get to 50 before HBP or Diabetes kills me, I give hugs to folks who offer them to me and accept them, I have been the only person of color in social gatherings, I have offered advice and friendship to anyone who has accepted it.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e76mt-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="e1lvb-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e1lvb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="e1lvb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But when it comes to a good number of my caucasian associates, I always have a 3rd eye open, because while folks have said that they got much love (and have shown it; never have forgotten that) I also see how disconnected a good number of my friends are when it comes to the clusterfuck of bad things that are happening in this country. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bob7t-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8k7vg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sexual harassment.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="fq4op-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fq4op-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fq4op-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The disease of money and power.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="c368d-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c368d-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c368d-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The total disregard for the lives of minorities.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="bf7ls-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bf7ls-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bf7ls-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The forgiveness of crimes based on who the hell does it.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="80p73-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">People just letting folks live their lives, even if they disagree with how they are living them.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="c83lm-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c83lm-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c83lm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Oblivious or simply not giving a shit because THESE THINGS AREN'T HAPPENING TO THEM.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6va2c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="br3kc-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="br3kc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="br3kc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">A lot of white males are good for that shit. The crazy thing is a good number of these dudes are so blind that they don't know that their bigotry, racism, sexism etc are being used against them to keep the few folks who can afford to buy a yacht cash where they are.</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5pv3s-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5pv3s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="aif5c-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="aif5c-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="aif5c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">So here I am, wondering about every time I smile at a non-black face, wondering what they think of me, or why they think the way they do.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="2v0k0-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
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<span data-offset-key="2v0k0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="8birb-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8birb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="8birb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps I am simplifying things too much...you know, where if folks, even if from different backgrounds, can sit down and actually hash out their differences so they can live together. Me personally, god knows I have made jokes in the past about Caucasians, the LGBTQ community, Latinos, women, hell my own shade. I enjoy ridiculing the stereotypes we have for each other instead of sitting down and realizing that, while different, we all bleed, get sick, hate making white men rich, and will all be DEAD one day. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2uo8q-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="5a6du-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5a6du-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5a6du-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">In short, we are human beings. I have NEVER thought of anyone (ok, lie; since I've semi-grown up) as less than me, whether they have less education, money, if they like the same sex, dressing sexy with big ol' boobs, does porn, is free in their sexuality (whatever that is), OR IF they happen to be someone who gets burned in the sun easily (otherwise I wouldn't have married my wife...lol).</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fg69h-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fg69h-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="7l6f-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7l6f-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7l6f-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">You see, Caucasians don't have to worry about the things I do because they run the place. </span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b3pr2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="b3pr2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="fvu38-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fvu38-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fvu38-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Correction, a few run the place, smart enough to make sure we all distrust and hate each other to keep them there.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ctmdu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4rvr5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sadly, there is plenty of room to share America. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1mbas-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="e4oe1" data-offset-key="dff7v-0-0" style="background-color: white; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dff7v-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dff7v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Too bad there isn't room in all of our hearts to do so.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-35183761747838976512017-11-18T18:15:00.002-05:002017-11-18T18:15:53.226-05:00The BITCH of it All (to all the ladies)<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="e9v7s-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="e9v7s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">May I have a few minutes of your time folks?</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="9uvak-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="9uvak-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="dmsd0-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="dmsd0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I wanna talk about a word that I sadly use WAY too much. </span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="cq29i-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="cq29i-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="93u1v-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="93u1v-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="93u1v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">For those who have taken the time to know me, y’all know that I try to have the best intentions in mind in whatever I do. However, due to what is expected of males in this society, my upbringing in the NYC, or plain ignorance, I use the word BITCH waaaaaaaaaay too much.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="evoop-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="evoop-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="2i3vu-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2i3vu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2i3vu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now I have been thinking about this lately, especially with all the news about men losing their damn minds when it comes to how little they think of the opposite sex.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="dbq2p-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="dbq2p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="6tfk8-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6tfk8-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="6tfk8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Y’all have heard me quote Chuck D many a time (Without Mothers they’d be no brothers...w/o sisters they’d be no misters). Starting with my own mom, even in her current state one of the most dignified people I’ve ever known, I have always held women in high regard throughout my life. </span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="2sdji-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="2sdji-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="dq4cs-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dq4cs-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dq4cs-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">However, I also have had a weakness for them too, which is why I didn’t get married to nearly 31...based on what was originally a hookup.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="7anig-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="7anig-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="bdmpr-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bdmpr-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bdmpr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The word “bitch” can take on a variety of different meanings....none of them flattering, to be honest.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="2dtmj-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="2dtmj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="h9gu-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="h9gu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="h9gu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Guys call each other “bitch” to signify that they are weak...like a stereotypical woman.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="26cs3-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="26cs3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="fu1pf-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fu1pf-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fu1pf-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">A woman who acts like a “bitch” is simply an unpleasant, bitter, evil, pick any unflattering description person.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="5hee5-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5hee5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5hee5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="fo8ih-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fo8ih-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fo8ih-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Stop “bitching” means you complain and nag too much...like a stereotypical woman.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="re2d-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="re2d-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="bhq9s-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bhq9s-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="bhq9s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I can go on for a while, but I am trying to get my 11-year-old to go to sleep (and yes, I know it is 5:42 in the early evening as I write this). </span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="fmcqo-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fmcqo-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fmcqo-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="dkqfm-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dkqfm-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dkqfm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I have a horrible habit of referring to women I don’t know as “that bitch.” Not proud of it, but it is sort of programmed into my dome, and sometimes it is hard to turn off. </span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="f0j2j-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f0j2j-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f0j2j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="5a06u-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="5a06u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">“That bitch is crazy.”</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="b61n6-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="b61n6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="67rgf-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="67rgf-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="67rgf-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">That is one of my guilty “favorites”, sadly. </span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="5j4aq-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="5j4aq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="1ujll-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1ujll-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1ujll-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">“Bitch has lost her mind.”</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="djo5s-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="djo5s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="91prt-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="91prt-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="91prt-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I usually say that when I am watching “Maury” (it’s been a longer furlough than usual; don’t judge me)...or watching anyone in Congress continue to butt-shiv fellow Americans.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="5db15-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="5db15-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="4ibg0-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4ibg0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4ibg0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now you ladies are good for calling each other bitch a lot, which like how the “n” word is used sometimes as a term of endearment by those of the chocolate/mocha/does he had a white daddy persuasion, makes little sense to me as well. I have heard it used as a term of endearment between women who have been friends for years. But, much like if a Caucasian attempts to use the term “my n.....”, it isn’t taken well if folks who are not in the group it usually applies to use it.