Reality Is Not Reality

Have you ever turned around and found a friend aiming a camera at you and screaming: "Say Cheese"?

 

You either made a funny face, or you gave a big fake smile.

 

Either way, that picture was never going to be about you. It would be about a puppet that was told to smile and it did. That friend would later look at that picture and decide to vindictively post it and tag you because you look phony, or they auto-deleted it from their phone.

 

Then one day, you are having this enthusiastic chat with one of your friends about something that is near and dear to your heart. You are talking energetically and enthusiastically. Someone pops up with a phone and takes your picture without a thought.

 

It's a damn good picture! It displays your eccentricities, your genuine smile, and it is the real you.

 

The Real World TV show did the real world a disservice that has snowballed into a nightmare of reality TV shows that keep idiots riveted to their boob tubes night after night after night.

 

I think I watched about five minutes of The Real World once. I sat there confused for about one minute. Then slowly, the right side of my upper lip slowly lifted into sneering disbelief that there were idiots out there actually watching and believing that crap.

 

Then came The Osbournes. I like Ozzy. I like his music, his wife, and think he has a good heart. But again came the five minutes of disillusion where I watched his reality show and realized that there was nothing real on this show. I was watching puppets playing for the cameras, giving those same phony smiles or funny faces that you pull out of your ass for that Say Cheese moment.

 

So twenty years later, and twenty to thirty shows later, idiots are still tuning in for their brain numbing, pseudo-reality TV.

 

I have never seen the TV show, but I will tell you with frank and brutal honesty, I Hate the Kardashians! Everything about them screams PLASTIC, from their fake booties, to their fake boobs, to their fake lips, and finally their fake smiles.

 

I love to read the news, but if I see an article that says anything about the Kardashians, I don't read it.

 

I don't retweet pictures of their plastic faces, and I usually block anything who posts a plethora of those idiots on their Twitter. If I am at the check out at a store, and there is a magazine with one of them on the cover, I will turn the magazine around. I can't stand them.

 

They have created this "epic" world that is all about their money and their petty arguments. And the only time I would pay good money to see that show is the day that the producers and channel tell them they are canceled!

 

This I would watch.

 

I have some friends that are slight religious fanatics. They glued to the TV with the Duck Call Makers. And they love the Duggar family with a passion. These people "walk the walk" according to my friends. They are the true Christians out there (so I have been told).

 

A few years ago, I saw the overly dramatic mother giving an interview about how "God" wants her to have more kids. I guess she had a few miscarriages (which I wouldn't wish on most people, but she seemed to enjoy the attention.) She said that until "God" told her that He didn't want her to have anymore kids, she would keep trying.

 

Call me a bitch, but if you have more than five kids and you start miscarrying repetitively, I'm going to call that a sign from God. He has spoken chica... Shut that uterus down!

 

But my fanatic friends go on and on about how "Godly" these people are!

 

These "Godly" people have dedicated a large amount of their time promoting traditional marriage, and calling homosexuality a sin. Their marriage is ANYTHING but traditional, and the recent revelations of their own local pedophile in house has sent the religious fan base into a frantic spiral.

 

Irony is for some of these people who compare homosexuality to pedophilia, it's the difference between consenting adults in a relationship, and a mental instability that can't be treated. One is about love (or sometimes just sex) and the other is about control and raping a non-consenting minor.

 

The there was Honey Boo-Boo Child. I am sitting here even regretting that I have to type the phrase:  Honey Boo-Boo Child. I feel like I lost IQ points in the translation.

 

I feel that Honey Boo-Boo Child and Duck Dynasty promote stereotyping and negative perceptions of people from the South.

 

One would watch these shows and think that all people from the South are stupid, because these phony people on the TV screen are about as dumb as a box of rocks.

 

But these people are getting PAID to be this dumb. They are getting PAID to promote the idea that they are naturally this way. But they are anything but natural, and you are not watching reality.

 

You are watching a stage, with cameras and all the right props. Every conversation they have on the screen was thoughtfully planned and implemented to entertain the idiot masses.

 

I think I am pretty funny sometimes. I will twist a phrase, or play with a word, and I might make people giggle. But it's not my entire life. I don't think that I create absolute hilarity, with tears and laugher more than two times a month (and that might be pushing it!)

