A Civil War Story

Thurston’s Thoughts

Days of Old Again

A Civil War Story

There have been many wars that have shaped the fabric of American history. The question of whether they were necessary or not is a different question. However, a glimpse into the past should provide a projection into the present. The American Civil War was not about the abolition of slavery or the liberation of slaves as much as the method of labor. These were incidental attachments to an economic scuffle for equilibrium of economics, not equilibrium of humanity. Long after the method changed, the sentiment remained.

The humanity part lingers with the residue of racism’s heritage still openly displayed. Jim Crow became the moral compass for the next hundred years. Now it is tacit denial, selective amnesia, or charge it to the game. The Industrial Revolution may have freed the slaves as a replacement more than any moral consciousness. Whatever the case may have been, the resolution left plenty to be desired or accomplished regarding racial dynamics in America. This cannot be disputed despite the revisionist lens of denial.

Likewise, the current global landscape of conflicts in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East are based on the imposition of economic policies, unhinged fidelities, and religious justifications. They are all wars of destruction. They are the old ways of doing business to settle a dispute or occupy territory. The economics of war has been to destroy only to rebuild later.

The destroyed cannot rebuild, so the destroyer pays for the rebuilding. This is paying twice for the same destruction. The seemingly deranged commitment to war and allies of war whether in agreement or not is illogically apathetic to self-interest. Consider if a sovereignty wanted to engage in war, I am sure they could start their own especially if others pay for it. Far too often, most wars are rooted solely in religious ideological justifications of subjective morality.

To lambast the reasons would be juvenile, but let us consider the consequences of what is lost since what is gained has always been anti-climactic to what was shattered. Sure bragging rights, intimidation, conquest, or religious and political governance may have been accomplished. But sometimes not really or only on a surface level. The undercurrent of resentment, opposition created, and ethnic or nationalistic contempt simmering in waiting is greater. Beyond war being hedonistic and narcissistic displays of frustration or power, it is the chess game of elites for power or dominance.

As such, ever wonder who the pawns have been? Pawns are sacrificed to advance a strategy in the protection of the King. Pawns only become valued when all has been decimated and they have the chance to be “crowned” and converted into an elevated hierarchy of power or usefulness. The King has less power than the pawns although they are still subservient to his protection by pedigree. Pawns are the lowly slaves of the chess board to be cavalierly forfeited.

In a war who are the forfeited pawns or slaves? For example, in WW2 when the shoes got tight, what pawn of sacrifice and degradation was “crowned” to fully participate in securing an “allied” victory? The answer is the same pawn that was once again condescendingly discarded and contributions minimized after they were no longer needed for war.

The Buffalo Soldiers, Red Tails, and many other Black soldiers and civilians contributed to a war effort whose domestic agenda did not include them. Ironically, chess pieces are black and white but the white always moves first for advantage. However, this article is not about that or the many sacrificial white pawns. There have been many recent wars since then from Korea, Vietnam, and most recently Iraq and Afghanistan.

If we only focus on the war against weapons of mass destruction, the accusations were false but the casualties, devastation, and expenses were real. One can argue the hidden agenda, but not the patriotism, nationalism, and commitment to American Democracy displayed by those who later were essentially expendable pawns. The greatest accomplishment of this war was generational expenses.

As far as terrorist accusations, many of America’s terrorist threats were once American trained or supported in the furtherance of their terrorism against someone else. Then they were freedom fighters but they are now terrorist. Furthermore, they are often religiously motivated or as resentment for some act of America committed. The two headed coin depends on which side you called, heads or tails.

The two sides of war are similarly positioned but the arrogance of unaccountability or at least the stipulation to err should not be arbitrary to patriotism but instead justice. The current arrogance of the colonist and religious states are under siege for this reason, repercussions. The indiscriminate unaccountability to humanity or for geo-politics run amok has led to a hazardous road ahead instigating WW3.

Notwithstanding the architects of 911 devastation on America and the vicarious global ramifications since, the impact has also been an economic calamity for America. Consider how one man has reshaped so many facets of American life and beyond strictly by the economic and governmental policy of a country he was never a part of. Other international powers have learned where America and its colonist brethren has refused.

The new method of war is civil in both senses of the word. One sense is domestic cannibalism while the other is polite in the form of vicious economics. I am afraid this will not be settled in the usual brute manner of who to bomb or slap around. Yet, the world persist. But, who do you strike out at when the enemy is you by your proclivities? What America has been a slave to has become its master of destruction by implosion. More widely, why do the global pawns continue to be ruled by ignorance or cowardice refusing to reject an elitist game of destruction and redistribution of wealth and forced ideology.

Nationalism is the older sibling of patriotism and thus subjective to selective geography and the perspectives of that terrain. Yet still, nationalism is a servant to religious bullying and the centuries old conflict caused by coercing beliefs upon those who do not share them. But, I ask two questions. What religion in the world accounts for dinosaurs in the 6,000 years old history of the world? Furthermore, is it more likely the earth’s archeology is lying or the narratives of religion are? But, heaven forbid we challenge inconsistent narratives.

There is a detachment from logic overwhelmed by faith in narratives that only stand on itself but not by independent assessment. Like religion, I guess governments are not to be questioned either. Nevertheless, how can governments of the world not be accountable to their people? Why do the people sheepishly submit to governance of bling obedience? Their smug rules are not our rules and our sacrifice is not theirs but their decisions are ours.

So, the people’s money often participate even if the people don’t. Yet the same money cannot be used to better the people’s condition. It probably is not a mere coincidence if you follow the money and not the distraction. We are programmed units serving a superior whose wellbeing exceeds our ignorance. But, is it ignorance if we know better but refuse to act outside of our mass hypnosis? This global calibration controlled by social and religious hallucinations become less defensible as time passes it by.

But it still exist because we play a childish game of tag or follow the indoctrination. I wonder what America’s next civil war will be sugarcoated as for easier consumption and digestion or does it matter? The principles of a pseudo Democracy with a pseudo religious compass governed by pseudo legislation under a fascist capitalism of exploitation last bastion of deception is patriotism. So, the next civil war at America’s behest will be religious nationalism, the greatest plague of historical European collapses.

From beyond the borders of America, the attack will be fiscally and that war has already begun following the 911 blueprint. Devalue the currency and squeeze the pockets by escalating expenses that create no value, only a false security, divisive accusations, and revolving victimization. It is a social experiment of scarcity creating desperation when dominance is not assured for a rigged outcome.

Therefore, America’s next civil war will indeed be about freeing slaves to ideologies, patriotic submissions, and misguided aggressions caused again by economics, cultural bigotry, or religious immorality. It is a civil war story we can avoid. Globally, humanity should check ourself before we wreck ourself. We must be careful not to let the past haunt us any longer. However, the present most assuredly will condemn as the past has. So, sadly the next global war will be to free the slaves of antiquated justifications and ideologies. But only if we can survive it.

P.S. Perhaps immigration policy would be more successful if it addressed the frontend where they are fleeing from instead of the backend at our border. Remember the Monroe Doctrine and the many intrusions when they wanted to keep foreigners out before the geo-political scramble of colonialism forced its way in. The money spent to keep them out could be used to improve their condition which would improve our border’s condition.

If that is not America’s problem, neither is any of these global skirmishes we engage in while civil war bangs on our door. By unnatural selection, immigration policy resembles the bias regulation of repopulation administered in the old school of segregation. We freely visit or appropriate yours but you are definitely not welcome in ours. But somehow, it is as fair as it has always been and just as destructive humanitarianly and politically.

Thurston K Atlas

Creating a Buzz

Posted on January 4, 2024March 8, 2024 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Happy Black Emancipation Day

When the truth is a Lie

Rejoice! Hallelujah! Free at Last! Happy Jubilee! Juneteenth is now a holiday. Finally, a day our ancestors never thought would come or perhaps a day they only dreamed about but could it be a day they had already seen. A day full of promises.

Could it be a day that other than symbolically we have yet to have seen? Civil Rights, the Voting Act, Black History Month, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day brought some of the exact lofty expectations and exaltations. Please make no mistake about it; it is progress. We will take it as part of an ensemble while questionable as acknowledgment or satisfaction of meaningful change.

Let history in the future look back and be the judge if June 19th being declared a national holiday is the beginning or just another layover on the way. From this point, history looking back reveals some very curious methods of demonstrating the freedom and emancipation of Blacks in America since that initial day of liberation in 1863.

First, many have diligently and heartfeltly worked to bring about the recognition of this holiday. Second, there are many, many more who rejoice in the celebration of the symbolism of this day. Third, the swell of pride can barely be contained within the satisfaction of its recognition.

A day that is symbolic and celebratory. By no means do I want to diminish or criticize the meaning of its importance, impact, or impression for those feeling the accomplishment or validation of its achievement. However, I wonder if the degree of pride celebrated is really a source of pride symbolically or otherwise comparatively. It has to be contemplated forgoing the reality of its subsequent impact; what is the meat on the bone?

At its core, governed by the reality of its intent, purpose, application, and legislation, what was really “given,” promised, or protected by the notification of freedom. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation changed the practice but not the perception or acceptance of slavery regarding legislative integrity, only the procedure but not the context.

A quasi end to slavery and its overt methods giving way to the begging of equality and the beginning of pseudo freedom. Is Juneteenth a memorial to the atrocity or a celebration of relief from it? Quantify and contextualize the reprieve against the covert and sinister practices that have limited its impact.

If this is a celebration of relief, why are we still subjected to the injustices of discrimination rooted in slavery? Its implications both seen and unseen are effectively both overtly and covertly practiced in principle and purpose. Should it be a day of mourning the indignities suffered and the struggle to shake the remnants of its ideology?

The two-edge sword cuts efficiently on both edges, but the handle is safe from its wounding damage. The handle controls the blade, but who is holding the handle? Whoever controls the handle guides the cut. So, was what was given really received on this day? Was it not granted over two and a half years before and the notification amounted to permission to know.

The question of the delay of freedom’s notification to finally reach the outer regions granting freedom makes me wonder if it was the beginning of liberty or the end of slavery. They appear to be two different things at closer inspection in practice and law but did we fully get either?

Then it would follow that why would you celebrate the delay of the information or change above the day it was enacted into law, January 1st, 1863? Not much had essentially changed except now everyone knew about it. What about those who had already known or where it had already taken effect?

When and where it did take effect was it more in word or prominent by deed? Slavery was followed by Jim Crow and its many variations of systemic racism and injustices. Coloreds only water fountains and lunch counters existed after the Juneteenth notification. Ask Claudette Colvin or Rosa Parks about freedom to ride the bus without being required to give up your seat for a white person.

How easily are we now deceived or pacified by our need for acceptance and validation? We now have the audacity to celebrate a day that did not deliver on what our expectation and interpretation of its intent was. Have we forgotten what was promised? It did technically mostly deliver on not being a physical slave, it did not deliver on freedom from not being treated as a slave or inhumane, but then it never promised that did it?

Forced labor became coerced labor in many cases, and no education became limited or scripted education tilted towards discouragement. In many ways, there is no definitive way to deal with slavery other than to do what it takes to put it behind us by meaningful change of substance.

For example, removing qualified immunity for law enforcement, changing the economic barriers to the equal probability of a possibility of fairness, quality healthcare, education not designed for social engineering, fair taxation, loan and banking reform, criminal justice system reform, and many other reforms or proclamations would have far more reaching substantive benefits than a holiday celebrating something that in principle has yet to happen.

For a bonus, these changes would not be racially biased and would have universal benefits ensuring universal acceptance. Generally, it would be better for the Black condition if certain things were discontinued instead of a hollow holiday celebrated.

As a free nation, do we not, as everyday citizens have the right to celebrate any day we would like without that day being a national holiday, for example, your birthday? Then why do you need the government’s permission to celebrate any day of collective importance to you? You know they sell ribs, beer, and fireworks for celebrations other than government-sanctioned holidays.

For that matter, we have Kwanza, which is largely ignored. At the same time, Christmas is widely celebrated as a government-sanctioned holiday, and credit is given to a white myth, I mean Santa Claus. Thus, it could be misconstrued that we need government approval and validation to determine our cultural celebrations.

Lack of a holiday has never damaged the Black condition. Still, many other societal and institutional injustices have, so why not address them because our grievances won’t disappear with a holiday, but they might with stipulations that address inequities.

We need reciprocity to get what we have contributed to others receiving, what they have been given in equal value, context, and quantity to be reflected in the principles of our Freedom. Freedom can now be defined as the Freedom from discrimination and systemic obstructions to our unhindered participation in the American dream.

Freedom where any racial context is inconsequential to the veracity of our skill and ambition as the only factors, no more or no less than anyone else’s. That should be the interpretation and understanding attached to Juneteenth, not pacifying anyone’s guilt or outrage.

Juneteenth is a participation trophy where nothing was won or given of value. A holiday can’t be given to instill pride and validation to a race of people because, at its essence, it shares the same psychological bondages as slavery to permit you something that should be within your power and dignity to grant yourself.

It is facetious to celebrate something within you because someone permitted you to have the courage to do so. It is, however, an indictment of how far we need to progress psychologically. To claim our pride, identity, and self-acceptance fortifying our strength of self-determination.

Our validation is a singular individual journey that gives rise to our collective accumulation of ascension by removing ourselves from being part of the problem and demonstrating a statistical representation of the solution. To be counted in our progress.

Like in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was told she always had the power just needed to summon it up. Juneteenth, in many ways, was a promise unfulfilled. It has yet to be realized because slavery was transformed into discrimination. It has operated ever since the notification of Freedom reached the far regions of geography but has yet to fully reach the distant regions of modern time.

Time has carried the water of this ideology while bailing water only to have some refilling the vessel of hate. Therefore, celebrating this holiday does very little beyond giving you another reason to fire up the grill and not have to work.