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="o5rg-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="o5rg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="fm21t-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fm21t-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fm21t-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">We have never been a logical species.</span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="7imkc-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7imkc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7imkc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="cq65l-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cq65l-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="cq65l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Women (besides minorities and all other folks who aren’t worried white males in power) in my eyes have always been fucked over the world over (literally and figuratively) since the minute Eve bit that apple (if you believe in that sorta thing). They are other looked upon as just ass or “2nd place” beyond men.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="2v2hb-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="2v2hb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="atklb-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="atklb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="atklb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">That’s just stupid, because some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met are women. Makes no sense they generally make less than guys (except in my house, cause my girl...sorry ladies, I call her my girl cuz she is...makes about 33% more than I do), are looked at nothing more than conquests and baby makes by a good majority of men (despite their public persona saying otherwise).</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="157kv-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="157kv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="1knco-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1knco-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="1knco-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">How is it right that a bunch of men get to decide what women do w/their bodies?</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="f5e8q-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f5e8q-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="f5e8q-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="99em3-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="99em3-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="99em3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Last time I checked guys didn’t bleed every 28 days, give birth, deal with breast cancer (well, most of the time), are gawked at like Wile E. Coyote does the Road Runner , and generally are thought of in a lot of ways as property.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="asmva-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="asmva-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="asmva-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="apr4g-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="apr4g-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="apr4g-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">And that doesn’t even cover how a lot of ladies are pressured to make sure their hair “is did”, makeup is on point, and can’t even dress “sexy” because it makes some dudes think it is a free vagina pass.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="9rc5e-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
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<span data-offset-key="9rc5e-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="fr9vh" data-offset-key="3limd-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.12px; orphans: 2; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3limd-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="3limd-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I am a dude, and I have NO IDEA what women have to...well, I sorta do, with that whole excess melanin thing that makes it black wabbit season in this country. I think I can relate somewhat, because in a lot of ways minorities and women are generally looked upon as LESS than.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="6kgch-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But I am also part of the problem. “Bitch” ain’t cool. I am not saying that some ladies don’t deserve to be called as such (just like, even tho a lot of folks of color would agree, there are some folks who play the “n” part sadly because they think that is what is expected of them). I guess that while I can’t promise that I can stop, I have to think about this...if my Caucasian associates thought it was cool to say to me “What up (insert the several dozen derogatory ways I can be describe because of my race)”, even if they say they meant nothing by it, I’d had to slap a....</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a75d0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Well, you get my point.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9a7vk-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I will finish with this (since Noah is now asleep...yay!). </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="drlkg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I love all women, cuz as far as I am concerned, y’all bleed red (horrible joke just popped in my mind....damn it) just like I do, are better built than most men (that’s why y’all can have babies and outlive us; you have seen how we men act when we are sick or get a paper cut) and should be treated like anyone else who deserves it...with respect and as equals.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="f1aal-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Doesn’t mean that a few of y’all are just mean fuckers and deserve to be calls that “b” word.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="acml6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Hey, goes both ways.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bhl4c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I have run into (and have been) a few assholes in 48 years.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="86atf-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Hope all of y’all enjoy your holiday next week.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-4513177455818576432017-08-24T00:24:00.003-04:002017-08-24T00:24:49.224-04:00The Black and White 80's<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Getting ready to call it a night, but I wanted to share something that occurred to me on the ride home.</div>
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As a lot of you are, I am a child of the 1980's. Growing in the Bronx was a little different world compared to what a lot of you experienced. The biggest thing that I treasured about that decade was the music. I, of course, grew up in the age when hip-hop began its infancy, and I listen to a lot of R&B as well (part of the whole culture thing). However I also listened to a lot of pop radio (WPLJ, Z100 before it became the mega station it is today), a fact that my one of my cousins (who I sadly used to be close to once upon a time) gave me shit about.</div>
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A black kid from The Bronx wasn't supposed to listen to Madonna, Bon Jovi, etc.</div>
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I usually listen to either the 80's station on SiriusXM (I am gonna miss that when my extended trial ends) or Backspin, a station that plays classic hip hop. I alternate between listening to my massive amount of music on my phone and the subscription service. Yesterday I was grooving the billboard countdown from August 19, 1989, and it made me think about the fashions, the music and the once in the blue moon good times I had in my youth.</div>
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Of course knowing the way I think, y'all will find it no surprise that I started to compare what it was like in the 80's for black folks/latin folks compared to white people.</div>
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Ride with me for a minute before you roll your eyes.</div>
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When i was a teen, all I wanted was skinny ties (white match) gold chains (ok, Italians...lol -- oh, couldn't afford gold so I got that plated shit that made my skin break out like a snake) Sheepskin coats, Kango's, British Knight Shoes, Stripped Lee's (for the 5 minutes there were popular), iZod shirts (white match), Gazelle Glasses, and shell-top adidas, which I could never wear because my feet were too damn wide.</div>
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I did get practically every color of Suede Pumas tho.</div>
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As I recollected though, I saw the divided line between the cultures as well.</div>
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White folks had films dedicated to what the 80s was supposed to be like.</div>
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The Breakfast Club.</div>
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Sixteen Candles.</div>
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Weird Science.</div>
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Pretty in Pink.</div>
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Fast Times at Ridgemont High.</div>
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Porky's (well, that was the 1950's, but still an 80's film.</div>
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That was just the tip of the iceberg.</div>
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The inner city kid view of the 80's in cinema?</div>
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We had Beat Street and Wild Style.</div>
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Little off balance, don't you think?</div>
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(And don't you DARE mention "Breakin'." While a favorite, once you tossed the white girl in there it sort of lost any time of street cred).</div>
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As I compared these two things, I laughed and shook my head on my drive home. The views back then was simply a repeat of history...kids from an era who should be able to relate to that time and have most of that stuff in common.</div>
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Back then "rap" to white kids was "Ice Ice Baby", "Wild Thing" (the Tone Loc Version, not The Troggs), and "Walk This Way."</div>
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It was safe back then.</div>
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We have always been a nation of division, teaching each generation what we feel is correct "history." While I understand that you are subject to your environment, this country has been built on making sure ghettos remain ghettos, history remains blanco, and even certain music and styles of the times (even tho, as it has been throughout history, appropriation has taken hold, with some Caucasian youth copying the styles of the day, but won't deal with the issues of the times).</div>
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At 48, I am still a fan of rap music, thinking the Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole's of the world having something to say besides talking about their latest acquisitions (both of the materialistic and feminine kind). I don't follow fashion trends in my middle age; if it is clean that is all that matters to me.</div>
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But I am an 80's kid, and will be so until God calls me home.</div>
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However, the biggest thing that struck me as I pulled into my garage the other day is that my 80's is a lot different that some of my associate's vision of the decade of excess.</div>
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Sort of makes sense when it comes to how I see America as dangerous, while others think it is perfectly fine.</div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-83096571826788646612017-07-09T18:01:00.001-04:002017-07-09T18:01:26.082-04:00To the Blancos<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let me talk to the "majority" for a second.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Not the ones who say something. Not the ones who speak to their kids and say, "An asshole is an asshole and a bitch is a bitch, no matter what shade they come in." Not the ones who know that a person's character determines how they should be treated. And finally, not the ones who realize that we all are gonna end up in heaven, hell (or for those who don't believe in that stuff, a hole or a vase).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am talking about those who don't say shit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am not just talking about not saying anything about black folks, LGBT folks, Muslims, or anyone else who either don't fit into your peg holes of what being "American" is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I want to take me personally for a second. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Beyond traffic tickets, I've never broken a law. I go to work (begrudgingly, but I do) every day to pay my bills, make sure the kids eat, have a place to live, and have a couple of nice things. I am loyal to a fault when it comes to my friends, and will help when I can.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet I am a walking, breathing endangered species. People read my posts and outside of a few friends, no one says a thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It's just me popping off at the mouth as usual.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I have some LGBT friends...shit, I have some LGBT family members. They are black AND gay. That's like having a bullseye on the front AND the back of your ass.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now most of these people have backup...or at least I hope so. During the HVAC drama a couple months back, I saw who had my back and who didn't. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Truth is truth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">But every time someone else is shot and killed, rights deprived, or bigoted against, I rarely hear shit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">A couple of likes, a few sad emojis, but nothing else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Over the last few days I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to help someone I care for deeply. It has kept me up at night, and I couldn't care this person can walk in public and not worry about anything happening to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">When I scream via social media at the people who know my name to at least ACKNOWLEDGE shit is messed up, that silence is deafening. But when my wife puts up a cute pic of the kids, y'all all over that shit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Priorities are sorta messed up, don't u think?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This apathy is the reason why I spent the weekend seeing how this once proud country is now a laughingstock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let me say that again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS BEING LAUGHED AT.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Where is all the patriotism now? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I shake my head, because I know some folks who take the time to read this will just QUIETLY say to themselves THAT (INSERT RACIST OR INSULTING COMMENT HERE) needs to STFU.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I can't do that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I see nooses left in federal employees chairs. Mistrials where if it was anyone other than that majority they would be getting a needle or growing old in a cell. I see 1 billion people getting blamed for a few thousand nut jobs (as a black man, I understand). I see people who happen to love who they love getting judge because they each have a set of testicles or bleed every 28 days. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I see folks who, because they feel they don't look like their friends on FB who simply go on with their vacations, privileges, their lives...because they know they don't have to worry about what the folks who are not in their "club" have to deal with every second of the day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">An 8-year-old child of color who happened to have autism wandered off on Friday night in a town not 5 miles away from my home. Found him in the bottom of a pond the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now I gotta give credit; a whole bunch of people tried to find that kid...not all of them were just black.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was a child who is now going to be put into that hole that I mentioned earlier in this piece.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I wonder if he'll be laid to rest to someone who in life wouldn't give 2 shits about his disability or his color.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or I wonder if that person was alive simply wouldn't care if he lived or died.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Just like a lot of that "majority" does every day.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-86229247881361058622017-07-03T00:00:00.001-04:002017-07-03T00:00:21.588-04:00Death, Life, Death, Life, Black, White, and a Hug.<div style="color: #454545; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
A few thoughts as I get ready to get ready to start another work week.</div>
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As Carla mentioned earlier, a woman who works at a local supermarket here lost her son in a horrible fashion. To my understanding it was the 2nd son that she has lost. </div>
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I saw her as I was picking up lunch for work, and I gave her 2 hugs, teary eyed after the 2nd one. I felt so bad about her, because this woman is one of the nicest PEOPLE I have ever met.</div>
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I know y’all think I beat the race card way too hard, but hold on for a second. This woman is in her 80’s, but is in better shape than most people half her age (like myself…lol). She loves Noah, who always calls her “Grandma.” Here is a woman who grew up in a time where people like me well, were…not people in the eyes of many.</div>
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Just like I am today, right?</div>
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Any way, it amazes me when I meet people like this who just simply see me and my kids as just people. It also saddens me how some people who grew up in the era of segregation, Jim Crow, the KKK (well, they are still here, but that isn’t the point) can be…well…trump supporters and others just judge folks on their character.</div>
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Carla’s grandmother was like that…a grand old dame who was awesome at Scrabble and had a secret crush on Nat King Cole.</div>
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That shit would have gotten her ass beat if that was public knowledge in her day.</div>
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I complain and moan about money all the time, but the biggest thing I hate in life is seeing the way we have degenerated back to something that, while it has always been there under the surface, is all out and smelling up the joint.</div>
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I am sad when I see the things I see on the news all the time. Not just to people like me, but everyone else who doesn’t fit in to the blinding WHITE vision that this country has had for 241 years. </div>
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I don’t know how we have survived this long, not starting another civil war.</div>
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Then we have people like that wonderful old woman at the supermarket, greeting people with a true warmth that I wish we all had to share. A person who simply saw a man and his son.</div>
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Just like I saw a heartbroken woman who I called a friend that needed a hug…or two.</div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-56558768439895056322017-04-20T15:58:00.003-04:002017-04-20T15:58:59.062-04:00The Doves Still Cry<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I have told this story before, but I wanted to start this by bringing it up once again.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">On my 15</span><span class="s3" style="font-size: 7px; line-height: 8.399999618530273px; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> birthday, my Aunt Emily and Uncle Robert took my cousins Terry, Carol and </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">myself</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> to go see a film called “Purple Rain.” Back in the day my cousins and I were tight, like brothers and sisters in a lot of ways. I can’t remember exactly if going to the movie was for my birthday or just good timing, but I was excited to go see the film. At the time I liked Prince, but I wasn’t the die-hard fan that cried at his desk uncontrollable when the news of his passing hit my smartphone some 32 years later. I dug “1999”, “Little Red Corvette” and earlier songs like “Controversy” and “I </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Wanna</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> B Ur Lover”, and I heard that the film was pretty cool, so off we went.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In hindsight I was surprised that my aunt, a fairly religious woman, would take us to </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">a</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> “R”-rated (which it definitely deserved) picture, but as a 15-year-old teenaged boy, seeing </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Apolonia</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> in that, ahem “light” was pretty cool. But the “adult” scenes in the film </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">were nothing compared to its star. Here was a guy dressed in what most people would think was a woman’s shirt who handled a guitar like an extra limb, oozing badness in the coolest of ways.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I was hooked that night, and I immediately picked up the soundtrack, listening to it all the time at the loudest of volumes when my mother wasn’t home on her old Fisher stereo. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Fast forward to my 17</span><span class="s3" style="font-size: 7px; line-height: 8.399999618530273px; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> birthday….better known as the most embarrassing of many times in my life. The year before my friends (yes, once upon a time I had people who actually liked to hang out with me) threw me a surprise 16</span><span class="s3" style="font-size: 7px; line-height: 8.399999618530273px; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> birthday party, the first one I remember ever having, and it was so awesome I tried to hold one on my own.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Good </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Lord, that</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> was a social disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I wore these way too tight dress pants and shirt that I sweated through so bad, it was that sort of hot that day. Growing up in the Bronx in the late 1980s was in the back end of the birth of hip hop culture and fashion, and folks, I wasn’t dressed for it. A lot of kids did indeed come, but they cleared out REAL fast as I kept playing “Kiss,”, “Mountains” and “</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Anotherloverholenyohead</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">”…over and over and over again. Those kids wanted to hear Eric B. and </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Rakim</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> and others from hip-hop’s royalty of the time, and thankfully (and unthankfully as well </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">lol</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">) my cousin Terry, the cool kid from Brooklyn who was a DJ on the side, brought his vinyl and danced with the girl I had a crush on at the time (oh, let me mention that my ex, a gorgeous Jamaican girl that I should have NOT screwed up with as well as the girl that I broke up with her for was at the party as well….ugh). </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">But Prince was to be played at that party, and I thought folks dug that.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">No.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In college, when “Purple Rain” was being blared out of my dorm room, folks knew that I was not in a good place and left me alone. I remember a girl’s who had a crush on me (but back in my shallow days her weight deterred my interest) got me the bootleg of the “Black Album” (which was released some 10 years later legally) and I played that sucker until the tape broke (tried to carefully splice that sucker with scotch tape; y’all know you all tried that at least once).</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">As his popularity waned and the hits stopped coming, I always made sure that every Prince album/cd/digital download was in my possession. Throughout my life, even </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">tho</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> I would never meet the man and the closest I got to him was several hundred feet away at an outdoor venue in Indianapolis, his attitude,</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">creativity, stubbornness, secret charitable nature and all around uniqueness was the one constant that gave me peace in what turned out to be a disappointing life so far.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Then April 21, 2016 came.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I know a lot of the people who know me think I am being silly; he was a celebrity, someone who wasn’t a friend or family member, or knew I even existed.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">But that wasn’t the point.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">He was my muse, my hero, my therapist, my screaming at the top of my lungs as I drove to a job that I didn’t want but I had to do to survive. He was a guitar god, a musical prodigy, a 5 </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ft</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> 2 inch heel -wearing androgynous dude who could handle a basketball (right, Charlie Murphy?) as adeptly as a 6-string. He spoke of the Sign ‘O’ of the Times, talked about when doves cried and his mother never being satisfied. He probably helped procreate more than his fair share of babies with “Adore”, “Scandalous”, and duh, “Do Me Baby “playing in the background of many a lovemaking session. He could rock, he could roll, he could get funky, he could jazz you up…about the only thing he couldn’t do well is rap.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Prince Rogers Nelson tried, but it wasn’t good.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Ultimately, as today is the 1</span><span class="s3" style="font-size: 7px; line-height: 8.399999618530273px; vertical-align: super;">st</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> anniversary that he left the world a gaping hole, I can only say these things:</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I wish he got help in time, and for those who are suffering as he did in silence, please do so.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I love my aunt and uncle for bringing me to the movies that night in Times Square.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I thank you, Mr. Nelson for providing me the light in the dark times, and the sun when things were good.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">And finally, I wish you were still here to live to see a few more Dawns with us, because these people who are calling themselves “musicians” couldn’t hold your guitar pick.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I miss </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ya</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, and if people think I am weird for it, so be it. A short dude who wore high heels, makeup, 7-inch heels and once wore sunglasses with 3 lenses (representing the mind’s 3</span><span class="s3" style="font-size: 7px; line-height: 8.399999618530273px; vertical-align: super;">rd</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> eye) was pretty weird too.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Yet we cried when he was gone.</span></div>