 

So for the watchers to assume that these guys actually figured out what they were going to say on a whim and it keeps people rolling in the aisles on a weekly basis, is to assume that these people are actually funny.

 

It's a well-planned, well-implemented script by some director or producer pulling the puppet strings in the background.

 

Give me fantasy, and a fake screen with a fake plot of superheroes or drama, or a good book of improbabilities, and I will get more laughter and more tears than I would from any Reality TV.

 

If I want reality, I'll live it and not let anyone else pretend that they can do it better!  

Pot Legalization

On November 6th, 2012, the state of Colorado overwhelmingly voted to decriminalize Cannabis. And I must confess that I was one of the people to vote yes to Amendment 64.

It's not that I really support the use of pot, although I do recognize its medicinal purposes. And Colorado already allowed the medicinal usage of cannabis.

The smell of pot smoke is extremely offensive to me. It chokes me up and I can barely breathe.

I do think that its use causes diminished capacity on temporary and permanent levels. In my time in college, the MRI studies that we performed on people who used pot versus people who didn't showed that people who use pot are less reactive to stimulus, and neuron response time was slower (not all pistons were firing).

I sincerely believe that pot is a gateway drug. I am a witness to the crack, acid, and cocaine that my kid brother did after years of using pot. I have seen my older cousin, so debilitated from alcohol and prescription medication that she can't walk or talk.

There was a lot of soul searching questions before I checked that "yes" vote.

Did you know that the US spends 1 BILLION dollars a year in policing and prosecuting possession of Cannabis? By legalizing marijuana, the state of Colorado has saved over 60 MILLION in one year. And the neighboring states have spent more trying to police the incoming cannabis than any other previous year.

One of the biggest questions I asked myself was "why was alcohol legal?"

While pot does caused diminished capacity, alcohol can go even further and cause dementia, decreased immune systems, damaged livers, extreme heart problems like Cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, high blood pressure, and stroke, as well as damaging the pancreas.

And yet alcohol is still legal.

One of my young friends went out partying for her 21st birthday. Her goal for the evening was to drink 21 shots by the end of the evening. After several trips to the bathroom to throw up, she hit the 21st shot with a bang. She fell while throwing up one more time and banged her head of the toilet seat.

But some alcohol celebrations and binges don't end so well. Approximately 80,000 people in the US die from alcohol poisoning every year. In fact, alcohol is the third highest cause of death in the whole world racking up 2.5 million deaths a year.

And then there is the big number of a whopping 132 BILLION spent every year to police and prosecute the alcohol related offenses.

All of a sudden pot didn't seem like the plague on the face of the earth that we had feared.

If I were driving down a darkened highway late one night, would I want to share the road with a person who was as drunk as a skunk and pumped up on long buried anger issues that surface after the six beer, or a person happily stoned on weed driving 15 miles under the speed limit and listening to Bob Marley's "Easy Skankin'"?

Optimally, neither one. I don't think that anyone should drive impaired (even emotionally upset impaired).

My second choice would be the pothead and Bob Marley.

I'm pretty sure that the majority of Colorado feels the same way I do.

And the profit to the state so far has been 53 million dollars.

So let's break this down a little bit more: The year before, the state of Colorado spent 60 million dollars prosecuting people with possession of pot. And this last year, we raked in 53 million profit on top of NOT having to deal with the possession issue.

Violent crimes went down instead of up (as predicted). Probably because smoking pot doesn't cause anger issues.

On the other side of the coin, our homeless rate went up. Not so much because people were spending so much money on pot that they had to live on the street, but because people moved here so that they could smoke pot!

I've read several articles recently, where parents have given children THC in their brownies, and all of a sudden, the child went from 30 or 40 seizures a day to three a week.

You have to admit, as much as you disapprove of using pot, the stories of its healing properties warm your heart.

Legalizing it was the right thing to do.

Are there hits and misses in this story?

Well, if you get stopped while "under the influence of pot" there are really not any definitive ways to absolutely prove that you just smoked a doobie, unless they catch you with a lit one. If they find it in your blood, can they prove that you smoked it just this moment, or two days ago?

Our legal system hasn't quite figured out the ramifications of trying to control it.

And then there are the idiots out there that buy a candy bar that has ten servings in it and eats it all in one go. Like all Americans, the concept of moderation just hasn't been something that they can do.