When the celebration ends and the congratulations are done, there will still be more pressing issues that await us. So when we have to get back to the work of substantial practical progress, remain diligent not to let the celebration douse our commitment and resolve needed later to focus on the task at hand.

Any solution upholding Juneteenth purpose and intent lays between the ears of both those who champion or oppose its essence. That is where the problem started and hides. The mind conceals or reveals the perspective whereby the solution rest.

But for now, let us celebrate this day as creating temporary possibilities to pacify a truce of interests and acknowledgment of slavery but not its ills. Recognizing its ending but blinded to its revival in a different form. If this seems cynical or ungrateful, I ask, should I be celebrating Freedom or the end of slavery?

Freedom from the chains implied the condiments of Freedom from discrimination and suppression. Freedom in its essence could not have been given if after a century and almost three score long fight still not received by now. Again, slavery ends but Freedom does not begin. So there goes that delay again.

As the handler of the sword, the wielder is impervious from the damage of the blade. While those who are cut continue to cry out, where is the relief, the Freedom from damages? Should not the one injured be the judge of the injury? Truth is a lie when it is proven false and can’t survive scrutiny, or when it is brutally honest but so truthful it is repulsive and rejected as a falsehood to preserve ignorance. Which is this? The biggest lie ever told is the truth when you do not want to accept it. The lie begins where the truth ends. Where Freedom from discrimination never began.

Warning! Straight no chaser.

Truth is similar to quicksand. The more you struggle, it engulfs you. So. there can be no opposition where there is no resistance. Likewise, there can be no resistance where there is no opposition. It’s a silly notion that the last day we were notified of our Freedom made transgressions evaporate to become free. They only lessened. Only the coercion, free labor not fair labor, and physical restraint diminished while other ramifications increased. Therefore, are we free from the ramifications of being free?

We were not promised or given Freedom. They stopped robbing us of it. It was not theirs to take, so how could they give it? Now no longer a slave, are there those who do not know this still? Do we still not fully enjoy our rights despite slavery or freedom from it? The appearance of Freedom without conviction is the problem.

Consequently, being free but unaware until notified gave us a mental perspective devoid only of physical suppression. The question is, what was that perspective? Were better techniques used to accomplish the same effect? Do other’s actions promote we still are not free or do ours that we don’t know we are free? Capitulation is surrender, and submission is by defeat, both primarily of a weakened spirit. Protect yourself at all times from both.

The options are either resistance of the status quo or the system submits you regardless of race, especially if you are black, narrowing the objective and defining the rules. There is no mystery often regarding the rules, but so what, to smell success overcome them because you ARE Black. The motivation is for the smell of it.

Boasting of the obstacles overcome smells better than crying over obstacles that overcame you. Mental toughness and an analytical resolve supply your mind with the tools needed to overcome barriers. Any breach has been allowed to penetrate your mental perimeter to weaken your spirit. Be careful what is served that you devour; consider the menu and motive before consuming.

This celebration is diluted because the holiday benefits everyone whether they want it or not. Our experience paid for this day, so where are specific concessions for us with practical solutions to our Black condition. We are hustling backward for what we already grind for with everyone else now along for the feast. For transgressions against Blacks, it’s reasonable to assume any concessions would be specifically directed toward a black redress without exceptions.

Many issues linger despite the late notification or holiday for us to be patronized away from essential changes. A benefit analysis reveals the sum impact of the holiday probably is not a substantial change. Its practical benefit is not much more than if it had not been declared a holiday. It is devoid of any meat on the bone. Granted, the holiday is an absolutely appreciated acknowledgment if you accept payment in holidays, not practicalities.

Freedom is a concept manifested more in what is not taken than what is given. It is the availability of choices unhindered. Freedom gives you more options and a better selection, but not what is available to choose from, instead only what you can choose from. How available and accessible are these choices? Freedom restricts what you can not do while defining what you are allowed to do.

Freedom taken and is unable to be returned, dignity tarnished but cannot be restored, and permission still by your notification indicates the facade of Freedom yet to be realized. Unable to take or grant either now leaves only the lingering phycological afflicting bondage of spirit and mind to be shaken. We freely control that unless we relinquish it. Stand on it, stand in it, but don’t loiter around it. Loitering is a sign of hesitation. Claim it, not be told it.

Therefore, you are always free, but your options are always regulated. The mind evaluates what it is told, distinguishing whether you are notified, already knew, or believe. So it was not the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, or the last notification made on June 19, 1865, that freed the slave it was being told.

You must know your self-worth within your mind without being told or having to ask. A strong will and a knowledgeable mind are formidable opponents when the mind becomes an elite intellectual weapon. A weapon always at the ready, rendering you unable to be disarmed. Our mind is the final frontier of contention to be conquered by us to guarantee our Freedom by our permission. Like Dorothy, we always had the power.

Knowledge is the currency of prosperity, and that is why it is always forbidden. Knowledge is Freedom. Know that, practice that, and become that. We must master our minds. You must be made to remain ignorant to remain a slave, obedient, or perpetuate a slave mentality. Ignorant of knowledge but mostly of ourselves and our possibilities. A piece of paper signed or late word spread is no longer sufficient control to restrain our minds or liberties. Our lack of discipline and determination is.

As Ten Bears said, no four corners of a paper can hold the iron. The iron is in the tongue when you speak, and in the actions you take. And if I might add, the iron is in the mind’s thoughts and heart’s determination to defeat any obstacle placed before you.

We must know by now!

Happy Juneteenth to all.

Enjoy your Freedom and holiday.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating a Buzz

Posted on July 8, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Spread No Further

Legacy of Contamination

I remember as a young fella, quite naturally I am going back a number of years, but I remember a television show named Lost in Space. The main characters were Dr. Zachary Smith and a robot. Dr. Smith was always whining and nervously candy-assing his way through every episode.

When confronted with danger, he would sell you out in a heartbeat. The robot would repeatedly proclaim, this does not compute Will Robinson, and malfunction shutting down when anything was beyond his programming and understanding.

Contamination is understood to mean a state of impurity or poisoning of something that results in spoilage, corruption, infection, or unfitness. It also spreads with a hazardous impact throughout entire countries, continents, or the world. By definition, the following most certainly will qualify as such toxins, when the contamination is ideological, but the intent was purposeful. It magnifies the outrage.

The biggest obstacle to dealing successfully with these contaminates have been far more than the lack of recognition and transparency but the outright lies that continue to be perpetuated and promoted. Instead of the names changing to protect the innocent, the names of the guilty remain the same, while their guilty deeds are made innocently invisible.

In an old gangster movie it was said, if you do not fear for your deed, then why fear for your name. No one should deny them their full credit if we are to be led to believe that these deeds are so admirable. If so deservingly earned, why not attach their name to all they have done. After all, they have been glorified and exalted to be of exemplary emulation as influences on America.

Ronald Reagan, Charles Darwin, King James I (or aka the IV), Great Britain, Christopher Columbus, Capitalism / Colonialism /Patriotism, and Healthcare have surely earned such distinctions in no particular order but with long-lasting implications. And now, yes, added to the infamous ranks is none other than the nefarious Donald Trump himself.

If you wonder whether the current pandemic is man-made, then there is no such question concerning the influence of the pandemics mentioned above. Of that, we can be sure. However, although I imagine all did some good, we could have all been better off without them considering the damage done.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)– the great communicator and alleged drug dealing undeniable racist of trickle-down elitist economics. His impact and the impact of his directives can still be felt today with a legacy of crack cocaine aided by Oliver North, who later was head of the NRA.

They stood accused by the U.S. Government and history. The Iran Contra scandal was a way to circumvent the workings of the U.S. government funding protocol by not only trafficking drugs but guns and funneling money for a war in a foreign country.

Drug addiction and other forms of inebriation to cloud judgment and diminish will or resistance are weapons used against populations for hundreds of years and cause many years of dysfunctional impediment. Whether building wealth, raising cash, funding objectives,or promoting corruption, drugs have proven quite lucrative and effective.

That the crack epidemic was directed towards the black communities should come as no surprise. It could have been foretold by Reagan’s shared racist views with disgraced Presidential bigot Richard Nixon.

In October of 1971, Ronnie was recorded long before his Presidency by Nixon of the “these cannibals” utterances. He stated,” to see those- those monkeys from the African countries, damn them, they are still learning how to wear shoes.” Reagan was indeed a man of his time as many in government shared this sentiment regarding Blacks in America.

This ideology seems to have played out in his presidency after his California governor stint, where he proclaimed that housing discrimination was a property owner’s right. He was against sanctions of Apartheid in Africa as President. His trickle-down effect politics at its core is F— ’em and feed them cheese while taking care of the elite interest at the top.

There was considerable economic suffering among minorities and low-income Americans under his eight-year tenure, which ended in 1989. In addition, Reagan created a legacy of drug addiction, crime, and incarceration lasting over thirty years after leaving office. His impact was not only felt in the States but other drug-torn countries and toppled governments.

Charles Darwin (1808-1882)– revealed his bigoted evolution by his obviously primitive twisted mind while masquerading as a scientist promoting a premise of natural selection. Furthermore, he believed in racial hierarchy and gender superiority, stating that the woman’s brain was similar to a small child’s brain, well beneath a man’s brain.

The Descent of Man principles were taught as fact, further perpetuating this privileged class and racist view. It exalted the Caucasian male, especially the European Caucasian, claiming that the negro and the Australian or aborigines are closer to the ape and gorilla in all matters. All other members of humanity were also beneath the white male but above the colored.

The New York Times advocated and found no fault with others displaying a pygmy male, Ota Benga, in the Bronx Zoo in a cage with monkeys to prove Darwin’s Theory of evolution. The Bronx Zoo, then owned by William Rockefeller, had no problem displaying it in 1906, claiming he was a cannibalistic link between the African and apes.

Instructed and enforced consciously and subliminally that the white race was superior to all with the white male at the top of the evolutionary chain. Darwin encouraged genocide to fully exterminate and replace savages throughout the world in addition to a duty to and justification for slavery thinly veiled as Social Darwinism. Supported by his equally misguided cousin, Francis Galton, they convinced or justified what continues to plague the world today nearly 140 years after Darwin’s death.

These two gave rise to eugenics (1883) which greatly inspired Adolf Hitler and Nazism (1933) based on the reproduction of a master race. Undesirable elements of humanity, such as the poor, uneducated, immigrants, and minority populations, were to be exterminated. Today they are widely known as not only minorities but “essential workers,” expendable.

Hitler was known to say if you tell a big enough lie enough times, it will become true. Darwin has yet to be fully discredited and exposed. Mimicking this Trump lies so much today with similar results as Hitler and praise of the swastika-like symbol confederate flag.

King James I (1566-1625)– that practitioner of behaviors supposedly forbidden and denounced by the most famous book in the world, which bears his name, the Bible. He has been of particular detriment to society.

He has violated the trust and sincere yearning for the Christian guidance of billions of seekers by being in a position at a time in history to manipulate and change the Bible. It reflects his purpose and ambition of control, vanity, and systematic racism.

The issue of marriage and homosexuality has been vigorously debated and rebuked. Marriage, at times, was just a contract of a partnership between two parties that needed the support of each other to accomplish a task. It had nothing to do with gender or a sexual relationship; it was just business. In comparison, using self-righteous judgments of impositional morality against those who choose to live outside the mainstream traditional acceptance of both, condemnation is inflicted.

King James I in the era of #metoo would have been a prime offender allegedly primarily canoodling with Lord Buckingham of British and Buckingham Palace fame as his longtime same-sex lover through coercion or the Weinstein technique of courtship. His infidelity and sexual appetite were rampant, contrary to the book that bears his name, but vanity was his primary sin and objective.

Lord Buckingham proclaimed himself to be the “slave and dog,” a not very royal title, of King James at his disposal to be turned every which way but loose. The next time someone stands on a stack of King James Version of the Holy Bible condemning homosexuality, infidelity, fornication, and same-sex unions, remember he openly practiced them. The charade continues nearly four hundred years after King James’ demise.

Charles Darwin was of British descent like King James and his self-proclaimed slave and dog Lord Buckingham marking a long and less than royal history of racism in Britain. The London Company, Henry VIII, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth I, and Charles I was embedded in British racist society. This honored their racism and garnered adulation for the whiteness of their influence, bloodline, and royalty.

Christianity had struggled before Constantine’s vision before a victorious battle which converted him to Christianity and his Council of Nicaea (325, 381).

If not for Constantine and King James I, you might now worship animal deities, numina, or ancestral worshipping. They were pervasive practices in Rome before embracing Catholicism. Now, sprinkle in some Titus of Flavian lineage and Theodosius I for influential good measure shaping modern Christianity.

The Catholic Church has also committed some unholy deeds and indulgences. They were a prominent presence benefiting directly from participation in the slave trade and spreading their religion to educate heathens. This served more to deter slaves from revolt and resistance while having been robbed of their resources and identity.

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) a murderer and marauder, which perhaps none have done better when it comes to conquest and colonialism. His influence can be felt in America, the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, and Canada as he spread his European brand of death, bondage, disease, and greed.

He had ambitions of conquering Asia and proving to the Spanish Crown that he could strong-arm gold, precious resources, and slaves in sort of a bum rush midnight raid. In the process, he left a path of destruction, genocide, theft, and slavery everywhere he went and influenced those who followed to do the same.

The Taino of Arawak descent was the first to taste his homicidal thirst on the island of Hispaniola, Columbus taking advantage of their cultural lack of aggression and abundance of hospitality. He left them decimated and diseased coincidentally with smallpox and extinction.

Smallpox was gifted to the Native American or Indigenous people of this land long occupied by them. Somehow, that which had already been discovered and indeed occupied was whitewashed. It was credited to Columbus’s exploration as his discovery.