<div class="s2" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-26218784927633402912017-03-19T11:38:00.002-04:002017-03-19T11:38:06.559-04:00Desensitzed<div class="MsoNormal">
“Desensitized”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
March 19, 2017<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I got up this morning way too early as usual (it seems
that since I passed the age of 40 sleeping in late is simply no longer in my
DNA) and as is my norm (especially those days that I have to get up and have to
deal with the confused, entitled American public) I picked up my phone to see
what was going on in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stopping to look at one of the biggest social networks
(wasn’t that a movie?) in the world as usual, an old friend (who I made out
with once; great kisser, much better friend) posted an article about some local
students, some Mexican, some African-American, who recently won a robotics
competition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of reveling in
their victory, they instead became news fodder when some fine Hoosiers told the
Latin students to “Go Back to Mexico.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yup, that happened.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now I should be partially grateful that for once the black
kids weren’t told to go “pick some cotton” or some ignorant shit like
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, since one of my best
friends is of Latino descent (not Mexican, but doesn’t matter) and a spent a
good deal of my childhood with folks like this, this did not amuse me much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it gets better.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My sister posted a video of a black woman being taken to the
ground and placed in a chokehold by a store owner who felt she was shoplifting
eyelashes from his establishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
started to say that she couldn’t breathe but he wouldn’t let her go.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sound familiar?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh wait, probably not because that’s “old news.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sort of goes along with the whole “Fake News” deelio POTUS
45 keeps either blaming the media for…or makes up himself (see “wiretapping”).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So as I watched the video (and the accompanying video of
black leaders in her community confronting the shop owner, reminding him that
African Americans make up a good chunk of his business) as well as thought back
to those poor kids (and these were LITTLE kids as far as I can tell), I
realized something…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
…I’ve become desensitized to this stuff.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Holy shit that saddened me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I mentioned above, I moved to Indiana 22 years ago last
month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got here gas was about .89
cents a gallon, and I remember as I woke up (my girlfriend at the time got a
promotion here from NY and I was helping her get settled) we arrived in a town
called Ellettsville, a few miles away from Bloomington (a town that a lot of
Hoosiers know quite well, even though they have a problem accepting that those
glory days are LONG gone).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The very first thing I said to my former amour was, “Holy
shit, I am in Mayberry.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now anyone over the age of 40 knows that is the fictional
town from the classic show “The Andy Griffith Show.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s funny that comes back to me now; my mom
(God Bless her) LOVED that show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before
her mind started to go bad, she would hunt that sucker down on cable, and even
though she watched every episode of that show at least 100 times, she still
laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That show right now reminds me of what the current state of
America (namely, its current leadership) is trying to go back to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A simpler time where you left your doors
unlocked, everyone was friendly, you had family meals…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
…and white was right.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That bugs me a tad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t get where some (operative word, SOME) folks of the
majority continue to think it is OK that they are so perfect and everyone else
is so flawed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They cannot accept that
other folks from other cultures or persuasions can accomplish great things…and
sometimes do it better than they can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because
of this psychological block (or a lesson taught over and over again), they
can’t deal…so they do what they can to make sure that some of us (race,
religion, sexual choice or whatever doesn’t fit into their idea of the “round
hole”) believe what they think of them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kids won a robotics completion, fair and square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of being proud of them because they
were children, they tried to remind them that they will never be viewed as
such.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the black woman did steal, call the cops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I saw when that shop owner tackled that
woman (true man there; his penis must be HUUUUUGE and BIGLY) was
“WrestleMania”, except there was no script involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, wait a minute…she was black.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps she got off lucky being slammed to
the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It explains how we ended up with a guy who thinks that
feeding poor people doesn’t work, that having 60 degree days in January is not
unusual, and why only folks like him (not like YOU folks, don’t think because
you have the same melanin content you are “down”) and that same “white is
right” mentality isn’t gonna butt-bend-us-over-and-insert-here us all.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
241 years of the same thinking, despite the fact that we as
a country put a black guy in the White House…twice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are a true oxymoron.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-67727627761106555952016-12-30T18:36:00.002-05:002016-12-30T18:36:06.900-05:00A 2016 Half Mast Middle Finger (with a side eye to '17)<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="5ka5m-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5ka5m-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5ka5m-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">ONLY 29 HOURS AND CHANGE BEFORE THIS YEAR IS GONE.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="65h7-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="65h7-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4572r-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="4572r-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I will be doing what I've been doing for NYE for the last 17 years...except this time I won't collect a new year's kiss for the first time in 20 years. My girl has to work NYD, so I will be watching Seacrest (formally the late, great Dick Clark) ring in 2017 with a bunch of pop stars no one will remember 10 years from now.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="ebotu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a76c3-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="a76c3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">It has been interesting, that's for sure.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="35b32-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="881l0-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="881l0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">1. Published my 5th book. While I am not a successful author, I am at least an author. Can't hate on that.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="2u3ig-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2u3ig-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2u3ig-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">2. I have a decent job with the federal government...until the new admin mucks it up.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="67msa-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="67msa-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="67msa-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">3. As I mentioned on Xmas eve, I am vertical and ventilating.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="5gj0p-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5gj0p-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5gj0p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">4. I still have 98% non-grayed hair. But there is a storm coming, Mr. Wayne.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="5o94c-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5o94c-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5o94c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">5. My wife still thinks I am semi-cute.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="cpv9f-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cpv9f-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="cpv9f-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">6. I was in a newspaper and a news story. And being black, also alive. Major bonus.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="cio6e-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cio6e-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="cio6e-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">7. My oldest isn't doing too badly for his first year in HS. I am still trying to deal that I remember vividly screwing things up with Juliet Allison Grant in the 11th grade, yet I am the parent of a HS student.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="5hfvt-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5hfvt-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="5hfvt-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">8. The Giants are semi-interesting again, even tho I wonder if Eli has one more SB run in him (and a whole lot of upsets).</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="7kmch-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7kmch-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="7kmch-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">9. I actually saw the Chicago Cubs....the CHICAGO CUBS...win a world championship. While as a Yankee fan I am a little spoiled, it'll probably be the only time I will have cheered for another team...and be pleased when they handled their business (special shout out to Cleveland, who actually now have something to crow about).</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3augb-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="3augb-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">10. Finally, despite all of the losses in the entertainment industry (and the destroying of my Generation X childhood memories), at least as long as we have electricity and technology, I can listen (or watch) to Purple Rain, have a little "faith", believe in powerful women characters who helped take down evil empires, and ask David Bowie to "Dance".</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="aa3iu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="aa3iu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="eoiaf" data-offset-key="8e5a4-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8e5a4-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="8e5a4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I hope y'all have major plans tomorrow night, but even if you don't, I hope 2017 brings some MUCH better times, news...and hopefully not the destruction of the United States for everyone except rich old white dudes.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="2m1ip-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3skps-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="3skps-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Peace.</span></div>
</div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-5515072810285422272016-12-17T23:13:00.002-05:002016-12-17T23:13:32.139-05:00A G. Eric Francis Short Story<div data-contents="true">