Companies are still doing random drug tests. If a person comes up positive, they can be terminated without consequences for the company.

A law suit was brought against a company who fired a worker who was using the pot medicinally and had a prescription. He lost the lawsuit. If you think about it, valium can be a prescribed medication, but the company could fire you for taking it while on the clock.

Do I still stand by my vote?

I am nodding my head as I typed the question.

There are too many positive things happening with this legalization that tells me it was the right thing to do.

 

 

My Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Frappuccino Recipe

I'm on vacation and thought I would go with something light-weight for the masses!

What you will need:
Either a fairly strong blender, like a bullet or (my personal favorite) The Oster My-Blend, a tablespoon, and a quarter cup for measuring.

Ingredients are:
(Please put into the blender in this order)

1/4 cup Lactose Free/reduced fat milk
8 large ice cubes
1 Sugar-free, 3.25 OZ vanilla pudding cup
4 teaspoons French Vanilla (sugar-free/fat free) Instant Coffee Drink Mix (I like Kroger Brand)
1 tablespoon Better 'N Peanut Butter (about 50 calories)
1 tablespoon Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Then, blend the shit out of it. Stop every once in awhile and shake it.

When you are done, you will have 218 calories of solid, Frappuccino bliss. It will have less calories than almost everything from Starbucks or any other coffee shop (unless you just drink coffee or tea). And your eyes will roll back in sheer joy from the taste (I have witnesses!)

Super portrait of Einstein by Lori B Wicks

Cold, Dead Hands...

 

 

 

I'm sure that all of you have heard the phrase: "The only way (they'll) get my gun is if they pry it from my cold, dead hands!" (Thanks NRA for that stupid quote!)

I must confess, I laugh every time I see the t-shirt or quote.

First of all, it's been done. Waco, Texas ring any bells?

David Koresh and 82 of his Branch Davidians were served. They killed four FBI agents when they were being served. And the FBI agents returned fire and killed six of the morons.

This did not end well. In fact, it didn't end for 51 days. Koresh and his merry band of Waco Wackos holed themselves in and didn't budge. (If you ever get the opportunity to read the full story, don't... You will lose IQ points just for trying. Skim, and move on.)

In the end, the FBI and Military tossed in tear gas, and the Branch Davidians set fire to the church and all perished.

So technically, it would be prying the guns from their overly warm, burnt-like hands.

In my defense, I own a gun. I have owned a couple of guns over the years. I have a family that owns guns. And I approve of sane people owning guns.

But this "cold, dead hands" idea just needs to end!

First, the cost would be prohibitive! The federal government would have to get a search warrant for every single building in the US! That process would bankrupt the government! (Oh, wait! Our government is already bankrupt!)

Second, being a little short of FBI agents that would need to search every house in the US, they would need to get all branches of the military to join in. Including (but not limited to) the National Guard, the Coast Guard, the ROTC, and Color Guard at the local junior highs and high schools!

Third, would be the idea that not everyone is going to be honest about having a gun. Imagine a fresh faced junior high girl or boy knocking on your door saying: "Excuse me sir, do you have any guns that we can confiscate?"

Are you getting the picture yet?

So let's forget about the Color Guard and go with a 20 year old Marine from Iowa knocking on your door with a warrant. He will say something like, "Sir, I will need to search the premises for guns." He will hand you the paper with the warrant, and look expectantly at you. His finger will be on the trigger of his M-16, so he is cocked, locked, and loaded.

You are standing there in your underwear with the New York Times in one hand, and a beer in the other.

Are you going to say to yourself: "I am going to shoot one of this country's Marines, in the face, just so I can keep my .38 Special?"

I am laying odds that that 20 year old kid can pump out more rounds in 10 seconds than you can in 3 minutes.

Would you shoot one of our military personnel just for following orders?

Best option is to bury it in your backyard, unless we live in a Big Brother Society where all of our neighbors will squeal on us. (Oh wait! We are already there!)  

This is one of those scenarios where you can't win, even if you win.

You either hand over your guns willingly, hide your guns, shoot that poor Marine that is just following orders, or barricade yourself in and wait for the tear gas.

Not that this is ever going to happen, and it's ridiculous to even think it will. But the options aren't options, and the gun will be pried from your fingers, one way or another.