Columbus is no hero worthy of a national holiday. He is a squatter and, most appropriately, a war criminal and a warmonger without opposition, compassion, or a war. He is the father of colonization in the new land bringing slavery and death while providing how it can be done to an inviting population.

His sole purpose was not to prove the world was round or to discover new lands but was motivated by a decree to see who he could jack of their resources and enslave their people, and that is why he is an American hero today.

The pride some so adamantly claim of Columbus’ heritage must be made in full disclosure and support of his genocidal ways. It is a shameful commentary that no one else of that heritage can be deemed more deserving than him.

The father and founder of slavery in the Americas unleashing discrimination lasting over five hundred years later. Colonialism/Capitalism was built on robbery, theft, deception, and oppression, including death. It is no longer practiced exclusively against the poor, immigrant, purposefully ignorant, women, and minorities but the working and middle class.

Yes, the middle class is now infiltrating the lower class when they thought they were safely above it. Pure greed recognizes no boundaries. Laissez-Faire is the foundation of Free Market Capitalism to not interfere with the free market of survival of the fittest unless it affects the rich.

The Marxist theory of socialism and the Fascist principles urging ultra-nationalism and racism are inbred with today’s capitalism. Capitalism, Marxism, and Fascism are conducting an intimately salacious threesome in a democracy where it is unchecked. It is becoming a dictatorship suppressing criticism and truth obliged by silence or vigilantism to protect the money or political ideology that protects the power.

The great American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party were supposedly about taxation without representation, but what about representation without taxation. Some rich do not pay any taxes at all and boast of it. How is that possible or acceptable in a country founded on tax disputes and fairness?

Capitalism is becoming straight-up indentured servatude and exploitation where assistance to the poor is primarily considered socialism while the bailouts and incentives for the wealthy are justified economic policies.

The healthcare system image is as long as you owe them, they will never be broke, and you will never be well. Healthcare itself is not the problem, but the rules the system is forced to adhere to for its survival. It promotes corruption from within, seeming like a high-stakes poker game where significant resources or DEBT are required to participate. Same for educational and student loans, the game is debt.

Medicine is an instrument used to launder money and redistribute wealth, probably better than the stock market. Consider all the substances which are legal but detrimental to your health. Many create not only sickness but outrageous medical expenses. There can be no other justification other than money. Look no further than the opioid crisis.

Crack was devastating, and it had a child named OxyContin, cousin to the dog food dating back to the Vietnam war exit and before. Opioids and heroin are nothing new, but the last 60 years have spanned these three illicit drugs to continue to be a destructive toll on populations by design.

Then, crack was a crime heavily and unevenly punished, but Oxy and dog food is now a disease by demographic selection. Opioids created wealth through sales and now through treatment.

Marijuana, which has many medicinal purposes, is only now being utilized, but the argument against it being its unknown effects and addictive nature. Other substances are allowed, encouraged, and addictive with industry backing and profits. This does influence their acceptability with well-known health damages if that is the case. This is where the lobbyist and special interest groups come into corrupt the reality of its danger.

Compared to the things that we know the side effects of with no medicinal purposes, the argument is weak. If addiction is a concern, then what about alcohol, cigarettes, or sugar, among many. Control of hemp products, the newspaper industry wars, and good old racism is again the original root opposition of a ban on marijuana.

Donald J Trump (1946 -, 45th President of U.S.) that stern representation of the Confederate legacy, American heritage, and Patriotism. He can boast of himself dodging the draft, an immigrant background by way of his grandfather coming here after being dispelled from his country for dodging the draft, and family roots from the drumpf’s of Kallstadt, formerly of Bulgaria, not the patriotic founding fathers.

Real Patriots of the Republic to make America great again would not participate in any government stimulus, assistance, subsidies, bankruptcy protection, business or corporate bailout as an inspiration and example of their beliefs just like their opposition to the vaccine. Instead, they participate in the overthrow of the government and an election without realizing what happens when you tire of Trump, elections again? Not likely.

However, when the shoes get tight, where are your patriotic principles now. Without excuses, please, since you reject all reason, then please give no excuses. The puppeteer exploits your ignorant complicity to threaten your beloved Constitution and Democracy for his glory.

If you would relinquish your freedom to vote him out or his offspring, then what? Racism is the number one killer in the world of opportunity, whether by drug addiction, economic suppression, or any other socially engineered construct of control.

No wonder it is hard to advance, it is most likely to have been by effective design and not human frailty or lack of ambition. Most of these atrocities were committed in the name of morality, religion, and politic. The rest can be attributed to pure unadulterated greed. Now Patriotism is the new buzzword and dog whistle.

Arianism is the belief that Jesus is above man but below God, which a twisted adaptation is used today to promote racism in essence insinuating that the white race is above all other races. That and Patriotism are alibied to save the country. Their Patriotism aims to restore America to what principles or period and, how by government coup, mass murder, or slavery?

The above examples of how dangerous these fallacies, grandiose delusions of superiority, mass deceptions, and wanton acts against segments of society are promoted. It is transmitted as intentional contamination of reality and faith persistent throughout time. It ignores truth and fairness but embraces ignorance, violence, and inequality from a self-appointed group of moral law and order manipulators with religious principles.

They want you to believe the meek will inherit the earth but let us not forget even Jesus warned of a house divided. Something more closely resembling fairness, equality, and freedom must emerge soon if we avoid the fate of all great civilizations before us. The clouds of unrest rumble on the horizon of implosion.

With the former leader of the free world attempting to install himself as a quasi-dictator by promoting insurgence via a violent takeover of the Capitol lawmakers in one fell swoop, our foundation is wobbling badly right now yall. Like all of the above, Trump’s actions will have long-lasting repercussions both at home and abroad. The chaos has been ignited.

We are a resilient nation when in solidarity. We have survived much, but as we now tussle with the Covid-19, which Trump unduly exacerbated by admittedly downplaying the presence and deadly consequences, regardless of how it originated. He bungled the response.

The foundation of what has stood for 244 years is on the brink of destruction and collapse in four years of one man. A day of ego soothing indiscretion and foolishness carried out by his army of terrorists threatens Democracy.

Remember, those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. This is how dictatorships and strongmen come into power, but they keep control by oppressing those who brought them to power. They prefer the iron fist technique of persuasion for their longevity of rule.

These above-referenced influences of American foundational structure and guidance have a very well-earned placed in history and should be rightfully singled out for their intentional and insidiously contrived transmission of mental and social contamination. Let us not forget the accompanied death and suffering. Now we can add the destruction of Democracy and Capitalism.

You cannot have Capitalism without Democracy. Trump is not solely to blame because the table was set long before him. He just feasted at the table. However, he can be held to account for his contribution, and many share his vision if not his methods. This needs to spread no further.

Hopefully, it is not too late to forgive them, for they know not what they do. Seduced and cajoled by a snake oil salesman bent on deceit, vanity, and ego inflation selling miracle notions and poisonous potions. It is the puppet master who pulls the strings when the puppet dances.
Now, this seems like being lost in space with the cowardly constantly whining Dr. Smith and the robot, who frequently cannot compute reality and have malfunctioning meltdowns. A sellout and his malfunctioning companion, the public.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on July 4, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Practicality of Consumption

Spend Wisely.

Money carries a lot of weight wherever it circulates. It garners respect across borders, cultures, and ideologies. It compromises principles, corrupt souls, and just the same inspires great accomplishments.

It is said to be the root of all evil. In its pursuit, many atrocities have been committed in its name. It has been worshipped as life itself, and to some, life is deemed not worthy of living without it.

The mystique is valid because the perception and value placed upon it are so very real. It is the basis of operation in modern society, but its use is still not understood by the multitudes of people who stalk and chase it in their daily pursuits. Furthermore, the time and effort spent in its acquisition is often not reflected in the time and thought given in its consumption and how it is expended.

Money is the basis of existence in a material world and can bring riches and favor beyond its face value even if it can’t buy you, love. Make no mistake about it money is power and respect; the more money you have, the more of both you will receive.

Ever stop to wonder about the value and power of money. It has no value. It is a measurement representative of value but has no value other than that perceived and manufactured to be accepted as an assigned worth or denomination. That is where its power is in the acceptance and significance placed upon it.

The ruling power or government assigns a value accepted as a unit of exchange or buying power, replacing a bartering system to regulate the consistency of its value. It replaces trading cows and livestock for goods and services. Before money, wealth was judged in a much different way, primarily by how much livestock or land one owned.

As time progressed and personal services were offered, money was the exchanged consideration used as payment to establish a uniform value for services by its acceptance in exchange. It is a matter of supply and demand, determined by who has it and how badly someone else wants it.

Money is known as currency because it is expected to “circulate” as a unit of trade equivalent to the value of your goods, time, or effort. That is where the gift and the curse lie. Depending on which end of the currency you are on, the giving end or the receiving end. We are conditioned to accept that the power is all on the giving end, but that is not an absolute truth.

Those on the giving end have consolidated a position superior to yours because they have something that you want, and you must meet their expectation to receive it. Once it is received, then the “flow” changes, and the power switches.

Now they need you to put it back into the survival of the system for their wealth to increase and the cycle to continue completing the circuit. You earn it, they pay you, and you spend it back into the system, starting the process all over again.

Money like water must circulate or flow to remain vibrant, just as a current of electricity must flow to produce power, but when stagnant becomes a hazard, so it is with the currency of money. Circulation is the key to its value, the velocity of its turnover.

The velocity of money is the rate and how often it is circulated. Since the control of the source of money is much smaller than the need to get it, there is a small window of transfer of power.

The collective power of the “flow” must be concentrated for the impact to be felt. The effectiveness is not in spending it but in where, how, and what you spend it on. The economic strength is in the fist and not the fingers for economic impact to be felt and concessions to be offered or demanded.

Smart money will offer concessions before being adversely influenced, but the majority will only bend to the inevitable when left with no other monetary choice.

I once held a job that I liked very much, but it was not economically feasible for me, and promotions and pay raises seemed to elude me, forcing me to seek other opportunities. When it became known that I intended to leave and gave my two weeks’ notice, only then were offers made to retain me only because I was leaving.

I did not have the same value to that entity until it threatened their objective. I still left because I felt that if I was as valued as now claimed, then why was I not straightened out before now and given what I deserved to retain a so-called valued employee. The same is true with buying power.

Many consumers have been refused accommodations which would be goodwill and smart business practice until you threaten cancellation. Only then customer retention offers you a much better deal to keep your business.

The question is, what were they doing to you before if this was available to you but withheld? Cell phone and cable companies were good for such practices until consumer dissatisfaction gave rise to other alternatives to address the problems. This created competition that had not existed before but threatens their bottom line now.

I state that to say, if you fear a void will exist for a product, service, or quality, then history and economics have proven that someone will create an alternative. Someone will most likely improve upon that product to meet consumer satisfaction and expectations. Whatever you can’t do without, ask yourself how you got by before it and what if it became unavailable?

It is most likely a matter of convenience but mostly a preference rooted in status and prestige as a psychological separation elevating your self-worth comparative to others. That elevation is externally influenced by making your economic decisions habitual rather than rational. For example, if any clothing manufacturer went out of business, you would merely find another manufacturer to your liking.

Current trends often make the decisions for you. So why can’t you make these decisions for yourself about how and where you spend your money? I know but do you really? How you spend your money should be a direct reflection of what you had to do to get it and what is the value of what you spend it on.

There is a vast difference between cost and price. At what cost will you pay the price for what you want. If you feed it, it will grow, and if you starve it, it will wither or adapt. That is the collective power of how you spend your money. Feed that which feeds your needs outside of the purchase itself. That they gratefully recognize that you have other choices according to your personal values.

What incentive are you giving them to value your economic voice if you do not recognize or, more sadly, will not exercise your discretion? What cost to them for their disregard of it?

The strength of the intertwined vine or collective voice is the “bottom line” language that is spoken all around the world. In all languages, financial survival speaks loudly and causes economic mountains to yield.

Why would you enrich those who have offended you or your culture if they stand categorically opposed to your interest except to receive your money? This is funding the opposition.

It reinforces their disregard for your voice in addition to assuming an entitlement to your money because you refuse to sever a dysfunctional and abusive consumer affiliation. This is functionally funding your opposition and fueling their continued resistance to your significance or concerns.

Old heads knew this and would often state they would not spend their money with those that did not support their interest or respect them, their ideology, or culture. Those who offend your ideology should not be supported or patronized to encourage their opposition to your position. This spans from a personal or cultural resistance to include ideological resistance.

A prime example was the Washington professional football team. They have for many years refused to change their derogatory name. Instead, they would declare they do not embrace racism. They didn’t embrace racism; they were a symbol of it.

Yet, all those who patronized them, did business with them, or freely sign with them were complicit in their racism. This is the reason they continued it because there was no fiscal accountability. Fiscal accountability, not public sentiment, finally pressured a change of position.

The Indigenous People, the true forefathers of this land, don’t have the fiscal power to force change monetarily. Civil discord has not gotten change done. Aunt Jemima, phonetically ain’t that yo momma, has been recognized as offensive, and despite her endearment to millions of breakfast tables, she has finally reached retirement age.

They could no longer risk the fiscal fallout and moral objections among Black folks and those whose ideology would no longer condone it. Instead, it moved them to suddenly examine the actual costs and act in their fiscal best interests.

Marginalized were once such groups as the LBGT community, domestic violence victims, and others. Those native to this land whose voices are muffled need similar support or incentives exercised for them. We cannot discount grievances based on race, but we must also embrace grievances based on ideology to raise the tide for all of those in our midst afflicted.

We have at times thoughtlessly contributed to the oppression of others because they are not us. To support any degradation is to invite continued coercion, discrimination, and exploitations that have gone on far too long. It is way past time for a correction and concerted effort to improve the narrative.