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="6orhq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6orhq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="6orhq-0-0">The Social Man</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="enim6-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="enim6-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="brh10-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="brh10-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="brh10-0-0">A Short Story by G. Eric Francis</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="9m3bm-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9m3bm-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9m3bm-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="7q6vs-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7q6vs-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="7q6vs-0-0">“Wow, those are some pretty awesome pictures.”</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="auqpc-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="auqpc-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="auqpc-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="2el3g-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2el3g-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2el3g-0-0">The man looked at his computer screen, his right hand on the mouse wheel, slowly moving his fingers in a downward direction as he saw the pretty photos on his favorite social media destination on the web.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="9chp3-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9chp3-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9chp3-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="9kob1-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9kob1-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9kob1-0-0">“I see that Mary had a latte this morning...sure looks good!” </span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="a45cq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a45cq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="a45cq-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="e7rpb-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e7rpb-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="e7rpb-0-0">He looked at the clock, and he sighed when he realized it was 3:42 in the morning. He knew he had to get up for work in less than 4 hours, but he couldn't sleep. His wife had gone on to bed before hours ago, another evening filled with nothing but reality TV and average home-cooked meals. Their 3 children: Monique, Unique, and Fo'ShoNique, all under the age of 10, had finally conked out after they all gathered in the basement to watch their favorite Christmas special, “No White Man is Breaking Into My House!”</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="3jrhp-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3jrhp-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="3jrhp-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="35n5e-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="35n5e-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="35n5e-0-0">It was a special done by a Hollywood power broker of color. The man wasn't a fan of his work, but respected that he carved a niche in an industry where pale was king.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="24e2s-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="24e2s-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="24e2s-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="1fg72-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1fg72-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="1fg72-0-0">Every night after everyone went to bed he would hop on that social media hot spot, living vicariously through the lives people put on the outside for the world to see. Sometimes he'd stumble upon some funny meme, or a news story that got his blood boiling (“How the hell did this buffoon get elected?”). Other times he'd play an online game...most digital casino games where he'd win millions of fake dollars, making him sigh even more, since a good day at a real casino for him was leaving enough to buy a lottery ticket.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="fpuin-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fpuin-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="fpuin-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="e67eb-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e67eb-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="e67eb-0-0">He sighed as the thought of the 1 in 200,000,000 chance was about to be blown once again by him; the drawing was 4 hours ago, but he held off, the hope that perhaps that after 25 years and approximately $13,000 worth of torn up dreams would finally pay dividends.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8ittg-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8ittg-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8ittg-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="ba05r-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ba05r-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="ba05r-0-0">“I spend too much time on these things,” he said to himself, rubbing his burgeoning belly as he said that. He looked at himself, caught between not caring about how he let himself get this large and sad because he didn't have the gumption to stop the early death he was signaling to come visit him.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="62cb9-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="62cb9-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="62cb9-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="25dps-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="25dps-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="25dps-0-0">He looked at a few more of his friends....wait....friends? Most of the people on his “favorites list” he hadn't seen in more than 2 decades. He had few family members who followed him and vice versa, because he was like Henry, the dentist elf from that Christmas show of long ago...never fitting in. His wife, a woman best described as waiting to die without being sick, was more like his roommate than his life partner.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8dj6a-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8dj6a-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8dj6a-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="1l6pq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1l6pq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="1l6pq-0-0">So he escaped his drab world of a dead end job, no friends, too many bills and a car that he has to kick 3 times to start by living through the lifeless digital pictures of others.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="54k3e-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="54k3e-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="54k3e-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8i79g-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8i79g-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8i79g-0-0">He gets jealous sometimes, even though for all he knew half of people who posted online at the site could be drug addicts, swingers, or smelled like old adult diapers after a chili binge. What made him jealous though was that he didn't have the “outside.” Both his personal and public life was like oatmeal most days...necessary, but you really didn't want to ingest it.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="2g15l-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2g15l-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2g15l-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="jnha-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="jnha-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="jnha-0-0">After a few more flicks of one of his fingers on the mouse wheel took place, he began to lower the lid of his decrepit laptop down when a picture he didn't see caught his eye. </span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="2o0f1-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2o0f1-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2o0f1-0-0">A friend of his that he chatted with at night from time to time had put a picture of herself looking into a mirror. She had a night shirt on, her long red hair going in different directions, a blank look upon her face. The man lifted the lid of his laptop back up, and he noticed that his friend had written something using an eyeliner on both of her cheeks.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8c4o4-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8c4o4-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8c4o4-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="cf3tt-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cf3tt-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="cf3tt-0-0">“What the hell?” he said to himself as he grabbed his glasses to get a better look at what his friend wrote.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="e0j52-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e0j52-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="e0j52-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="7el6-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7el6-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="7el6-0-0">In the neatest writing he had ever seen, the cheeks read:</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="1pbp9-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1pbp9-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="1pbp9-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="9t68u-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9t68u-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9t68u-0-0">“You Make You, So Be You.”</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="4modp-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4modp-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4modp-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="ecn75-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ecn75-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="ecn75-0-0">“Huh?” </span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8b20m-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8b20m-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8b20m-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="fu2fq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fu2fq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="fu2fq-0-0">The man read what his friend wrote on her face, shaking his head because it didn't make sense. He kept looking at the picture, reading the words, noticing the blank look, the stone-cold look in her pupils, as if she just decided to leave her body but it didn't realize it was dead yet.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="3s48-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3s48-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="3s48-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="f63op-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f63op-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="f63op-0-0">Not sure as to what she was trying to convey, he simply shook his head and closed his laptop. While his job was indeed soul-sucking, he knew he had 3 mouths to feed.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="e13hn-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e13hn-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="e13hn-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="b11ef-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b11ef-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="b11ef-0-0">His 3-hour nap passed quickly, and a groggy man got out of bed, heading downstairs to make a cup of java and once again look at how happy people were on the outside online again. When he signed in, a message notification popped up. It was from his friend's husband.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="2lrm0-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2lrm0-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2lrm0-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="2a0s8-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2a0s8-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2a0s8-0-0">“That's odd,” he said as he walked over to get his piping hot cup of coffee, sat back down and opened the message.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="eu3cc-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eu3cc-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="eu3cc-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="bvoe8-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bvoe8-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="bvoe8-0-0">A few seconds later, the sound of broken glass reverberated throughout the kitchen.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="5pomr-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5pomr-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="5pomr-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="72hbg-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="72hbg-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="72hbg-0-0">“What the hell Frank?” the aforementioned waiting to become a worm buffet spouse said as she ran into the kitchen after hearing all the ruckus. Her irritation quickly left her though as he saw the man she married sobbing uncontrollably.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="6goso-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6goso-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="6goso-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="c0t6a-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c0t6a-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="c0t6a-0-0">The man blinked as he turned towards his wife, now dressed in black as he was, watching the casket of his friend being carried toward her last ride. As the church emptied, the man whispered “cancer” under his lips as his wife, putting aside her self-pity, took her husband's hand and pulled him towards the exit.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8f8si-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8f8si-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8f8si-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="4tmdq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4tmdq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4tmdq-0-0">As he aged, the man noticed that time speeds up, and 2 weeks had passed since he said goodbye to his friend. It was once again a late night, and he was still looking at the pictures that people put up for the world to see. </span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="34c54-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="34c54-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="34c54-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="btmsq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="btmsq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="btmsq-0-0">He didn't quite look at them the same though. Over those 2 weeks he learned that his friend had stage 4 breast cancer, and despite the closeness they had, she never told him. It made him sad, because after all the things he confided in her...</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="9qf1t-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9qf1t-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9qf1t-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="9ama6-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9ama6-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9ama6-0-0">“Wait,” he said in mid-thought. Going back to his late friend's page, he scrolled back to that picture she posted the night before she took her own life, not wanting cancer to win. He looked at the picture...then noticed that the picture was tagged to him. </span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8q1ga-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8q1ga-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8q1ga-0-0">“Son of a legless gopher.”