But let's go the other way on this and look at it from the 20 year old Marine's eyes for a second.

Recently, Colorado implemented new gun safety laws (thank you James Holmes and Columbine). I appreciate the fact that the lawmakers are trying to find ways to keep people safe. Reducing the size of magazines for guns sold, I'm okay with that.

But several sheriffs came out and said they weren't going to enforce it. They weren't going to police it, and they refuse to try.

And they were right.

The lawmakers were so busy trying not to step on the toes of the NRA and the gun owners, that they ended up stepping on their own toes.

If it is a law that can't be enforced, then what is the responsibility of law enforcement in this?

They can't stop Plumber Joe (he shows up every once in a great while) from driving across the Wyoming border and buying a 15 round magazine for his gun.

I can't see the military commanders sending their troops into cities, towns, and farms to confiscate arms. If they were asked, they would probably laugh insanely, or laugh at the insane... one or the other.

So the next time you hear someone say this, just assume that they are as dumb as dog snot, and move on.

It will save you more IQ points...

 

The Art of Segregation

Spending the day off watching moving, true-life movies about overcoming odds and becoming stronger sort of messes with your mind. You go to bed and have these weird dreams where you are saving the world, you are one of the bad guys, or you are the one that has to overcome these odds.

And then you have The Epiphany.

What we were in the sixties and seventies versus what we are today, that is my story. In the sixties and seventies, White people were on top of the food chain. We easily went to college, found jobs, and went on to earn bucks as doctors and lawyers.

Then along came Martin Luther King.

He had a dream... No, he had a damned good dream!

He believed that all people were created equal. It's what the constitution says, so how can we argue with that?

The only thing standing in his way was the White people dream.

We were living the dream and denying that our dream was their dream.

I have even heard it recently from that Duck Dynasty dude (no, I don't watch the show)!

He said he worked in the fields with Blacks and they were happier working in the fields than they are now.

To quote what's-his-face and GQ: “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person," Robertson is quoted in GQ. "Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

I worked at a fast food chain in my first round with college. All of my training stemmed around smiling for the customer, smiling for the boss, smiling for the boss's boss. I smiled when they gave me a nickel raise. I smiled when they had me running the floor and the drive-thru during dinner rush. I smiled, Smiled, SMILED!

I would laugh and joke with my peers. I would tease the customers. Sometimes, I would even sing, when the mood took me.

But inside, I hated that job, I hated my boss, I REALLY hated my boss's boss, and you don't know how badly I wanted to tell them to shove that nickel raise up their royal asses.

But I stuck it out for two years and worked 3 other jobs to supplement my income.

That's what poverty does to you. It makes you smile, even when you want to cry. It makes you go to the drug store and buy vitamins instead of going to the hospital, because really, you can't even afford the vitamins, but the choice goes both ways.

You see, you can't walk around crying, or you either get put in a loony bin, or people avoid you like the plague.

Poverty is pain and suffering. And poverty is survival... Smiling in the face of adversity.

And Robertson, pre-entitlement was a time when all people were created equal, but if a Black person wanted to vote, they had to walk through a line of armed, white bigots intent upon keeping them down.

But yes, the dream of actually voting, was a worthy dream.

And then we entered the seventies.

The White man was still on top, the Blacks could vote, and all was right in the world.

And then Cesar Chavez moved to Texas.

The grape farmers were on top, and whenever they needed a few extra hands, they would just drive over the border and get more workers that would be thrilled at two dollars a day.

The farmers didn't even provide the laborers toilets, because "they don't know how to use them anyway."

They had children working in the fields! The thought makes me cringe.

It didn't matter that these kids weren't going to school, because they were going to grow up and become farm laborers like their fathers and mothers. So they didn't need to read or write. They just needed to know how to pick grapes.

So Cesar Chavez taught them how to fight without throwing fists. And when they tried to throw fists at the people who deserved it, he fasted for 28 days. He starved himself to teach them about pride and sacrifice... Much like Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

And the sheriff sprayed the workers with pesticides when they picketed.

But they stood firm, and Bobby Kennedy stood with them.

And the rest of us Whites sat up on a mountain top thinking of those poor little Mexicans doing hard labor.

The mountain top has sunk a bit. It's getting harder and harder to look down on someone when they are almost at the same level you are on.

