October 7, 2017

Blessed

I was involved in two conversations yesterday, and both of them (at different times) were with persons of age 24-26. Both of these kids were working people, as well as college students; the distinct difference in them being that one of them was using the GI Bill from his service in the Marine Corps, and the other was having her college paid 100% (through and up to a completion of a Master's Degree!)

These two both say they enjoy talking to me, because "that old guy knows some shit!" I laughed really hard when this was repeated to me by another co-worker, because A) I am old, and B) I've got a lot of mileage that gave me some knowledge and a little more wisdom than some folks...
The conversations that these two young people and I have had cover a broad range of topics, but two particular ones struck a chord on the neck of my mental guitar.
The first was the first kid (the Marine) saying that he never heard of such a thing as a black and white TV, and couldn't imagine a TV without a DVR, let alone a remote. I gave him a friendly speech on how different times were just 30 years ago. Before I was 15, we had a black and white TV in the living room with 3-4 channels. It is extremely coincidental that my brother posted a photo of one this morning on Face-book with a comment that said "I was the remote."
When I was 16, I had a black and white TV in my bedroom for playing games on my Atari 2600. You couldn't get much more cool than that.
The second conversation was with the young woman who is going to college to obtain a Master's in Nutrition and Dietetics (again; 100% paid). She was complaining that her parents and grandparents take so much of her time...always wanting to see her, talk to her, and take her to dinner.
I commented that when I was five, my grandparents had all passed, and my Dad too. I told her that I'd have given anything to have them in my life when I was older, and to have had my Dad when times were tough in the growing up experience. I told her she was blessed to have all of these folks still in her life, and to enjoy them while she can, because they won't be around for ever.
It makes me wonder what our parents, aunt and uncles, and definitely our grandparents, must have thought when we whined about things we were blessed to have in our younger years.

Wake up...

When morality and brotherly love fails in a society, there is nothing left but the opposites, which are perversion and hate. When perversion of a decent society trumps all else, there is nothing to stop children from becoming the subjects of their nightmares. We as a society are waking up to see that very thing become reality in our own time. So when you wonder why children of today are disobedient, maybe you should look at the fact that Smart-Phones and X-Boxes are raising your children in your stead.

When a society begins to believe that an unarmed populace is unconditionally safe because the government they elected will protect them, they are doomed to the same fate as many societies that preceded them.
When a society of people believes that choosing one evil over the other is making the right decision, they are doomed to do so time after time. There is no such thing as a politician in Washington, DC being fit to be the President of the United States anymore.
Why?
Because we have accepted what I talked about in the first paragraph of this paper.
We've accepted lying, cheating, and stealing...as long as there is an apology afterwards.
We've accepted stories that are absolutely myth, regarded as truth; that will be recorded and taught as history to our grandchildren.

Wake up.

Your destiny belongs to you, and no one else.

-Jim Culp, 2017

 

 

 

10/2/2017

 

My most sincere condolences go out to the families of the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. I hope they can all deal with their losses and that their dead rest in peace always.

I keep hearing people say that “these shootings are getting more and more common,” and “they create mass hysteria.”

Yes, they are and do. But these shootings are part of a plan, and that plan is to declare a state of martial law, and disarm the public. These shootings, just like all of these bombings; are nothing but tools created to take away your freedom, and bring the United States, Mexico, and Canada under a centralized government where only police officers and soldiers will possess firearms, and only the extremely wealthy of our populace will enjoy the rights of the Constitution.

Will that happen tomorrow, or in 2050? I don’t know. But it will happen.

I’ve said all that to say this.

When it does happen, don’t come to me and say you weren’t warned, because I am warning you right now.

 -Jim Culp, 2017