</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="bsitt-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bsitt-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="bsitt-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="a8n59-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a8n59-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="a8n59-0-0">The man leaned back into the chair he was sitting in, looking at the final message that his friend wanted to share with him before she had to leave him. A nauseous feeling came over him, and he felt tears beginning to well up in his eyes.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="1uav1-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1uav1-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="1uav1-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="bi6bj-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bi6bj-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="bi6bj-0-0">But he stopped them.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="6qc5l-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6qc5l-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="6qc5l-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="fhggb-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fhggb-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="fhggb-0-0">He began to shake his head for a few moments, then he started laughing quietly to himself. </span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="b28kh-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b28kh-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="b28kh-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="18s5n-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="18s5n-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="18s5n-0-0">“Damn you Madeline...you were always the smart one.”</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="49u9k-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="49u9k-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="49u9k-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="blj0e-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="blj0e-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="blj0e-0-0">The man looked at the clock, and saw that it was 3:42 AM. With one more slight chuckle, he blew his departed friend a kiss, closing his laptop and began to head for bed.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="5veoq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5veoq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="5veoq-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="2h06-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2h06-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="2h06-0-0">As he did so, he saw the lottery tickets from the night he saw that picture. He was so tired he never checked them, and the last few weeks made him forget them.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="628cq-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="628cq-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="628cq-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="3ure5-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3ure5-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="3ure5-0-0">Grabbing his phone so he could scan the tickets, he waved his device over the bar codes of each ticket.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="30cvm-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="30cvm-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="30cvm-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="12i1f-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="12i1f-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="12i1f-0-0">He had purchased 3 that week as he always did.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="823ej-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="823ej-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="823ej-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="alu3l-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="alu3l-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="alu3l-0-0">“All losers,” he said to himself as he began to crumble them.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="al867-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="al867-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="al867-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="27koc-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="27koc-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="27koc-0-0">He stopped thought, unfolding each one and placing them back on the kitchen table they were laying on. He stared at them for a few minutes, then he grabbed a pen and scribbled something on each one. Placing them side by side, he turned around and went to bed.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="ems7s-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ems7s-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="ems7s-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="bnu3t-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bnu3t-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="bnu3t-0-0">The next morning his wife woke up, turning over to see that the man was gone. Figuring he went downstairs to surf that site again, she walked down the hall to wake the girls (“Niques...wake up!”) then walked downstairs to get breakfast on. As she passed the table, she saw the 3 lottery tickets that the man had left there. Looking down, she began to read what was scribbled on them.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="4h2bp-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4h2bp-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4h2bp-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="7ahtj-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7ahtj-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="7ahtj-0-0">“Me being Me Begins Today...No Photos Required.”</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="e6n3u-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e6n3u-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="e6n3u-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="38oo0-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="38oo0-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="38oo0-0-0">“What the hell is that man talking about?” she said to herself. Grabbing her cell phone, she opened up the mobile version of the social media site so she could check her messages. As she did so, she got a pop up message.</span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="8unjb-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8unjb-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="8unjb-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="5glti" data-offset-key="941oe-0-0">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="941oe-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="941oe-0-0">Her husband had deleted his account.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-30200601404781052842016-12-05T20:56:00.002-05:002016-12-05T20:56:32.369-05:00Yo God II (He be quiet)If you believe in that sort of thing, God once was very visible and very real. He split oceans, talked via burning bush, and chucked locusts at the bad guys.<br />
<br />
Hell, he even turned sinners into pillars of salt. Now when a being can turn you into a giant salt lick, you would think that you would listen to them.<br />
<br />
But human beings generally tuned him out...until they needed him, like the aforementioned ocean split.<br />
<br />
So he sends down his kid, and all he did was raise folks to the dead, make the blind see, and oh...got nailed like a Farrah Fawcett poster in the 70's, only to get back up 3 days later and say, "Hi ya doin'?"<br />
<br />
We still didn't listen.<br />
<br />
So God decided to shut up, skipping the water splits and leaving us an instruction manual instead. The Old Testament is like the prequel with all the good effects, with the New T being Google Maps. <br />
<br />
Simple climax to this flick....BELIEVE AND BE SAVED.<br />
<br />
About the only thing that was left behind once the major stuff left was faith.<br />
<br />
That doesn't mean that "miracles" don't happen. Hell, Noah Gregory shouldn't medically be here (ruptured placenta tends to usually be fatal). But God these days tends to do things on the quiet...<br />
<br />
...once again if you tend to believe in these things.<br />
<br />
There is a member of my inner circle who doesn't believe in<br />
God. Have had many a conversation with them, but they can't dig what they can't see, hear or feel. <br />
<br />
Faith ain't science.<br />
<br />
Since God exited stage right, we have done a lot of things that should get us tossed into the fire. Racism, war, sexism, bigotry, greed....we won't bother to list the 7 deadly sins; we are guilty of them all.<br />
<br />
I have never had the greatest relationship with God. I frankly don't get the dude. Grandfather served him all his life...he gets murdered in his bed. Mother served him, she is WAY down the dementia path. Good things keep happening to good people.<br />
<br />
But we did tell him to shut up.<br />
<br />
My cousin preaches his word. My aunts are loyal servants. My HBIL is a pastor (at least he is ordained to do weddings, anyway). They teach the word, despite their own personal struggles (both for what they have and who they are). They have faith.<br />
<br />
Each day there is more bad news. The United States have shown its ugly over the past decade, culminating in an election that was so ugly it should have a bag on its head. Nightclubs are burned down (or shot up), and a man whose only crime (shitty crime, yes, but moving on) was not paying child support and being afraid of being smoked because he was black...then got smoked because he was black.<br />
<br />
And once again, no justice.<br />
<br />
Yet human beings continue to do what they do, like lemmings going over the cliff.<br />
<br />
Oh, and telling God to shut up.<br />
<br />
How has that worked out?<br />
<br />
Once again, assuming you believe...or have faith in anything anymore.G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-5181949701546943922016-12-04T23:47:00.001-05:002016-12-04T23:47:29.170-05:00Cellulite and Life<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="23b81-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="23b81-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="23b81-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">My co-worker told me the other day that I write "books" when I post my thoughts on FB.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="dkjes-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dkjes-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="dkjes-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="2uqcl-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2uqcl-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="2uqcl-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I have a lot to say sometimes, my fellow sufferer in government employment, but since I have either pissed off friends and or family members (and my wife is busy getting her ass kicked at work during the weekends) I have no where else to release my many thoughts.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="c77un-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c77un-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="c77un-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="35hss-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="35hss-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="35hss-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Weekend is complete and I, like millions of others until we get put back into a recession after 1/20/17, are getting our souls bandaged up as we return to work.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="d0nfa-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d0nfa-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="d0nfa-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="66h73" data-offset-key="3049l-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3049l-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="3049l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I write tonight to discuss a very important subject with the few who bother to read my postings...</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8unh6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">...being a fat slob.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3pv0a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Whenever I look at pictures of my 16-year-old self (the young male that my wife said she would never look at because I was too damned skinny for her tastes) I wonder if I could ever get the gumption to be that guy (well, not exactly; that guy aged 31 years and the skin simply isn't that tight no mo'). </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="b8vrv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sleep apnea which isn't helped by a well-overdue needed to be replaced c-pap machine doesn't allow me much in the way of REM sleep. Assuming that I get my old schedule back of 11:15 to 8, I could simply get up early 3 times a week and begin to work out...if my wife with the bad knees and back can actually go with me, since it is her membership. Despite the release of my creditors via legal means, I still owe other things (and people) monthly payments where I cannot swing a membership on my own.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4rsoh-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, and despite my 200+ blood sugar measurements in the last few months, I simply am not motivated.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="965n2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But I should be. An associate (who only gets a hold of me when she needs something...my wife knows whom I speak of) whose parent passed on from diabetes-related complication had I believe 1 to 2 fake legs (can't remember).</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="423id-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">He also didn't give a shit about his health.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5c7d6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Over the last few weeks I have heard horror stories of lost feet and legs due to diabetes.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="845uj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">You would think that should scare me to at least change my diet, right?</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2cvps-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Have you seen the cost of health food? Shit, it'd be cheaper to put away money for my funeral that is probably coming 15 years earlier than I'd like.