We should spend our money where our core values and decency are reflected. Fiscal support should be withdrawn where change is not provoked. The flow of money is the twist of the arm that receives the most immediate and comprehensive adjustments.

The fiscal survival of these entities that support systemic racism and other discriminations is dependant on our funding. Public or private depends on our “flow” of currency and our silent agreement to continue hurting our collective good.

The flow or circulation must be strategically directed or removed. Money like blood circulates, and lack of circulation leads to amputation or death. The consolidation of economic power is the most efficient and effective tactic because it forces their voluntary change to sustain their survival. It has been proven to work just as it has been effectively used against us.

The queen of soul said it best when she SANG “R E S P E C T find out what it means to me.” First, we must declare where there is no respect for me or my culture; then, you must be paid by those who agree with you, never by those you oppose. The personal fiscal policy and funding by those who sincerely reject racism and discrimination against whatever historically marginalized and exploited group should be to first listen.

Listen to that group about remedies and redirection of collective resources for the removal of those restrictions. Of course, propaganda and atrocities have been committed, and it is true that perhaps the worst has been committed in bygone days. But that does not justify the continuation of discrimination and privileged entitlement by those who are now living.

By your participation, you are roundly condemned. By its continuation, you condemn yourself just as those before you have been. Put this shameful past behind us, not by denial and misconceptions but acknowledgment and realization of remedies.

The persuasion of the people’s economic patronage when focused ensures our money should never go where our influence cannot go, provoking a fair labor/wage exchange.

P.S. Please reconsider accountability for these manufacturers, designers, and fashions that have been overtly offensive. I am sure others make quality products that deserve the chance and our business.

Wearing and being seen in these costumes exposes the psychological dependency and cost you are willing to pay for pretentious prestige or status.

Spend your money where you are respected and appreciated, especially if there can be collateral good done. Then, if you must, you get it started. It has to start somewhere, be a real trendsetter. Be the straw that stirs the drink! Spend wisely and responsibly.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on July 4, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

The Black Reality

Inner City Blues

Black folks, it is time to face reality and speak the truth. We have indeed faced hundreds of years of racism and oppression in America, and any atrocity that the mind can imagine has been committed against us. That is a given, and the damage of those actions and consequences remain evident today, but we have proven to be resilient.

There can be no denying that there are many reasons for the Black condition but are there any longer any excuses? Let me say we have a right to tell the truth about others, but we also have an obligation, to tell the truth about ourselves to ourselves to improve our condition. We may not want to hear it, but we should hear it from ourselves truthfully.

Believe in what you see more than what you are told because you can be shown better than you can be told. Actions always speak louder than words, so what is understood need not be spoken but observed. If we do not like the truth, we should make it a lie by changing the reality, not the narrative. Then, they can’t dispute the obvious.

There has been no redress for the slavery debt, nor is it likely to be paid to our satisfaction or the extent of the damage done. Yet, it is no secret in our inner circles what we agonize over the most in our communities, and it is not the police, racism, or the white man.

In some of our neighborhoods, we barely see the police or interact with them. If there are whites in our community, they are a scarce minority, if at all. Racism has always tipped the scales, so nothing new or nothing we can’t or haven’t overcome.

We are not fooling those outside our circle because it is plain to see and increasingly harder to conceal. That is why detractors can keep reminding us and deflecting from their actions that hurt us because sometimes we hurt ourselves more. So we give them something to talk about.

Could we be wrong more so than they are, just as two wrongs don’t make a right, but it doesn’t make us even either? In this case, it makes us odd? Odd to harm ourselves in a struggle against harm.

Oddly enough, how can we, and why are we as equally wrong as the forces we complain and protest about, asking them for our equality and safety? What do we demand of ourselves in our predominately black neighborhoods where we practice a different form of cultural racism and genocide?

Why is it easier to point the finger at others as the source of our problems in OUR communities where they have a minor presence? We can not pretend to have submitted our consciousness and condition to their influence when they are not present unless we admit to the frailty of our minds to be so thoroughly conditioned to perform atrocities against ourselves for them.

We have to keep it, one thousand family; it is us doing it to us. Whatever the number of unarmed Blacks killed by the police is a crime and tragedy, but how many more would be at the dinner table if we were not killing our own at an alarming rate in these streets?

How many innocent children would continue to play? How many families have been generationally damaged from the drug game? Why is it unsafe in our communities from those who prey on those who look like them, never leaving the neighborhood to commit a crime but would claim black lives matter to them?

Why are our black women disrespected by us and treated in ways anything but queenly? Okay, I hear you, playboy, and that may be true, but what about the man in the mirror or regard for your mother, sister, or daughter?

Is it proper for Black women to project images appropriating other cultural beauty standards to their impressionable daughters, diminishing the empowerment and dignity of their child’s blackness or self-love?

Is our own self-esteem and character, which reflects our integrity and principles by our conduct, more critical than fronting for others? Are we that fragile in our thirst for validation? How could our conduct, discipline, and ambition have a positive impact on our children? What about for other races to be less resistant to our humanity?

We have proven ourselves to be a resilient people but not as collectively progressive as we could have been. We cannot normalize or excuse the behavior that holds us stagnant as others surpass our condition while holding us in contempt. We have worked hard, but now we must work smarter to produce a reality that aligns with our expectations and demands.

Instead of focusing on the negative, not within our control, we must focus on the negative within our control. We cannot cry our bed is hard if we contribute to making it that way. It is an emotional display that restricts meaningful gain except for an outburst of feelings. It is time to grind if harvest is to be upon us. The grind will take extra effort, but the harvest is abundant by using the principle of addition by subtraction and innovative substitution of traditional education and rejecting self-limiting socialization.

We will have less of a need for others if we take care of our business first. We can take what is ours when we can give it to ourselves. It reminds me of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who sang, “I don’t want nobody to give me nothing open up the door, and I’ll get it myself.”
Enough doors are open with the ability to open more doors for our harvest, but we must position ourselves advantageously. A change in our mentality and specific education outside of the structured diagram of social engineering must occur.

Many of us know the rules of the streets and how to survive if not thrive, but it is time to switch the game up from the nonsense some have told ourselves that this is the only way available to us. There are better ways, but it will require something more of us. We can’t convince ourselves that it is economics-related because it is other ways of making coin that doesn’t hurt the community in which we live. It is not always the economics but the mentality and lack of applied ingenuity towards the obstacle to economics.

Life will present challenges, but we should avoid the damage we do to ourselves, our image, and our communities. Unfortunately, some aspects of Black culture have taken on a detrimental mentality that significantly contributes to our collective condition. We should not take negative labels or harmful behaviors and embrace them as a positive appropriation of endearment or conduct.

What we immerse ourselves in becomes our reality and desensitizes us from the cause and effect of its impact. Unfortunately, the nature of some of our music and television choices from the earliest age conditions us with subliminal indoctrinations that form our perspectives and behaviors to what we accept, conform to, and aspire to become.

We must be diligent about what we expose our children to, primarily if it promotes negative connotations described as entertainment. We must then ask ourselves, who benefits from our mimicking these actions and behaviors? Can we expect to be anything other than dysfunctional when the stimulus that we bombard ourselves with is tainted by violence and indifference as regular primary programming? Instead, we have tricked ourselves into devouring it and blame others for our appetite.

Just weigh the benefit against the detriment and compare it to what you observe in the community. Black man, we must reacquaint ourselves with what it means to be a protector, provider, and example for our families and communities by being engaged in providing veteran leadership and knowledge-creating stability. Black man, it is time to lead the charge unflinchingly. Black man, let’s end this now by changing now, so they don’t pay a costlier price later.

Our ego or being a tough guy or a “real one” can not displace our obligation to our family or contribution to our community with an allegiance to a broken spirit of weakness disguised as bravado while riding for despair and destruction, not respect or progress. It takes effort to build and larceny to destroy, but whose future are we robbing if not us and ours?

I asked many questions, but maybe they were not questions but solutions or concepts that may lead to solutions. I cannot be ashamed to say that the generation of the eighties and nineties became distracted after significant gains were made in the sixties and seventies against stern opposition.

I say that to say this that the fruit today was from seeds planted then, just as tomorrow’s fruit will be the seeds planted today. We must regain our compass and set a course of self-determination and self-realization that requires no one’s consent, just our grind.

We can’t wait on reparations or equality. You cannot be made to feel a way you refuse. To seek personal equality indicates you personally feel inferior and collective systematic equality in the form of institutional fairness will take far too long waiting for grace to be granted. We grant ourselves equality by the strength of our perspective and integrity. We can not overcome or operate from a position of weakness where power is granted.

It is never good when you have to ask from a position of weakness. With that said, let us pay ourselves reparations first by our conduct and progression, creating an atmosphere where nothing less than our respect and equality will be expected from others or accepted by us.
We need to respect our lives and stop the killings of each other, but call it some soft sucker shit to throw a rock and hide your hand. If it is that important to blast, put your pride on the line and throw down or better yet, let it ride if it causes more problems than it solves. The cycle must be broken by being avoided.

More of our people need to make it home and not just from the hands of the police. Time to break the chains that enslave our minds to move beyond conflict or protest to elevation and progression. Then as James Brown said, we too can “say it loud” and indeed be black and proud.

Progression is a transition of a perception that becomes an obsession manifesting a realization. Reasons are why you do something excuses are why you do not. Make no excuses allowed be our determination not to harm our progression. Let the healing begin within while the solution resides outside the pitfalls of social engineering.

Much love to my brother C.T. (Gery Curl) from East St. Louis. He always spoke of being resilient and resourceful.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on June 18, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Aubrey’s Deadly Jog

Posse Comitatus

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of Ahmad Arbery and hope that my intent to shed light does not in any way deepen the family’s grief and mourning but be an instrument to assist in achieving justice and perspective. Every person is born with a purpose in life, no matter how long or brief that life may be, sometimes to achieve a higher purpose.

The purpose may be beyond our understanding and reasoning, which only deepens our pain. However, that purpose may not have been for them to achieve longevity but rather to be the catalyst for the advancement of a cause. In this situation and similar situations, the grand purpose may be to become the straw that stirs the social consciousness and brings about historical change. Yet, for whatever reason, some are chosen to be bona fide crusaders to advance a cause greater than themselves.

All law enforcement and prosecutors should know as part of their mandatory training that the only thing that separates the general public and the police in authority is the police’s ability to arrest for misdemeanor crimes and issue citations within their jurisdiction. In addition, all citizens have the right to make a citizen’s arrest regarding felony crimes, although not recommended and strongly discouraged.

Although that action comes with strong recommendations to avoid making those arrests, encouraged instead to have minimal contact or interference outside of notifying the police. An off-duty policeman’s standard of intervention is not mandatory but only to take a police action that can be as simple as calling the police or reporting their observations.

To make a citizen’s arrest in a felony matter, you must first have intricate knowledge of what constitutes a felony and the various exceptions that should be considered, such as the force continuum. The main exception is you cannot legally shoot anyone over property regardless of the property’s value or the felony status of the theft.

Not only do police know this, but anyone with a concealed carry permit is taught this as part of their CCW training for receiving a certificate and permit. You also cannot instigate a situation and then claim self-defense or being in fear for your life. This information is disseminated by the instructor giving the certificate in a mandatory state-issued handbook educating you on the matter. That is why they have police academies and extensive training to distinguish arrest powers.

Civilians attempting to hold someone forcibly on nonfelonies for them refusing to submit to your curiosity and lack of authority is kidnapping. That person is essentially being kidnapped and not even close to meeting the legal threshold needed for a felony citizen arrest. He had no reason or legal obligation to comply with his own kidnapping or legally comply with someone who had no right to confront him brandishing weapons. Kidnapping is to remove someone and restrict their movements without authority and against their will or consent.

Did this group of self-appointed champions of good know his intent and if he may have been an investor, interested home buyer, had approval, an employee stopping to check, or if he was in fact trespassing? Their knowledge of the law would have to extend to understanding criminal mischief, criminal trespassing, criminal damaging, vandalism, unoccupied structures, petty theft, and grand larceny to start with, in addition to Aubrey’s constitutional rights. He clearly was not carrying stolen property.

None of the above mentioned would grant them the right that they acted upon, especially not being directly affected as owners. Did they notify the contractor for confirmation? What was their authoritative jurisdiction? Did they have the minimal legal corpus delicti to affect an arrest, detain him, or make a voluntary request that required him to submit? What was the evidence of a crime? So now their prima facie probable cause was based on what felony crime they were reasonably sure that he had committed. What authorization did they have to confront Aubrey violently?

Their lack of in-depth investigation required at the very most being warned or advised? Their proliferation of fabricated burglaries in the neighborhood, which went unreported, had nothing to do with this situation since you cannot burglarize a place with no doors, windows, or encasement to prevent or have the expectation of preventing access or entry. If these vigilantes were aware of the others who committed the same atrocity, are they now justified to hunt them down, or how did they confront them?

Were they most likely already aware of others who had done the same, but something differentiated Aubrey from them? Were others disregarded for the same violation and their actions permitted because of their race? If he were white, would they have reacted differently, also overlooking him?

You would expect a veteran law dog to be slicker rather than a principal participant in killing someone over property and not even his property. Also, Aubrey was a gentleman jogging and not using furtive moves, evasive actions revealing a criminal intent, or any urgency resembling fleeing a crime. So, why would it be necessary to confront him in the highest threat pyramid mode instigating a code red situation with weapons?

Armed private citizens can be assumed to be robbers or an assault attempt. The real police must announce who they are loud and clear and advise you of their suspicions when ordering you to comply while in uniform and with a patrol car. Private citizens demanding compliance while their authority is unknown or nonexistent leads to these sorts of issues. That is why citizen arrests are ill-advised unless life is endangered.

