civil rights – David Vaszko's Blog

On this fourth Thursday in November we give thanks to God for the comfort and prosperity we in America have. We give thanks to the Pilgrims who took a leap of faith, making a perilous journey to a new continent. We also thank our Founding Fathers who were wise to know the proper time to rebel in order to more fully take advantage of their energeticness.

There are others we must thank – the industrialists who planned our systems of interconnectedness; the relentless laborers whose faith in God, America and property brought their bosses dreams to reality.

To round this off we must thank our civil rights leaders who challenged America to truly be religious, to truly be philosophical, to make our interconnectedness spiritual and our drive something that does not annihilate others.

Our focus should be on God. Without tremendous faith in God America would not have been the beacon of the world for so long and we would not have the wealth we have. America was the shining light of the world politically, economically and religiously no matter the extent of our injustices.

We were a balanced people. But we have come further and further from God. Our national leaders have become corrupt. Business and American citizens have become greedy.

Our religious leaders have made a mockery of religion and have abused their positions. Our injustices are no longer something that one can overlook, for there are so many at the same time in all areas of society.

Our faith remains, but it is a faith in expectations. We no longer have an agreement with God that what is most important is our goodness and our willingness to know when we have enough money, success and comfort.

We were wise and humble. We knew that if we were good and not greedy, and we failed in our financial goals, we would be blessed on earth with our goodness and in heaven with God. We knew that if we were good, not greedy and successful we would be extremely lucky and blessed.

Our good points were so powerful they overshadowed our immense evil. This shows you how great Americans were and how seriously so many Americans took words like honesty, truth and integrity.

Often people criticize the Pilgrims as being puritanical. But they were not.

We are. We do not value people who are humble and live simply. We say they are not realistic.

We have a relentless need for money, property, cars, a young image. When somebody says this insanity has to stop, that person is not listened to.

Our godlessness is far more dangerous than the religious conviction of the Pilgrims and the narrowmindedness of the Puritans. They made tremendous sacrifices and constructed stable communities.

We destroy our communities. Any sacrifice we make when young is to live a selfish life at middle-age when we should be combing talent, energy, sharing and good will.

We must regain our integrity. We must rebel against our last fifty years of greed.

God can help us do this. But we will need strength and wisdom. For when we begin to sacrifice our selfish desires to build communities and enhance our relationships, we will realize how unfree America is, how much we do not trust one another, how afraid we are.

We will be tempted to become frivolous again, not out of greed but out of terror. A greater sacrifice will be needed.

We will need to take risks like the Pilgrims did to attain religious freedom, like the Founding Fathers did to be free of a corrupt government, like our civil rights leaders did to attain freedom in their own country.

We need to regain our souls. We need to attain freedom in our own country. If we have the courage and wisdom to do this we will have something to humbly be thankful for.

Our wisdom can begin now. Let us eat lightly this afternoon, so after thanking God that things are not worse here, we will set out to make America once again the beacon to the world.

Dear Jim,

The pope’s in Peru. I turned on Radio Católica expecting to hear the regular programs, but instead there was coverage of his trip.

Today’s event was the right-to-life march. You should have heard how loud the marchers were. It sounded like a party. The announcers said that there was a very large amount of young people.

It’s nice to hear people celebrating rather than complaining. I wish I had something to celebrate. I am glad that these young people oppose abortion. One of the reasons Europe and America have degenerated is because of all the abortions women have had and still demand.

It’s amazing that I’ve never heard any boomers say how badly we screwed up, and how badly we screwed up the country and the West because of our successful demand for cheap legal abortions.

I remember the time you told me you were sitting in the cafeteria at S. F. State. A table of women were talking about their abortions. You were shocked how nonchalantly they talked about them. You were surprised that more than one woman at the table had more than one abortion. They had no sense of guilt or shame.

It’s funny that the Progressives and people who are not Christian demand that The Church apologize for it’s sins against Jews and other groups, that the United States apologize to blacks, Indians and Mexicans, that white people apologize to Indians, Mexicans and blacks; but nobody is saying that European governments, and the American government, should apologize for passing laws that allowed so many babies to be killed, and that the citizens of Europe and the United States should apologize for all the babies they flushed down the toilet and all the hosrseshit relationships that created the abortions.

Last Monday was MLK Day. I turned on the radio twice. I listened for a half an hour each time. Each time he wasn’t the focus.

I listened because I knew I should get out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed each show. I learned a lot.

But I get tired of black people never mentioning how badly they have screwed up themselves and the country. I get tired of white Progressives who are offended when I say I think 52 years is plenty of time to get it together.

I told dad the pope was in Peru. He already knew it. I said, ”Wasn’t one of the popes in San Francisco?” He said that he was at the cathedral when the pope said Mass there.

The poor pope. I wonder how many body guards he has. What if somebody killed him?

But I want to talk more about race. The other night when I got home from work I was exhausted. I couldn’t read or study, so I turned on YouTube. I typed Sacramento, then I think I typed something else. A boring list came up. Then I saw Sacramento Rappers.

I like rap. Sacramento was, and maybe still is, a famous rap city. So I clicked it.

There were several rappers listed but I kept scrolling. I saw some descriptions of videos saying that ”This is the video of the such-and-such gang.”

I clicked one from two years ago. There were at least 50 Mexican gang guys on the stage at Southside Park. They were milling around, each guy singing the song that a professional rapper was singing for the video. I could hear the singer but not the guys on the stage standing with Aztec murals behind them.

It was incredible. They were so pissed off. So filled with hate. The camera went from one small group of guys to another, focusing on one guy as he pulled up his shirt to show his tattoos, on another guy as he made angry faces at the same time he was making gang signs with his hands and fingers, on another guy as he pulled a pistol out of his pants. Every once in a while a couple of guys were taking a swig of liquor. And they were all singing.

It’s terrifying that there are so many pissed off young men with guns. Progressives laugh when somebody like me talks about proving one’s manhood, but these pissed off young guys show that there is a need to prove one’s manhood.

The argument usually is that white people are responsible for all the brown and black gangs. If only there were not these horrible white racists making all these black and brown guys join gangs to kill each other.

I think it’s a gender issue. There is nothing for young men to do. Black and brown guys join gangs. White guys camp under the freeway.

Nobody is doing anything to get these guys working so that whatever fears they have will not take such a violent terrifying turn. It’s a woman’s world, but everybody blames the young men for being pissed off and afraid.

It’s the playoffs. Last Sunday there were two incredible games.

I think about football all the time. My hero is Merlin Olsen. He played all 15 years of his career with the Rams.

I remembered when he retired. There was an article in the LAT one Sunday about him. It said that the guys he played against said that Olsen never cheated.

Isn’t that something!

It’s a bad time to be male bro. Those gang guys hate me and I hate them, but they don’t know we’re both pieces of shit.

I hope it’s freezing in New England on Sunday.

Love,

Dave

Tag: civil rights

The President Speaks: Thanksgiving

Friday, January 19