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="59op8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I remembered once upon a time when I was all muscle and my younger sibling was this skinny thing that I could punk out.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ecvlc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now he probably has like 5% body fat and can bike from VA to...Cuba, probably. In like a day with breaks. I have been jealous of him a lot over the years, since he has the confidence and motivation to where it has put him where he is today. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="64k9i-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Me? My old friend's daughter once asked me if I was having a baby.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9t6f3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Kid, it hurts when I poop due to leafy veggies and spicy mexican @ 3 AM. I couldn't push out a kid (which is why women outlive men; they are simply built better).</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1nk03-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">So I am a fatty (as my uncle, who can be somewhat of a dick sometimes, pointed out to me over turkey week when he asked me to suck in my gut so he can get a picture). When I look at myself in the morning, I see a little bit of the old me in there. At 47 with about 2 years of dedication I probably could drop the 60 lbs (don't want to drop below 200, even tho I should be about 180 based on my height) I need to get rid of to extend my life...until C and I can no longer afford our health insurance and die of a paper cut.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d40d2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> A smart woman from AZ I once went to college with (who has aged spectacularly well; she has taken care of herself...Gene, you are a lucky SOB) said I shouldnot measure myself against what people show to the outside world.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ft5gn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">There is a validity to that point.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="27ajm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But when you see either the best acting job in history or true happiness in that "outside", well....that's hard.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3ah3i-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Parts of me (the one that likes to make people laugh, or give advice to those who respect my opinion) I do honestly like...even thought if what my mother said is true is dooming to hell. A lot of me though...the beaten soul part, mostly...not so much. I tire of the "rah-rah" stuff that folks send to me, even though I know they mean well. I will tell you a little secret though, as I look at the clock and know that I have to take my fatty self to bed.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4c760-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I need more money. I need to lose the weight, which of course requires motivation (walking is free and I have a spaz of a dog that would assist). I wish instead of folks offering advice they would listen more...not just to me and my rantings, but to their fellow human being. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5uvi5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But what I really want?</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7vr1u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">To get up tomorrow (god willing), take a deep breath and say, "Everything is OK."</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9o5ci-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> You know, before being fat eventually kills me.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-41546226278421698032016-11-20T11:52:00.001-05:002016-11-26T18:29:12.545-05:00Yo God! (Shout out from a sinner)Now I know that the following may freak y'all out...but I am gonna talk about God for a second.<br />
<br />
No, as far as I know, I am not terminally ill.<br />
<br />
Yesterday my dear spouse had a little bit of drama with her job. She had to complete something online that, if not completed, would have caused her massive drama. The bloody thing wouldn't start with a damn, and after I stayed up until questions trying to help her, I gave up.<br />
<br />
Did one thing before I threw my hands up.<br />
<br />
I asked God to let her get through this, because the woman has enough on her plate.<br />
<br />
This mkrning, after she posted about her dilemna, one of her co-workers helped her out. She isn't out of trouble yet, but she now has a shot to do what she needs to do.<br />
<br />
Now God and I haven't had a good relationship in my 47 years. Personally I simply don't get his way of thinking ming (assuming God actually "thinks" like humans do; I am guessing that He doesn't have a "brain", per se). I have questioned many of his decisions:<br />
<br />
1. Why disasters take place?<br />
2. Why do little kids have to die?<br />
3. Why did he left the 108 years go by for Cuba fans before he said, "Let them have 1?"<br />
4. How did he let a racist, bigoged, (possible) sex offender, birther (a word I never heard of until POTUS 44 showed up) all around Richard get the osteoporosis powerful position in the world?<br />
5. Why haven't I won the Lottery? Seriously?<br />
<br />
You know, deep crap like that.<br />
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The biggest query of all I personally have is how can he let a faithful servant like my mom go out the way she is going?<br />
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Sigh.<br />
<br />
So, I don't get him, and I am sure those of him who follow his word don't totally get him eifher.<br />
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But that isn't the point, is it?<br />
<br />
I had an associate once who is an Atheist. He said he never got into a debate with anyone who believed in God because he knew he could never win, despite the scientific proof to the contrary.<br />
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Why?<br />
<br />
Faith.<br />
<br />
It cannot be proved to exist, but Christians have it. Even if the shittiest day takes place, so bad that it a country song, they have that to buoy them.<br />
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In a lot of ways, I am a little jealous of that, even if the entire thing ends up being the greatest scam the world has ever known.<br />
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As for me?<br />
<br />
Well, it's been a rough 10 years. Not as rough as others (have had a few conversations with some folks who would have me beat on that route), but it hasn't been fun. Whenever shit hits the fan (with my brood, it always revolves around $) somehow we find a way (via a last minute change of luck or the unexpected kindness of others) to survive.<br />
<br />
I don't think science has anything to do with it.<br />
<br />
I have lived my life where, if hell exists, I am on a Lear Jet speeding towards it. Scares me a tad. However, even with that, despite what family think of me (which outside of a few individuals on both sides of my married equation is very little, especially since this election) I am not that bad of a person. And someone is watching over me, which I hope continues. <br />
<br />
Some folks don't understand that their lives probably will keep on keeping on. <br />
<br />
I worry for my sons, as well as some myself.<br />
<br />
So whether it is God or whom/what ever, I hope I stay in good graces...and I am thankful.<br />
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-75991667480643212502016-05-22T15:53:00.002-04:002016-05-22T15:55:28.295-04:00Me, You, and the Cockroaches<div class="_2cuy _3dgx" data-block="true" data-editor="cgnon" data-offset-key="7jfff-0-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px auto 28px; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 700px; word-wrap: break-word;">
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<span data-offset-key="7jfff-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">When Prince died a month ago, I read that Jehovah's Witness folks believe that there is no soul; you just cease to exist, even though they believed in resurrection.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3o411-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I have had my battles over what I believe in my nearly 46 years on this earth. I was brought up to believe that Jesus died for our sins, and even when things don't go your way, "God always has a plan" for you. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3d4bm-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I look at folks like Donald Trump as they spew their hate and ride the wave of people who feel the same, and I wonder if things like this is part of the "plan." I have seen things that defy explanation; no scientific fact, but it simply happened. I don't believe in good or bad luck, even though enough bad things have happened to me, my wife and my children. I have never understood how those who find pleasure crapping on people get over, while good people suffer (or die way too young, which is a silly catchphrase; you die when you are supposed to die...the only “non scientific” thing I generally hold as absolute truth). </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9vgdp-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I know you are not supposed to question God and what he allows to happen (remember, if what the Bible says is true, we did pretty much ask God to butt out, which he obliged us). I know personally that since I have done things that he would not approve of (including a couple of things that if my mother was well she would not be happy with me with) I did bring a lot of things upon my own shoulders. I believe Karma is real...it is simply God standing out of the way while we pay for whatever sins we may have committed years past...or just a few minutes ago when we stole the pink sweeter from the restaurant.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bf9u1-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I have spent the last several years of my life screaming as loud as I can for we as human beings to treat each other just a little better. When I look at a lot of my friend’s profiles and list of friends, as we are wont to do, we associate with people who think like us, look like us, talk like us, believe in the same things. This “separation” keeps us from getting to know the “differences” in people, so we form our own opinions based on innuendo and old lies. I believe there was a bible story once where God (don’t remember why) decided to scramble the languages of the human race, which is why there are 100’s of dialects on this planet today. It is another one of his “plans” that I wonder what went into that decision, if God actually makes “decisions” like the creatures he created out of love. It has led to wars, rape, murder, and just plain nastiness, just because we don’t bother (or cannot) understand one another. It is the reason there is an Al Kaida or an ISIS. Or a black man is considered a “thug”, a Asian person is “smart” or Latinos are...well, whatever those who don’t get think whatever they are.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4rfto-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">God exists to some folks, while others are convinced we are simply finite creatures, genetically set to disappear at a certain time (whether by accident or natural causes), and that is the end all of everything. I think about Prince and all the music that he left behind that I hope that one day (once all the legal stupidity gets over with) we will get to hear. He has a legacy; I don’t know know if his music will be listened to hundreds of years later like Beethoven or Mozart, but I think it has a shot. As for what he believed in as a Jehovah’s witness, I pray he is wrong. One of my biggest fears about life is that we are no more important than a roach or fly, serving no purpose but to exist for a little while, then are snuffed out and are like we were never here.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ccgjb-0-0" style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I guess that is the main reason why I got myself published and I blog. More than the money, more than anything, I want folks long after I was gone know that I was here...that I mattered. That whatever God’s plan for me is/was that ultimately it was the best thing for me...and him.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-36779622612467685382016-05-19T01:18:00.000-04:002016-05-22T16:05:49.790-04:00What I Think I Think When I Think About Peanut Butter<div class="_2cuy _3dgx" data-block="true" data-editor="c98og" data-offset-key="203bd-0-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 28px; width: 700px; word-wrap: break-word;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">There are times where the late nights remind me</span><span style="font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">about how cool it is to be alive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">Now they loneliness part sort of sucks, believe me.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">My spouse (at least for another week anyway) goes to bed, and I sit here with my thoughts, the quiet of the house(beyond the occasional sound of settling) providing my soundtrack.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Wednesday I really didn't want to go to </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">work, </span><span style="font-size: 23px; white-space: pre-wrap;">wishing</span><span style="font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I had a day off with my girl.</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I just feel sometimes that I am wasting my precious time doing what I am doing. Don't get me wrong, I am happy that I am gainfully employed after nearly 7 years of the opposite. I have taken
steps to lighten my financial load (even though, just like Al Pacino said in "'Godfather 3" I am getting "sucked right back in.")</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">As I look at the clock, it is 1:01 am.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">I tell an associate and co-worker</span>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">regularly that I would love to push the "I resign" button that we
have at work (serously, there is a button on our Intranet that will allows usto quit with the push of a button) and be free.