What was the vigilante’s declaration that would make Aubrey react in fear for his life from a good old fashion roundup or threat of serious physical harm? The only reason for the weapons display was a projected fear of a deliberate intent to confront him while armed. Even with a numbers advantage while confronting him, why would the cowardly lions go that far if they were that afraid.

They could have just followed him until the real champions of doing good on the city payroll could have arrived. Having a shotgun drawn for a conversation was unnecessary, revealing the fear that they claimed which was their creation. Governed by using the minimal force necessary, what were they afraid of going even beyond police authority, and if they were that afraid, why did they?

In law enforcement, there is a natural progression of how things routinely unfold. But, unfortunately, this would appear outside of that natural progression in the lack of their initial arrest for nearly two months and the appearance of a suspected coverup. The coverup has to stop creating a dangerous atmosphere that significantly damages a portion of the public’s trust in believing that you must abide by the law when applied against you. Unfortunately, however, it isn’t applied for you.

The law must also abide by its own standards when broken against you and applied against another even if they are white. Thus, by law, all the affirmative defenses are useless if you place yourself in harm’s way intentionally, are an instigator in the wrong, or third-party defenses that arise out of lack of right or authority with no obligation or danger except that undertaken and created by you.

They exhibited more authority than the police are allowed, and no one had a problem with that. I guess even the retired law dog forgot that he was retired. There are too many discrepancies and other exculpatory facts unknown to the public revealing misconduct to be defended.

The examination of tapes or radio transmissions between dispatcher and responders, any separate dispatcher tape and log or notes, landline conversations and texts outside the official system, frame by frame scrutiny of the video taken, and visual enhancement to determine specific elements, electronic devices, emails, conversations had and statements made after the fact will definitely expose their criminal intent and any concealment efforts.

Their story is prone to crack under closer scrutiny exposing their true motivation, racist state of mind, past discriminatory beliefs, validating deceptions, and glaring inconsistencies. The law is specific but frequently manipulated and ignored as a matter of principle regarding these incidents on a racial basis and a case of selective enforcement. This has been justice the American way.

Others get off on what we routinely are arrested immediately for or are imprisoned. I guess justice really is blind but seemingly only to the facts. Some are routinely afforded concessions not made available to us, even while merely jogging. Some who would state they are absolutely diametrically opposed to racism and categorically deny their hypocrisy still saw no need for immediate arrest for this cold-blooded murder.

Brazen negligence and dereliction of duty must be punished, accompanied by a firing or resignation in addition to the prosecution of any coverup undertaken. Someone like that, despite personal views, cannot remain in a position of exercising that degree of lack of judgment, regardless of their color.

When will public officials be held accountable as a general deterrent, powerfully demonstrating that the public and other public officials will not tolerate it? The hypocrisy of it all, not to apply a proper and consistent legal application, is obviously stacked to white privilege or law enforcement bias.

Any official coverup is almost as egregious as the crime. It reveals an acceptance and approval for the offender and the offense while a murder did occur. The injustice you cannot feel is revealed by your barbaric inclinations reflected by your inaction. Bigotry unfit for public office and a tacit approval condemning your fitness to serve.

As for the vigilantes, there could not be hatred without a hater, nor could there be a lie without a liar to tell it. When characterized by fear or hate, it reveals the weakness in your mind that cannot be concealed. You absolutely cannot claim to stand your ground or be in fear for your life when you run up on someone trying to put the smackdown and get scared because they didn’t wither.

Why did you initiate a conflict then cry out to the universe of being in fear of your life but not in fear of committing your savagery or bigotry? If some crazed bigot chased you down carrying a shotgun and armed with murderous intent, what are you to then think? You were probably outraged that a courageous Black Man still would not submit and cower in the same fear that you showed while consumed by your racism.

If you were a victim of what you are a practitioner of, imagine the victim’s perspective jogging one minute and life slipping away the next paying your price without proof of a crime because you wanted to be a cowboy. Practitioners of the unspeakable and sympathizers within the system that aligns with you saw no fault in your actions have exposed themselves. They should be prosecuted along with you.

Considering the violation of human dignity after the murder and essentially the abuse of a corpse by violating all human decency to take a trophy picture and video your escapades led to your demise. Reversing the roles and you would be outraged and rampaging for justice but recommend endless tolerance from us.

Now you want to throw a rock and hide your hand? In fear of YOUR life, what about Aubrey having more reason to be in fear for his life while hunted by multiple assailants? Those officials who aligned themselves with your actions have effectively identified themselves as accomplices after the fact to have attempted to aid and abet concealment of a murder. No one can be proud of your lack of courage, lack of human decency, and inferiority complex disguised as vigilantism that proves nothing is beneath you or your supporters.

Devout no doubt in your religion that states thou shall not kill, but still indiscriminate killers because you are entitled, afraid, and think you have a better spoon to be beyond the law. Needing someone to discriminate against to make you feel better about yourself, but the racism and fear remain even when the numbers are disproportionately in your favor and carrying a shotgun. Maybe the answer to curbing this racism is to give you some spinach-like Popeye or a pretend medal like the cowardly lion, perhaps even some decency of character.

Veteran law dog must have forgotten that this is not the 1950’s. But then, I guess at least now you don’t have to worry about the old neighborhood or your house anymore; accommodations will be provided for you and hopefully for life. The contractor or owner of the structure is at home eating dinner while you and your vigilante gang are headed to prison, not realizing that being the neighborhood enforcer was not your role. Now you are being held accountable for your vigilante murder.

Justice and arrest were delayed for over two months. There were repeated refusals before an arrest was made or proper handling of an apparent state murder violation of an unarmed black man, as well as DOJ civil rights hate crime specifications violated. Justice will not be complete until the murder conviction and imprisonment of the three vigilantes.

The dereliction of duty by police, prosecutors, and district attorneys demonstrating beyond bad judgment after the fact to absolve murder need to be identified and exposed. Once exposed, they need to be prosecuted according to the degree of their wrongdoing that undermined their office, positions, legal responsibility, and public trust.

A prevailing national mentality has emerged from the shadows to reflect seething racism seeking to justify and implement alternative interpretations and unlawful applications of law to ignore atrocious crimes and murders against Blacks. Those whose actions have identified themselves to exercise these mentalities with illegal ramifications demonstrate a criminal act that merit prosecution.

Behind the scenes at the highest levels, the Trump presidency, the dog whistle has been issued in a not so discreet or subtle way stating fine people on both sides. But, unfortunately, this dog whistle creates an atmosphere where this racist conduct is encouraged and applauded by the racist puppet master, delighted how the puppets dancing on strings are ignorantly carrying out a racist agenda.

The 2020 election in Georgia revealed resistance to lawful changes that didn’t meet your expectations and ignited extreme opposition to the rule of law. The law is to be upheld when contrary to other’s expectations but disregarded when applied to yours or somehow deemed fraudulent when you are disappointed. The legal process must be equally applied without compromise or variations of compliance by those who enforce it, even if not by those governed by it.

Racist consent no doubt created the atmosphere to draw these bigots out of their vigilante closet. Perhaps politics gassed them up to make America great again by divisive rhetoric, racist tolerance, and assumption of white immunity. Nero, a mad man, was said to have fiddled while Rome burned; he now tweets while America burns and while you will sit in jail. You should have chosen more carefully your actions and your inspiration.

These perpetrators of murder and enablers of these murderers share an overtly appalling commonality which is a blatant mockery of accountability and scorn of prosecution. They are cohorts of the same criminality. That cannot be allowed to go unsanctioned while justice is mutilated to anemic integrity and corrupt contortions.

Vigilante’s actions circumventing the law and standard of justice when committed undermines the legal system for civilized expectations of conduct and due process. Ongoing and collective intent to minimize this murder transforms individual acts of atrocity into unacceptable systemic indulgences in violation of state law, the RICO Act, Consent Decree investigation, and DOJ hate crimes or civil rights violations.

The murder and coverup investigation regarding all participants should leave them subject to the highest degree of legal condemnation. This is mandatory not only for the loss of Mr. Ahmaud Arbery’s life by murder but the integrity of the legal system to be respected and representative for all. If not, the law is respected by none, not those committing atrocities or those refusing to be subjected to them.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on May 29, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Cultural Differences

Cultural Differences?

We are all culturally designed by the initial foundation of our existence in accordance with our environment. Our parent’s circumstances determine our environment and their environment, which we did not choose and, to an extent, was probably selected by someone else other than them, perhaps their parents. Even if they decided to change their environment or circumstances, they decided, we may have just influenced their decision but were born into it.

Where we are born has just as much influence on us as who we were born to. Yet, this environmental influence has an inverted effect. As we get older, the influence of our environment expands to adjust to changes while the parental influence declines. Of course, parental influence remains strong because it is part of our experience and our experiences shape our perspectives, but still, it decreases in a substantially active manner over time.

The status and cultural vindication among our self-identifying group or the norms of our geographical location is the measurement by which we primarily evaluate ourselves. However, others also probably assess us as a collective standard of that place and time. Thus, we endeavor to assimilate to our environment and subgroup that we aspire to become a part of or have found ourselves to belong.

If we are not choosing, then someone has chosen for us, and often our environment has made the choice. Our subgroup has many different levels, developed preferences, and motivations that constantly change with time. What is permitted, tolerated, encouraged, or prohibited changes regularly which require our constant adaptation? As the circumstances change, we must adjust for the present and future instead of functioning in the past.

Clinging tightly to the cultural pull of tradition or ritual can create an illusion—one of a present constructed of the past without considering the reality of these changes. Thereby stuck in time and ignoring the practical application outside of our subgroup. Remaining comfortably contained within our subgroup normalizes that group but not interactions with those outside that subgroup.

There is never an issue when everyone agrees. Still, any deviation results in some fraction being dissatisfied and exploiting a distinction solely based upon opposition to their preference or choice. Therefore, with those outside our subgroup, cultural and geographical disparities allowing for some degree of other’s dissatisfaction, we expect them to allow for a mutual degree of our discontent.

When in Rome, you do not have to do what the Romans do, but practices that do not infringe upon us are of consequence to only those who practice them. A perspective or tradition imposed upon a different environment other than those in agreement or harming others develops a problem.

Perspectives need to be in step with time as the world has become global, and movement is not confined to our little piece of real estate or experiences. There needs to be respect for others’ differences and geographical influences without abuses of their rights as human beings and residents of the universe. Assimilation is not to become identical to some subgroup or environment at the expense of your culture but to reflect the collective commonality of coexistence.

Assimilation is more of an idea than action because control of what someone self-defines themselves as is strictly subjective. For example, suppose you are categorically opposed to someone for whatever reason. Can you stop that person from feeling the opposite for you if that is what they choose? What about a sport’s fan-favorite team? Can you stop a person from cheering for that team despite your disapproval or knowledge by claiming it as yours?

It becomes an illusion projected outwardly without the detachment to travel outside your perspective. So, it remains within you, having no influence or effect on other’s shared preferences. We are a member of many groups that, without our consent, we do not sanction the membership of. What about a song we like? Can we control who else likes it, or a particular flavor of ice cream whose favorite it also maybe?

We share cross-culturally far more when examined from a humanistic perspective than from a cultural or geographical perspective. Just as people everywhere want the best for their children, why can’t others be allowed to want the same as well. Geography limits our imagination and acceptance because it restricts the definition of our commonality to a location, nationality, religion, or race.

This restriction is reinforced, diluted, and distorted according to who has conquered who at what point in history. What external challenges are to be faced and overcame. During times of crisis, danger, or needed solidarity, any division within or among these subgroups is expanded beyond these allegiances to the maximum mutual demographic affected.

In other words, it grows exponentially from our home to our neighborhood, from our city or state to our country. Then, finally, globally and to every other subgroup such as gender, race, wealth, poverty, religion, and so forth, when faced with a common threat.

When the shoes get tight, and the rubber meets the road, need seems to be the overwhelming unifying factor across all cultural and geographic boundaries. As language can travel without a passport and across all boundaries, commonality of interest travels even further, is more understood, and universally embraced within a common interest or need.

If a global threat from an invading celestial force descended upon earth, then we would all suddenly become earthlings or the human race and not of our identifying subgroup but binding together for the greater good and our mutual survival against a shared threat. The necessity of a universal definition and purpose realigns any subgroups to a consolidated identification and determination.

To assemble under specific affiliations is essentially a matter of comparing preferences to an outside group’s preferences. This, in turn, establishes the group’s criteria and beliefs with various hierarchies within the group as far as deeds, acceptance, and dedication. Thus, there are levels to everything, and their corresponding judgments, prestige, or values.

Validation that confirms your identity within the group deprives you of your individuality because you must submit to that of the group’s external projection in exchange. Reinforcing your desire to belong becomes the goal for your participation. Commitment to defined expectations supersedes adaption to external perspectives. Stubbornness sets in, leading to foolish rigidity and shortsightedness in a vacuum. A tunnel vision of them and us.

Justifying our preferences producing our reality within a larger reality that interacts and encompasses ours does not function outside our smaller reality. Instead, the larger reality functions outside the limitations of our limited acceptance and understanding, creating an impracticality in time, function, and ideology.

Somewhat illogical when you think about how often you indulge contrary to your biases. The denial of a culture you reject often has foods, influences, and products that you accept but not the people or culture that produces it. Cultural differences should be embraced as the variety of life that stimulates life’s experiences.

We only experience portions that could comprise the whole of our experiences when not allowing for things beyond our culture and understanding to expand our completeness. That which threatens your identity is a byproduct of your lack of self-acceptance and dissatisfaction with your circumstances projected upon another group justifying a convenient lie over the uncomfortable truth. The conscious mind convinces and deceives you of what the subconscious mind knows to be painfully true.

A group’s validation of their worthiness based upon perceived deficiencies of others thereby increases their own value by comparison having a better estimation of themselves. The validation of their value within the group becomes their cultural exclusivity, their membership. Preservation of their group culture surpasses their need for change, tolerance, or acceptance to maintain group approval.

Hiding securely within the comfort of association and exclusivity. It is upon you to celebrate your experiences concerning your parents, culture, and traditions that formed your identity as a cultural foundation. Others who do not share the same influences have their own inspiration to observe. These preferences should not be discredited or cheapened by any practices that further insult the dignity of others, celebrate discrimination, or are widely associated with reminders of atrocities.

Different is often a moral assumption and judgment of better, not a reflection that others could view you the same way. It is wrong to celebrate an injustice against someone, whether that injustice is performed by you or someone else. The perpetrator cannot determine the impact upon the afflicted; the afflicted must assess their own grievances and the impact of the injustice.

Celebrate and be proud of your individual spirit since there is only one of you in your uniqueness and embrace accepting your diversity from everyone else who walks the earth. The eyes see outwardly as a projection of you into your environment where there is still only one of you to celebrate and cultivate. Therefore, embrace your uniqueness and accept other’s uniqueness because there is only one of them. In the end, we all share the same uniqueness and commonality; there is only one of us.

The threat to our mutual survival is not of a celestial adversary but one that has been engineered on earth that threatens our children’s future and our co-existence as a species. If you want to exist, then you must allow others to exist, including plants, animals, and humans, all equitably. We are all citizens of the universe, whether we like it or not.

It would be best to make the best of it and bring cultural differences and socially engineered deceptions to examination and adapt from the past to the future. The greatest empires and civilizations the world has ever known have had an exploration date for one reason or the other.

We should at least make our demise something out of our control instead of protecting a global threat or festering our inability to denounce current and past atrocities and exploitations. Everyone must concede at least a little sacrifice; the world has change dimensionally, and so should we. It is not always where you are from but where you must adapt to and make allowances. We are all different but in most ways the same.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on May 29, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Pharaoh’s Temple

Red Sea Catastrophe

Time passes seemingly at varying speeds, with good times lasting not long enough and bad times that seem like they will never end, but the stagnant times might be the worst. Though time passes forwardly, ticking away methodically, no matter how much time has passed, it always seems to repeat itself.

Times lessons are often ignored and suffered again when time has expired on something and change is unavoidable. The powers that rule fight to maintain their favor or return to a time that has passed. Time is an illusion, and the past has proven to be a ghost.

Many years ago, and so many civilizations have crumbled since then, stood a mighty empire in what is commonly termed ancient Egypt ruled by Pharaohs. One Pharaoh seemed eerily to have reach forward with a lesson in time that is currently repeating itself before our oblivious eyes in a cautionary tale of ruin.

Pharaohs were worshipped as deities above humanity possessing pure bloodlines or a divinity to be revered and exercise rule over the common subjects, being God on earth. Ordinary peasants were just along for the ride, submissive to their ruler to facilitate the rulers’ glory and commands. Decisions were made from the top concerning the transfer of power and the behavior of the masses, similarly to this ex-President towards the public.

Very little room was at the top for giving orders but plenty of space at the bottom to receive orders. Pharaohs were gods on earth destined and ordained to use the people for their own glorification, often despite the ever-increasing toll on their servants. This Pharaoh’s ego and deification were the only considerations.

Egypt had an established structure and recognized hierarchy with the Pharaoh, his bloodline, his chosen elite, army, laborers or merchants, subjects, slaves, or disenfranchised was the pecking order. Everyone and everything served at the Pharaoh’s discretion. Freedom was an abstract reality that, in practice and practicality, did not exist beyond what was sanctioned by the Pharaoh.

The Ten Commandments, a traditional Easter favorite, told of Moses’ journey and a people he was destined to lead to the promised land against the mighty Pharaoh Ramses II. Worship and loyalty to the Pharaoh were demanded under harsh penalty or death. The ruling method was with an iron fist, even if it was sometimes inserted in a velvet glove.

Ramses II is translated to mean “born of Ra or son of God” and worshiped as such, a god himself. In ancient Egypt, Ra was believed to be the “sun god” creator of all that existed, much like the God of today. Ramses II representing his heritage and Ra’s hand, his God, guiding him, opposing Moses.

The two opposing parties competing for the same undisputed title for their God. The battle for supremacy of their Gods’ power over the others’ God was what played out in the movie. Despite several warnings from Moses to Ramses II and displays that his God was to be taken seriously, Ramses II stood on his spot and dismissed all deterrents as fake magic, including a deadly plague. Reminds you of a foolish President, proclamations of fake news, and the Covid-19 virus of modern times.

After several, I can show you better than I can tell you moments, Ramses II knuckled under to Moses’ demand to let his people go. Once Moses headed out with his people Ramses II decided he couldn’t leave it at that, so he gathered his chariots in pursuit. His ego and entitlement bolstered by his thirst and belief in his own power emboldened by his cronies enraged him to strike out where he had relented before.

So, he vigorously pursued Moses and his people until cornering his pain and humiliation against the Red Sea. While no military man would be caught with no escape route having his back against a sea of water, Moses, as it turned out, had a final trap to prove the power of his God.

By the power invested in him by his God, Moses parted the Red Sea leading his people on faith to safety. This is where it gets interesting because a normal person would have seen this parting of a massive sea as something beyond their pay grade. I can understand Ramses II commitment because he was blinded by his ego and propaganda to maintain power at all cost.

Ramses II nor Ra had demonstrated such an impressive feat as this (like in the one Batman movie where the Joker says, “where does he get all these wonderful toys”). Nevertheless, Ramses II gave that dreadful order for his chariots to pursue through the parted sea. At the same time, he majestically poses safely on top of his chariot upon a rock watching, the equivalent of retreating to the White House while they stormed the Capitol.

Okay, how can the power of one man’s ego send an army of gullible followers on a delusional rampage to placate him and most certainly to their own demise, basically to drown in his ambition? Maybe blind obedience to an oppressive symbol ingrained in their DNA overruled any logic or morality suppressing their instincts for survival? His actions and their obedience to them essentially led the kingdom to collapse and ruin.

Favored servants pledging allegiance and resigned to their fate in the face of being confronted with extraordinary circumstances of death were needed. No power to resist being ordered to your detriment to satisfy a sycophant leading to a Red sea calamity.

It seems like it would have occurred to them that this doesn’t seem like a good idea, realizing that destruction would eventually be cast upon them. A coward dies a thousand death but a fool many more. Fear of righteous reprisal should be more critical than any foolish allegiance to a man that swallows his own credibility and dignity while sacrificing yours.

As we continue with our cautionary journey, we find Moses and his people at rest near the mountain’s base, having escaped Pharaoh. Finally, Moses takes a stroll of enlightenment when met by a burning bush followed by the BIG GUY himself for further direction of the people and their order for prosperity in accepting the new land.

Now wouldn’t you know it while Moses was aging and taking care of business on high, you had some nonsense brewing at the base. Some easily persuaded, and some who were never convinced just masquerading were now being led astray by their desires. It is always one primary agitator, Dathan, played by the legendary Edward G, reputedly questioning sarcastically, “where is your Moses now?” to get the party started right. A Mitch McConnell or Lyndsey Graham-type rebel rousing.

The crowd is whipped into a frenzy; in comes the golden calf to really turn it up. Now it is on and cooking, the crowd is hyped, but some stayed true to the game. Some remained faithfully loyal without supervision, but in the end, all were judged to suffer the same fate by association.

Once Moses descended and was greeted by his greatest disappointment, he knew they had blown it and had earned a judgment upon them all. They wandered around in the wilderness deprived of the promise that could have been, that should have been, but could never be by their member’s own device and corrupted spirit.

This should be a tale about being so close to having it all and blowing it by self-destructive behavior preventing your deliverance to the promised land, but that would be too easy, would it not? Maybe the tale that has revisited us is the lesson of how unchallenged lies and questionable deeds committed by great egos awry invites self-humiliation and divisiveness, if unrestricted, will lead to mass destruction.

The dastardly deeds, irrational obsessions, and excessive efforts executed to maintain power is the very thing that leads your ego to the errors that deprive you of the power you were seeking to preserve. Maybe the more damaging penalty was for Pharaoh, who lost everything by his arrogance. Moses, whose people were delayed suffered the delay. Eventually, after those with the old way of thinking had perished, they were gifted what was promised.

It’s funny how the few, along with their supporting cast of enablers, have always controlled the many. The choices are often binary, either this or that, good or evil, Ramses II or Moses, Democrats or Republicans, Red or Blue, you get the point. Either way, the choices are made for us mainly on a traditional basis leaving us with a selection among those choices giving us the delusion of choice when it was in essence chosen for us.

Reward and atonement are always balanced to compel us in a desired position or decision based on a subjective optimism managed and manipulated by Pharaoh. This resonates throughout time and history, even to this very day. In needy time the equivalent of a crumb of bread or a morsel of grain to sustain yourself can either be granted or denied by Pharaoh.

Meanwhile, you build Pharaoh luxurious chambers, kingdoms, legacies, and monuments of wealth and ego. They call it stimulus or unemployment benefits today granted or rescinded by their determination of what is best for you that secures their best interest, not relieve your suffering.

The factory known as workers who toil in the mud and straw is unknown and irrelevant in these astounding building accomplishments for the glory of Pharaoh, which seems like the one percent trickle-up economics sort of, doesn’t it? Flow from the bottom up on the backs of the little people, much like under Ramses II, whose thirst for power and wealth by any means necessary would risk self-destruction to destroy the Kingdom and lose everything to hold onto power.

Regarding the former Presidency, the old adage, if I can’t have you America, nobody can seem to apply. Just like in the Ten Commandments, the question can be asked, are you a master builder or a master butcher by ideology who doesn’t realize that blood makes poor mortar and blind ambition knows no father? Remember, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Pharaoh back together again, meaning Moses may be desperately needed now to lead the people out of political, psychological, and economic bondage.

This may not come as some surprise but, Cleopatra, whom it is said had a face that could launch a thousand battleships, and Hatshepsut, who dressed like a man, was the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. They had prosperous reigns then and could probably at least be Vice-Pharaohs today in the 2020 election. We can only hope that Moses can once again lead us to the promised land despite Pharaoh’s objections.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on May 29, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

No N-word Allowed

But Can We Stop?

The time has come to discontinue the deception of the use of the N-word. We cannot deceive ourselves about the historical usage of this word. Deception is most effective when employed with the complicity of the deceived when oblivious and totally clueless to the truth. Deception is mainly used to promote an acceptance of a falsehood gaining advantage or incentive by voluntary compliance.

Any deception is a form of delusion that requires your acceptance and thus influences your reality, causing a manipulated behavior or response disguised as free will. A fantasy or illusion is then created, which establishes fiction as a fact that is then acted upon. Self-deception is the most effective form of deception, creating delusions of convenience.

Delusion is a mental disorder, and the more extreme it is and practiced or embraced, the more significant the psychological dysfunction. Delusion allows one to staunchly and adamantly accept and defend a belief or position that has been exposed and discredited as contrary to reality. The greater the dysfunction, the more danger it poses to the deceived one’s lack of awareness of the deception or delusional conversion.

The concept of an enemy disguised as a friend is a common delusion, the wolf in sheep clothing syndrome. We are at a fork in the road in history to definitively restore reality to the legacy and use of the N-word while we grapple for specific treatments of equality. The perpetuated effects on our people in particular and the structures of society, in general, have restrained our mental health and progress. The courage to recognize and confront the truth is the first step to correct this deception as the first action to shed its grip.

The N-word is defined in nearly all dictionaries as the vilest and most insulting word in the English language. Some have argued that we have appropriated the term to change the connotation and embrace self-love and honor our blackness. If this is true, why is it insulting when other races “honor” us by calling us that? Reflecting historical use of the n-word, the meaning has not been changed in our minds to an empowering and appreciative word when used by others. We even still use it in a derogatory manner against each other when angry or describing something foul.

Stockholm syndrome is developing affection or sympathy for your oppressors or captors by assimilating with their ideology, a sort of mental surrender. Stockholm does not promote a mutual partnership but a subordinate designation of your dependency as a hostage or slave to a master. It is an integration of your humanity as an eager hostage. It is essentially your justification for their actions for having held you hostage. The N-word can be interpreted as such by the embracing of it. Plato’s theory of reality further explains a correlation between thoughts and corresponding actions regarding social organisms.

Lima syndrome is where the captor becomes sympathetic to their hostages and feels remorse for dehumanizing and imprisoning them. Imagine a captor insisting on inflicting dehumanizing treatment on a hostage. Now imagine the hostage embracing or insisting on the treatment used to dehumanize them by using it on themselves. The N-word can again be interpreted as this by adopting its usage because when they discontinued using it, we did not. It is psychological slavery so complete that they can’t even prevent you from abusing yourself when they have stopped.

Emotional bonds and coping mechanisms beyond what was needed for survival have now oddly enough become self-imposed conditioning. How can you disassociate the method of trauma oppressively enforce while this word was used? By our use of it subliminally, how does its meaning and origin change for us or others? Does our use damage our self-image as much as it damages our image to others?

This extends beyond the border of mental illness. It is accepting and maintaining an outdated coping mechanism that has to be considered brainwashing. Begging for equality is the manifestation of the brainwashing of a hostage. Seeking validation for what was damaged inside us, asking for permission from the one who damaged us reveals a simmering pathology. It may be futile to claim power from what was used against us. Socrates described this well in his Allegory of the Cave of a limited reality defined by the wall shadows.

The expression of a need for validation from the source of abuse instilled this inferiority complex that we do not feel worthy of vehemently denouncing. The N-word’s use is not a way of seeking relief from the brutal historical systemic racial subordination we have long endured. Are we so willing to continue using this word that we would deceive ourselves about the atrocious history of this word and what it has really done to us?