Sunny days before the heat of summer are so refreshing...and depressing.</span></div>
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I am jealous of those folks who work for themselves that, while they work a lot harder and longer than we other folks can also go outside and say "ahh, I don't have a lunch hour' I have a lunch afternoon if I choose."</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">That ain’t too shabby when it comes to power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am at a weird place in my life.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I age, I think about my mortality.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">My man Prince was only about 11 years older </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">than I when he left this mortal coil.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">And he ate </span><span style="font-size: 23px; white-space: pre-wrap;">veggies</span><span style="font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and whatnot.</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">think my biggest fear when it is time for my clocked to be punched is to leave accomplishing NOTHING. Yeah, I have published 5 books. That is pretty cool. Yeah, I am a dad to 2 boys who, when they want to be, are pretty damned special. But what I am saying is to do something </span><span style="font-size: 23px; white-space: pre-wrap;">besides</span><span style="font-size: 17pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> existing. I mean, anyone can exist, sloth around through life and then die.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">To me, that isn’t a life; that is an </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">opportunity wasted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">I want to get an opportunity, seize it, prosper </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">and grow.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">I want to not only put up </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">pretty pictures, but to have pretty thoughts and attitudes and dreams.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">A lot of folks think that I think that money </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">is what I seek for happiness.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">Money only </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">helps pay for the search and puts a few things at ease</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">Nah, I want to be able to </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">put my head down at night and say the following as I drift off to sleep...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">IF I DIE, AT LEAST I KNOW THAT I DID SOMETHING</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">THAT MATTERED.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">That, my friends, is what makes Greg go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">Oh, as for the whole peanut butter thing?</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">We had Chinese for dinner, since Carla had a </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">massive migraine,and I am not checking to cook after dealing with taxpayers all </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17pt;">day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Sadly, Chinese doesn’t hold. I was hungry.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-41403741353185595142016-04-21T16:12:00.003-04:002016-04-21T16:12:55.441-04:00When The Doves Finally CriedNo words.<br />
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Now that eye have composed myself over this morning’s heartbreaking news, let me tell u guys a quick story.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When Michael Jackson died nearly 7 years ago, eye was playing with Jared when he was still that freewheeling fun kid before Aspergers got a hold of him. The news broke over my phone, and my mother called me immediately thereafter 2 confirm the news. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Eye tried 2 call my brother DeWayne, the world’s biggest fan of his, but he wasn’t taking calls. Eye had no idea what he was feeling…until 2day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My aunt took me and my 2 cousins 2 go c “Purple Rain” on my 15<sup>th</sup> birthday. Eye was a fan of Prince for a couple of years, but, and eye am not ashamed 2 say this, eye fell in love with the man and his music that night. When eye was in college and a social reject, eye blasted his music whenever eye felt alone or upset. Eye tried 2 talk my future wife in2 playing the song, “Friend, Sister, Mother, Lover, Wife” for our first dance (she quickly said no <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span> ) Even as his star faded and his aggravating tendencies came out as he aged, I was loyal to everything he did, even if eye knew each new album wouldn’t sell 10,000 copies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Music has changed in2 a business, lacking in innovation and becoming nothing more than the marketing of the next pretty face.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But Prince Rogers Nelson was a musician. And his fans loved him. And the musical world respected him even if he pissed them off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is some irony in his passing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Prince once joked in 1 of his obscure album cuts about Elvis being found dead on his bathroom floor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2day irony paid Mr. Nelson one final visit, even though he was found in the place where he made his magic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As for my brother, eye now understand what you feel that day. Yes, we have the albums…the music. That is the 1 thing I always hoped 4 myself in my writing; 2 live on in my work after eye am gone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But today, the last bit of my youth died in Minnesota. My old friends rarely speak 2 me anymore, my mother is fading away every day, and my dreams remain stagnant.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But eye always had Prince R. Nelson.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Eye still do, even if we will now never know what new idea was running in his head when God called him home.</div>
G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6945530420256920983.post-51847711587643860922016-04-18T23:18:00.001-04:002016-04-18T23:18:54.667-04:00Music makes the people dance<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b1j6f" data-offset-key="2miqe-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="2miqe-0-0">I grew up a child of the 70s and 80s, and along with that, I grew up with the music of the times. In my book before Noah 3:21, I wrote a chapter on how each generation hated the next one's music, and vice versa. It is unavoidable...and also a little laughable on both sides. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dp9b4-0-0">Growing up in the 8-track era, I couldn't stand my dad's music. Otis redding. Sam and dave. The temptations. Aretha. All old school soul that strained through those paper speakers in his 1979 Mercury Cougar. I was thankful as hell when I got a Walkman, so I can listen to what I thought was great music.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="91qva-0-0">Just like we have repeated over and over again, we never learn to appreciate the past, as well as give the present a chance.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2l7lq-0-0">There was a bug hubbub about NWA getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. How dare these pioneers of gangsta rap get into those sacred grounds? </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cjt4l-0-0">Rap isn't music, after all.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="el3rj-0-0">As someone who grew up in the era that rap started, I shake my head that even in music our bias (once again on both sides) automatically makes us convict something before hearing it out. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6g9op-0-0">I had an old friend named Eliezer. He was Latin descent, and he was always a little different; it's why I liked the guy. Anywho, in his teens he became a massive metal head and a big fan of Metallica. He tried to turn me on to them, but I was all about hip hop (there is a difference btw it and rap; call it classic rock's equivalent), R&B and 80's pop (my cousin teased me about listening to what was classified as "white music"; I've mentioned before that I was guilty of the same ignorance).</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="b9si0-0-0">Now I have selections from all of their albums.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="20mi5-0-0">You see, music ultimately is an expression of one's inner self, and if you happen to be among the few folks who make a long-term impact, you deserved to be recognized. KISS, while I am a fan, didn't exactly break new ground in music; they were/are a marketing ploy that worked in the 70's. Hendrix, Cream/Clapton, Aerosmith (before they stopped doing drugs, even thought I wouldn’t have heard their older stuff if I didn’t hear their 80’s stuff), The Stones...these guys are just a small sample of changing Rock for the better. Flip the script, RUN-D.M.C made hip hop available to the mainstream. Grandmaster Flash and Mellie Mel help start it. NWA brought a story about life in the hood that most of America couldn't deal with...and like Rock and Roll before it gave kids something to rebel to.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9f24v-0-0">How in the hell did they not deserve to get into the Hall of Fame?</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6svb4-0-0">Ultimately, every generation has their own thing, and if you are a music fan, you can pick out certain things from each one that means something. "Hey Ya" was the last original record I've heard, but I like Justin Bieber, Nick Jonas, DNCE, Selena Gomez, Megan Trainer...I like their stuff. It makes me turn up the volume in the car just as loud as if “One” by Metallica came on during the shuffle on my iPhone.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="28msu-0-0">Now I will admit this: the other day I said to my dear spouse Carla that I doubt that there will be records from this generation that anyone, including the kids, that anyone will consider a “classic.” But there will be songs where people share their first kiss or dance, or dance at their wedding, or even remember a loved one now gone from this era, as it has been for every era before or will be. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e6rm2-0-0">Isn’t that the point of music, from Mozart to Bieber? To forget the toilet bowl of poop that life can be sometimes? I know when I have to go into work to deal with the American people, that 25 minutes to and from work is one of the few times that I actually believe in my dreams; to escape the fact that I can’t do anything for my son because I have no damned money, or give my wife the time off to deal with her knees that need surgery. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3fc5k-0-0">Music is a gift; we may dislike something because it isn’t our taste, but we should respect those who create it.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="75gh6-0-0">We would be worse off than we already are if we didn’t have it.</span></div>
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G. Eric Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16065290316594792476noreply@blogger.com0