Our use does not vigorously reject the assumptions of the inadequacies associated with the N-word. We cannot embrace this word with such a horrible history and denounce all that it has represented. The historical meaning and application of the N-word can never be erased or minimized. When we demand change from others, we must also self-evaluate and demand change from ourselves.

It should never be culturally acceptable to demean ourselves by voluntary association with this word. By contrast, no other race or culture self-define themselves with derogatory terms used by others to demean themselves. Others may use those terms, but they do not refer to themselves as such or allow others to do so.

Using the N-word to self-identify as a group is where we get it wrong because it guarantees that the word will continue to be derogatorily used for another four hundred plus years. The negative connotations continue to be falsely assumed as accurate. We correctly understand that we must forbid others from using it against us or about us.

What we must understand is that we must also stop using it to define ourselves. At its core, the N-word is not a term of endearment because it feeds an inhumane dichotomy of ourselves in opposition to our interest. We must first convince ourselves that we are something else before others are convinced that we are something other than what we have allowed ourselves to be called.

If we cannot or will not stop calling ourselves this word, why should others not perceive us as that even if they don’t call us that? Maybe we should not say it for them to hear, just as we don’t want them to say it for us to hear. Perhaps no one should hear it, which means no one should be saying it, most of all us.

Our expectations no longer request a change but demand change. We are in a position to expect and achieve this change but could accelerate it by our actions. What behavioral changes are we willing to make to bring about these changes sought? The question then becomes, is it realistic to expect change without us changing or making concessions that facilitate the desired changes.

Systematic atrocities have been conceived and committed using this word. This word has accompanied slavery, lynching, buck breaking, rape, coon hunting, Jim Crow, and many other atrocities to this very day throughout history, with the N-word as its constant and loyal companion.

Those who have subjectively dehumanized, oppressed, terrorized, and murdered our people have used this word to justify their actions. It has been their rationale for the denial of our fundamental human rights, claiming we are animals. This N-word has been inflicted upon us along with the extreme sufferings that have always accompanied its use. We must define ourselves and not fall victim to others’ historical definitions of us.

Just because we have been egregiously and systematically wronged, we cannot pretend that there are not things that we subject ourselves to that we must address for the improvement of our people. Some argue these result from intentional conditioning or social engineering, which may be accurate, but that does not dissolve our responsibility to resist it. For far too long, we have had to survive. Now we must begin to thrive.

Physical wounds have visible healing and damage, but psychological wounds fester under an invisible scab only detected and revealed by behavior. Behavior indicates more than anything your character and self-worth by your actions and not by your words. We must identify what actions and behaviors are counterproductive to our collective interests and obstacles to our advancement.

It is not always the boogie man; sometimes, it is our very own perspective that is frightening. The betrayal of our humanity and our interests can be considered high treason. Certain self-portrayals of ourselves does nothing to dispel some of these stereotypes. This is achieved by practicing this N-word lunacy that is associated with over four hundred years of atrocities. This word has survived many evolutions of society, law, and technology but remains resilient now by our support.

The circumstances where we were so methodically degraded was done using this word. They were denounced as evil; the word must then also be identified as evil and a symbol of that denounced evil. The immorality of this word is undeniable, reprehensible, and unredeemable. Sacrifices have been made, punishments endured, and unfair repercussions overcome for the price to have been long ago paid in full. Unity of our objective must prevail where divide and conquer has persisted in stagnating our interest.

A unified commitment to our equality establishes an axis, standard, and discipline that must be the basis of all our actions as a foundational change. The next frontier is promoting others beyond the limits of past restrictions to explore future possibilities envisioning ourselves as anything possible except for an N-word. Exponential viable advancement to incremental progress is more dependent on us than anyone or anything else. Playing our position or managing our post to hold ourselves accountable, being part of the solution and not the problem, is our needed contribution.

We must recalibrate our perspective, discarding that which does not serve us, rejecting its deceptions. We must declare an elevated reality that does not sabotage our efforts. We can only deny ourselves; we do not need other’s approval to proudly be the best representation of ourselves. Be the best representation of, not an abomination to our culture by cultivating, promoting, and nourishing excellence that demonstrates a worthy portrayal of our character. The results will motivate self-acceptance, generate impartiality from others, and display renowned honor. A singular journey and purpose becomes our collective reality.

The philosophical theories of Plato and Socrates can be interpreted to mean that words reflect thoughts, and thoughts govern actions that shape perceptions that restrict our realities which define limitations within that reality. The N-word perpetuates what thoughts within us and others compel specific actions or attitudes, creating contrary perceptions manifesting some realities that produce the limitations and obstacles contributing to our condition with our consent.

Black folks, kinfolks, and all folks, it is time to bury the N-word in an unmarked grave, never again for us to offend or be offended by it. If others are not permitted to say it or can stop saying it, then we can too. Remember history’s use of this word and that it was the last word that many blacks heard before death, and not in a loving way. Reportedly this was the last word heard by Ahmaud Arbery. Respect the young brother by replacing that word with one we can appreciate and be proud of no matter who uses it. Honor our self and those who have been taken from us. From now on, no N-word should be allowed.

I remember Big Momma use to say it is not what they call you but what you answer to. Mom used to say be known for what you do, say, and what you are called to not bring humiliation upon our last name or yourself. Those who need reprogramming to fill the N-word void should initiate a challenge to creatively replace it with something conclusively empowering and complimentary.

Let me ask you a question. Would you be willing to abandon the use of the N-word if it meant greater equality for our people? What makes you think it won’t? It seems like a small sacrifice for us to pay for the potential reward it would provide. Yet, it is the right thing to do for our children’s legacy to grow up, not embracing a vile reference to themselves no matter how we twist it to be all love. Remember, the restrictions of our minds constrain our movement and ascension, encouraging harmful perceptions. In our declaration of equality and our prosperous future there can be no N-word allowed.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on May 4, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

Tactical Protest

Objective Campaign

The intent and purpose of protest are to demonstrate the objection, frustration, and dissatisfaction of circumstances denied redress, which can no longer persist without adjustment or change. Civilizations have been toppled over disregard for the people’s protest of conditions that will not be tolerated. Protest can be stifled, but eventually, it resurfaces and overcomes the suppression of the people’s will. History always repeats itself in this regard, and change prevails, or extinction occurs.

Effective methods of protest vary with the extent of outrage and the ramification of its effect to force change. Additionally, the passage of time influences the efficiency of the protest methods used to settle any such grievances. The more widespread the objection, the higher the expectations for change are. The more likely a revolutionary demand emerges that requires radical adjustments to the system according to the people’s will and acceptability.

The method of the specific change’s ultimate purpose and other expressions of frustration should not be confused or used to dilute it by the actions used to achieve that change. Radical responses have erupted during protests where force has been met with force. Peaceful protest has also been met with force. The circumstances under which demonstration is conducted must be focused and flexible to maximize its effectiveness while minimizing the harm to the protesters being suppressed by this force.

Harmful exposure to protestors should be minimized and is equally as important as the cause. However, perhaps with the societal climate changing, a new political administration settling in, and the Covid virus still lurking, it may be time to adjust the tactics. Maybe, use more strategic, effective, and conciliatory tactics conducive to the desired change making the outcome more attainable. This is not to suggest not to keep the pressure on or lessen the expectations but to achieve objectives differently to galvanize resources across a spectrum of solutions and support more efficiently.

Any protest should consolidate active and passive support not to alienate resources or allies that can be an asset supporting change or at the very least not standing in opposition to it. The total Black population is roughly 48 million or 14.7 percent of the total U. S. population of 328 million, leaving approximately 280 million people that are other than black. With 67 percent estimated at some point to support racial equality, it is clear that an additional 52.3 percent (171 million) would be helpful.

Taking it to the streets with bullhorns had its place in the past and may still contain a level of effectiveness. However, today a precise focus combined with efficient use of human resources applying technology can disseminate messaging and informational exchanges beyond physical opposition to gain more of an advantage.

More modern tactics can resolve some significant concerns and limit the negative impact on protesters, the alienation of allies, and the alternative actions or narratives levied against the protestors. Protest tactics, methods, and ideologies need to be updated; surgical precision, not blunt force, is required. It is not the skill of the sword but the skill of the swordsman that directs the blows.

Destruction is an emotional response to frustration that is not equivalent to passion or progress. It undermines the success of legitimate efforts and squanders opportunities for meaningful action, resolution, and advancement. The objective is to facilitate focused disruption and change without random destruction or ill-fated confrontation. A tactical advantage has the purpose of engagement with a minimal footprint or target but maximum effect.

Inflicting disruption and affecting changes without being subject to retribution and resisting dispensing collateral damage to innocent parties not involved in the engagement is the goal. Specific tactics can define most responses by manipulative design, thereby aligning the reaction with the purpose of the tactics while working to position the objective for success. Success can often be attainable without conflict when the opposition’s energy is converted or depleted to benefit the protest objective. You cannot lose when causing methodical attrition to the opposition unless by surrender.

Conflict is always an option but becomes exhausting and depleting when recklessly deployed as a default reaction. It should be the last resort even when conflict is the first chosen action. This is not a doctrine of non-violence but a perspective of principle to not become or commit the very oppression we are protesting against. It only justifies their response, fear, and treatment of us, forming a perspective contrary to change while enforcing resistance. Resistance needs to be weakened and not fortified.

It serves no meaningful purpose to destroy or loot except to indiscriminately inflict pain upon someone who has not harmed us directly or who may be sympathetic to the objective of the protest. Protest awry presents the opportunity to express anger, emotions, or repressed personal vendettas by offering an outlet under the disguise and protection of collective outrage for the cause. The business of protest is not personal; it is collaborative, the collective objective is primary, and it will provide some resolution for many of the personal vendettas.

Destruction for the therapeutic purpose of soothing angry feelings or emotional outbursts is not practical or efficiently convincing and mostly futile without focused goals for achievement. Being under the influence of a mob mentality or raging emotions undermines the collective purpose of tactically maneuvering to accomplish our stated objectives and changes. Avoiding compromise by self-imposed distractions or succumbing to emotions is essential in executing a strategy for change.

Our anger turned inward or against us is on us and counter-productive. Emotional intoxication creates an impairment to clear thinking and promotes regrettable actions alienating allies from supporting our cause. Regression into our deferred pain or submission to displays of emotional fervor prolongs our condition. As the past has consistently proven, anger subsides with time and expression, making it unsustainable and unreliable motivation to propel protest or change.

Pent-up emotional frustrations must be controlled, transformed, and refocused for any protest’s sustainable strength and integrity. The mind must be engaged, not the emotions, for logical actions and sustainability of intent. The insanity of our same approach without results is evidence of itself that we have traveled this road many times before to find ourselves on the same road again. It is past due time to change approaches for perhaps a different result other than being angry, stubborn to self-examination, or prone to destructive behavior.

Confrontation is the lowest level of persuasive negotiation or communication with the greater force usually dictating the terms and conditions over the lesser force. Overcoming a more significant force or power does not involve direct altercation but a strategic and analytical negation of their advantage. Primitive expressions of anger acted out from past pain are counter-productive to future gains.

Anger disregards intellectual pursuit and persuasion, surrendering to and conceding an inability to reason or debate our objective convincingly. Commitment finds a way to achievement by not succumbing to surrender or outburst when faced with obstacles but engages adaptation.

Our strategy’s disciplined and foundational principles have to remain firm in its conviction but flexible in its focused execution to sustain the expansion of our influence and support the acceptance of our objective. The cultivation of our base requires that they be informed of the purpose and the method of achieving it. Their determination, resources, talents, and skills, when efficiently deployed, will effectively optimize their contribution to the collective objective.

The methods used should be surgical and fluid in dissecting the obstacles to the objective’s realization. When the methods and techniques are organized and unified, the impact can undoubtedly be predictable and quantified. However, when we come to do serious business, then keep it strictly business. Doing business with tangible results with measurable outcomes must be structured by expressed policies and concessions aligned with our agenda.

Appeal to one political party or ideology has historically failed, resulting in bouncing from one extreme to another, never achieving the wholesale changes sought. More realistically, it has led to being conquered by exploiting our differences and personal ambitions instead of unified by our commonality of interest and objective. This division has no viable focus, momentum, or process to make demands much less change.

The insanity of the same old protest tactics has yielded glacier changes considering the last 60 years of progress since the bullhorn and slogans that rhyme have formed the focal point of social justice protest. Unfortunately, as a result, perceptions remain tainted (theirs and ours), assurances hollow, and equality still elusive.

That is not to discredit the efforts and accomplishments of those who have gotten us to this frontier. Instead, it suggests that to fully benefit from these unprecedented times embracing tactics conducive to current sentiment and public consciousness would seem wise. We can then avoid unnecessarily repeating the same futile cycle where destruction overshadows progress.

A multidimensional approach must be utilized, attacking the systems and perpetrators of injustice and those who would align themselves with justifying or concealing institutional and societal violations. Political and legislative recourse is the most pervasive and effective way to universally isolate and identify systemic injustices to punitively and economically persuade or penalize transgressions and transgressors alike.

It is imperative to use all those who would align themselves with our objective of equality and fairness to address both major political parties to propose, pledge, and produce programs, legislation, and penalties. The precise agreed-upon procedural implementation and application should be transparent and obvious.

Changes to existing structures in violation must be urgently undertaken and remedied. Given the opportunity to honor any assurances, visibly effective actions would be the only acceptable verification. Our political and economic courtship must be accompanied by this bouquet as well as by any other suitors who would seek favor with us.

Since beggars have never been choosers, for us to have a choice, we must develop further options to empower our interest without other’s permission or compliance. Therefore, make it necessary and in their best interest to create a coalition with us essential to their own success demonstrated by their actions seeking and validating our trust.

Political and economic prowess is fundamental to being respected as a force to be reckoned with and afforded the same first-class citizenship considerations as any other group. A major cohesive political initiative is needed to consolidate a coalition of grievances to remedy historical and systematic discriminations. Redress inclusive of our grievances and interest, including those marginalized within the diversity of our ranks.

While the political influence and legislative reform are the most pervasive and effective methods, economic protest is the most immediate and convincing consideration to facilitate change. Mutual goals, shared results, cultural awareness, and systematic bias can all be altered by the bottom line.

Maximum strength can be derived from the imposing of strategies that impact and weaken the financial interests of those in opposition. Let our spending do the heavy lifting against immovable obstacles and damaging objectives. Money penetrates many adverse resolves.

Preparing, educating, and directing our base in our preferred way of resistance or persuasion is the most impactful initiative. Financial withdrawal puts us at no physical risk, allows us to remain lawfully blameless, and is an exercise in our spending discretion that can be heard without ever being seen but felt. It is called discretionary spending, and it is our prerogative.

The tactical concentration of resources and the creative application of proven techniques reversed engineered and effectively used against us can be effective for use by us. Hostage negotiators seek to humanize hostages to captors by deflecting their ideology, making them reluctant to harm the hostages. The most prevalent is self-identifying with the hostages and reflecting their similarities to elicit empathy from the captors. They must be made to see themselves in you or see the similarities of you in themselves.

Lima syndrome techniques can be used effectively towards those who are not hopelessly entrenched in their ideology and position to encourage sympathy for those who have wronged or are wronged. Their injustice is their shame which they feel compelled to resolve along with civilized impulses of compassion. The same technique can reverse social engineering to reject racism and instill a more socially compassionate affinity for equality.

Conversion of the ideologies and perspectives of people must hold a more significant enticement to change old thoughts rather than to adhere to them. First disproving those antiquated beliefs, then embracing the voluntary integration to their identity a genuine acceptance of the change. Their hurtful actions becoming vile, distasteful, and regrettable to themselves.

Protest not aligned with core beliefs results in resistance as a survival mechanism as if they were personally attacked. This personal attack is then internally adapted to reconcile those core beliefs to justify resistant thoughts and actions. Any required change must be a self-revelation where an acceptance or realization transforms those actions and attitudes to a different set of core beliefs aligned with a new perspective.

The concept of addition by subtraction seems counter-intuitive, but much can be gained by what is taken away. It is far more challenging to remove a thought and replace it than to place it there initially. In this regard, social engineering must be addressed relative to racial inferiority or superiority complexes perpetuation. Spreading of either must prevent the ratio of people who learn, are taught, display, or are made to feel either.

Repetition and reinforcement of these concepts lead to their prevalence and, when reversed, can lead to these concepts being rejected. Time and patience utilizing reverse-engineering of the propagation of these concepts where there then becomes an overwhelming presence of the desired one, and the absence of the unwanted one leads to the extinction of the unwanted behavior. Like potty training of sorts, it instills a level of conditioning that is socially acceptable, compelling, and enduring.

Aside from the many psychological and behavioral modification techniques available, procedural adjustments can be similarly effective on institutional and structural entities. These agencies entirely comprised of people operating within those systems are either governed by, restricted by, or compelled by some parameter of conduct or procedural mandate. The adjustments can be implemented when an understanding of their protocols, mandates, and operations is utilized.

Intimate knowledge and understanding of these parameters can nullify, neutralize, restrain, or mobilize their resources. Conflict is short-sighted when others can do the heavy lifting for our purpose. For example, resources can be utilized for our protection or against us depending on how we maneuver their interpretation of our intent. Let their muscle support our intent and against any known antagonist intent, as the national guard did for school desegregation in the sixties.

To lessen the possibility of conflict and be equally effective, a massive crowd assembled in one place without a specific agenda for their collective assembly is not tactical or practical when our assembly results in their assembly as a stronger, more fortified consolidated force. Peaceful assembly locations should be carefully chosen, and agendas precisely directed and fully understood with contingency plans against conduct clearly undermining our purpose. There have to be no tolerances for egos, flexing, insults, emotions, or agent provocateurs, just our objectives and goals.

Any conduct while assembled under our flag reveals whether you are with us or for yourself, in which case this unwanted activity damages our purpose. Our protest must occupy the high ground morally, intellectually, and geographically to move separately but in coordination, while converging collectively into a specific purpose and method to achieve that purpose. Disbursement into smaller crowds that spread resources and divide commands demonstrating clear, peaceful intentions minimizes herd mentality on both sides, and our communication can become more sustainable and direct.

If a breakdown should then occur, it would be isolated to that one location and not into collective chaos as when there is one massive assembly. At peaceful assemblies, law enforcement has to respond to any probability as a paid captive audience. So instead of yelling, insulting, or confronting them, why not try to convert them or at least salvage the ones who may find themselves marginalized within their own ranks as well as sympathetic to our protest and objective.

It is a marketing opportunity since they cannot leave, and exposure to our ideology cannot be avoided. This time and opportunity can be used to hear or see our message and possibly promote it in places where we cannot. By the same measure, the key is not conflict but expense. The more they stand there, the larger the expenditure becomes until it becomes too much on the city budget. City officials will want to negotiate a resolution because law enforcement will also complain and protest about their own conditions and attrition. It will then become a matter of wasted resources and weakened morale.

Law enforcement, city officials, and city council can be required to meet with the public at any number of safe environments where we can put a name and face with a promise or proposed action. The police department is always open to receiving complaints, must investigate, and must give a disposition to the submitting complainants. Churches, schools, community centers, and government facilities can all be utilized for community events and meetings. If they can’t come to us, then we can always peacefully assemble and go to them. Systems and resources are always susceptible to being overwhelmed.

Law enforcement reform starts with the hiring practices of who they put into the uniform and an asserted effort to increase their interaction and familiarity with the culture of the community they serve. Avoidance of bias deployment of selective enforcement throughout the community, a better internal and public accountability system, and assurances that reflect departments and specialized units ratios align with the community demographics are also needed. Discretion is encouraged where minor offenses build goodwill and correction instead of revenue and criminal intent.

Removing the overseer, occupying force, and adversarial culture and mentality of law enforcement to be above the people they serve is crucial to better policing. Changing the officer’s expectations within the department to be less numerically driven as the basis for the court system, jails, and general fund revenue. Additionally, training needs to be directed at mental and psychological options for compliance, de-escalation, and control under fearful or stressful situations that simulate reality. Indeed, a different type of training and increased training is in order.

Engaging the political and legal process at the municipal, county, and state level to change the city charters, county enforcement, and state laws mandating more accountability and transparency removes many instances of abuse. The other component to remove abuses is to remove those who obstruct or violate the intent or equal application of the law. City Charters can make the Police Chief accountable to the public and not the mayor. The law is full of remedies that are not currently aligned with the will of the people or used to reconcile them.

The political structure of this country is established upon majority rule, even if that majority is by one. The path forward seems clear to keep that which has served us well in the past, embrace that which reveals itself to be effective moving forward, and discard that which has not produced the desired results.

The use of technology, emails, social media, and the like that can be consolidated at the push of send is a powerful tool to disseminate protocols, actions, and objectives. Information is the new currency, and shared education is the manner of transport to expose the iniquities of history and the needed corrections now and in the future for advancement.

The objective must be exalted above the method of the objection, the message superseding the messenger, and the change sustained beyond the sacrifices made. All those concerned are welcome to be agents of change under this directive that lessens harm to the integrity of our concerns.

We must practice policy-driven professional protest, not random emotional exhibitions of extortion. Some of the methods and techniques available are time-sensitive and subject to subversion. There are forces actively attempting to legislate and criminalize specific actions to abolish or lessen their use and effectiveness, making it more difficult to protest without retribution and retaliation.

These laws designed as countermeasures to suppress voting and protest have been announced or anticipated which the development and implementation of effective alternative methods must be employed that are impervious to being undermined. Force is used for revolution, which is not reasonable since our goal evolves and it is not the overthrow of the government. On January 6, 2021, an attempt was made on the Capitol by anarchists hell-bent on suppressing our objectives and the incoming administration as well as the imposition of theirs.

Force in the form of civil unrest and civil disobedience, as it is termed, has minimal effect, being localized at best and a squander of human resources at worst. Using revolution employing force and confrontation, the butcher’s tools generate casualties and opposition with the need to maintain coerced compliance. Evolution is the tool of the master akin to chess outmaneuvering the opposition manipulating their move by intellect and persuasion to anticipate their move and checkmate them with their contribution.

We are not equipped for revolution by force and should not be so inclined when the results move us farther away from our goals. On the contrary, the times are ideally suited for evolution, with the circumstances ripe with the proper strategic approach. The surgical attainment of our prime objectives should aspire to minimal exposure and maximum benefit. With that in mind, adaptation and progression do not have to be glacier, but it will take some time and sustained effort.

To survey the factual landscape and assess the most effective course of action, the first thing we must do is control our emotions and remain reasonable about the sequence and scope of our goals. We can not succumb to the emotional compulsion to express our frustrations through destructive methods that yield only a release of anger but limited results.

We must then logically analyze the playbook being used against us for vulnerabilities and deficiencies. Many have historically been the same, but the support has waned, significantly exaggerating the weaknesses exposing new paths to change. Just as their ideological numbers have weakened, ours have been strengthened, forging overt empathy and allegiances towards justice for us.

Dissent and allegiances in unison with a significant number of people who should not be alienated or excluded from their contribution to a mutual objective. For example, some have aged out of active protest in the streets. However, they still can significantly contribute if an avenue for their participation was available which remained within their capabilities. The same holds for adolescents who can contribute in their own particular way or those who would need to remain anonymous for their own preservation but would love to contribute if provided a way.

The racist or conservative value ideology has to be exposed for what it is and the lack of inclusion of some who support it, not realizing that they are not included except for achieving a goal that will discard them. Conservatism is rooted in the past, which does not include alternative sexualities, gender roles not male-dominated, inter-racial relationships, immigrants who visually do not look white, and the list goes on.

These are the divisions and vulnerabilities which need to be exposed. The 2020 election and the strategy utilized by Stacey Abrams and many others are symbolic of the horizontal attack on a vertical establishment. The legs can be taken out to make the head fall.

The divide and conquer tactics that have been so effective against us redirected against the social intimidation used to sustain this stain of racism can now be used as never before to topple this system of discrimination. Isolating its methods and motivations cultivating change for its own survival or wither isolated from the acceptability of change. The implosion of maintaining their discriminating ideology will collapse when starved. The pen is mightier than the sword, and the briefcase more effective than muscle can use their momentum against their purposes when redirected for our purposes.

The prototype builds a horizontal coalition targeting as many local gatekeepers as possible from the school boards to city council from the infrastructure that governs them by vote, city charters, or other legislation that either changes their policy and functions or promotes the compromise needed for our redress.

The latest census report does not accurately reflect the shifting demographics of those by their designation whose interest would more closely align with our objectives for their benefit. The number of those who would oppose or actively resist has diminished when put into the context of racial and economic oppression, which comparatively suppresses their prosperity as well.

Focusing on the horizontal social foundation is where the legal and meat on the bones changes will be more attainable and intensively affected at the grassroots level. Producing new socio-economic norms not constricted by race, gender, or discrimination will require more vertical institutional infiltration.

It would be regrettable not to fully benefit from this unprecedented time in a diametrical shift of ideologies, theirs and ours. Confronting this plague of racism that has persisted for centuries has spilled out into the open, and we can not refuse to update our strategy conducive to meaningful change.

There was civil unrest under the previous administration as clashes of ideology and practice, but that most certainly seems not to be the case with the Biden-Harris administration, so why would the method of protest be the same for friend and foe. They deserve a chance to benefit us from the highest levels as they have pledged without being encumbered by behavior that undermines their efforts or strengthens the opposition.

By demonstrating their actions and those appointed by them, they have demonstrated more willingness toward fairness than we have been recently accustomed to. So let us do our business while they do their business unencumbered by each other and in support and coordination towards a just objective.

We can use all the help we can get and can not afford to squander our allies or resources by our emotional behavior or lack of logical strategy. So many of these protests are in response to the loss of life of individuals whose family gets constantly bombarded with reminders of their loss. They deserve closure and resolution reflective of the pain they endure and provide the progress that can be the only thing to minimize their loss and provide some degree of comfort.

So first and foremost, let us not get too wrapped up in our anger to exacerbate their pain without honoring the progression needed as a result of THEIR loss. We must embrace their wellbeing and make sure they are provided for while we claim our actions are on their behalf without honoring their wishes or embracing their condition.

Remember, it is about their families and protest, collectively, not us individually releasing anger. We must remain diligently respectful of their loss. United, we stand erect consolidated in purpose and with the integrity of our convictions to demonstrate that which we demand.

The teachings of Sun Tzu or the Five Rings present conceptual tactics of principle and concept. The study of Hannibal from Carthage and Shaka Zulu reveals helpful strategic maneuvering of resources, innovation, and positioning. These learnings are military tactics that will prove effective in a civilian application of protest.

War tactics applied to peaceful thought processes guiding social movements whose ideology is adapted to reflect the logical application of their concepts not to create war but to create evolution and progression. They are designed to minimize conflict and self-inflicted collateral damage while ensuring success in overcoming obstacles by a coalition of consensus.

The question is will we put an end to some of this nonsense or wait for others who have less incentive? But, again, the perspective of tactical protest is wisest, not demonstrations of emotional outbursts.

Thurston K. Atlas

Creating A Buzz

Posted on May 4, 2021November 30, 2021 by whenplaytimeisover_xlw47n 0

When Playtime is Over

Check your feelings at the door…

When Playtime is Over

Tag: Humanity

A Civil War Story

Happy Black Emancipation Day

Spread No Further

Practicality of Consumption

The Black Reality

Cultural Differences

Pharaoh’s Temple

No N-word Allowed

Tactical Protest