But they have their own mountain top to stand on. That's the reason that they can look us in the eye.

But it's a separate mountain top.

It's just as pretty as our White mountain top, but it's their mountain top.

It had to be this way. In order to empower themselves, they had to think of themselves as a separate entity. And they became separate, but equal.

In 2008, I voted for Barack Hussein Obama, and he became president.

I was so proud of myself because I voted in a Black man for president.

And now I am ashamed that I even thought that thought.

It was still us and them when I cast that vote. We were still separate but equal.

I ask myself today why I voted for President Obama. And I know that it was his policies that he spoke of when he was running. He is a damned good speaker.

I look at the pictures of him playing with kids and how they react to them, and I know that he is a good man, even if I don't agree with everything that he does. Kids wouldn't be that cool around someone on a lofty mountain top looking down at them.

The Epiphany is one of shame I carry because I was still thinking separate but equal, when I just should have been thinking equal.

Several months ago, I made a vow with myself never to sneeringly say "Bush Jr". I call him President George W Bush. I call all of those men before him president as well, as much as I dislike their policies and politics.

You see, as Americans, we voted in all of these men to the office of President. And no matter how much you hate or revile whatever president, they were elected by a majority of Americans and earned the title. And I know to say it with respect.

I have climbed down off of my mountain in shame.

I look up to the other mountains, and I wave from my lowly place, where I must learn humility and grace without a lofty perch.

There but for the grace of God go I...

Pornography, Frankly Speaking

 

 

In 2013, the pornographic industry made 97 BILLION dollars. With 10 BILLION coming from the United States.

People are sitting at their computers, or in front of their TVs drooling over the perfect sex or perfect spouse that they will never have.

And in the end, what you perceive as perfect sex will never happen. The woman will never orgasm 20 times in one bout (for want of a better word), the man won't have a 12 inch long accoutrement (again for want of a better word), and unless the couple spend years under a knife, neither of them will have the perfect body.

It comes down to reality and the fake world of pornography.

The unrealistic perceptions that people receive from what's on the screen, versus what's in real life, can be extremely detrimental to any normal relationship.

But let's break this down to the extreme fundamentals:

No woman's vagina is ever going to be a tight and muscular as a man's hand. So if a man is watching pornography and using his hand to pleasure himself, his hands and his eyes will rapidly become his best friends.

The human brain is an amazing organism. And the advances in technology have brought us closer and closer to understanding what makes it tick.

A Cambridge study on incentive motivation and compulsive sexual behaviors (2014, Valerie Voon) shows that pornography actually doesn't give the addicted ones sexually cravings, but in fact the viewing is the actual addiction.

Like drug addicts, porn addicts don't watch pornography because they want to watch it. They watch it because the need to watch it.

When they do watch pornography, porn addicts dopamine receptors are in over-drive. Nearly all drugs release dopamine (the body's very own drug of choice). But after a time, the body adjusts to the dopamine by adding more receptors to the neurons.

It's like having this little tiny aloe vera plant and giving it water. You give it just the right amount of water, and it starts growing. Then it needs more water and a bigger pot. And then two large pots and gallons of water.

Dopamine works exactly like that. The receptors get a bit more dopamine than they can handle, so they multiply. Pretty soon, the drug addict or porn addict just can't get enough to get that same dopamine rush again.

And more, what Cambridge/Voon discovered that "younger subjects had enhanced reward circuit activity when exposed to porn cues. Higher dopamine spikes and greater reward sensitivity are major factors in adolescents being more vulnerable to addiction and sexual conditioning." (yourbrainonporn.com) 

There is a documentary by Jackson Katz called Tough Guise.

(I have to do a little side note here and tell you about Jackson Katz: He was a school football player and the first male to major in women's studies at U-Mass-Amherst. He is also the founder of Mentors in Violence Prevention.)

Tough Guise brings up a lot of good issues, but the most strikingly predominant issue that has stuck in my mind from watching it eight years ago was the horror film segment.

Imagine a sexy sultry scene, with two people in a hot tub, or "getting it on" in bed, and all of a sudden one of the sultry scene participants gets their throat slashed.

So here are all these young boys getting into the scene and semi-erected, and then there is blood and gore. Somehow, there's a misfire. The boy has a jolly on and then the scene explodes into violence.

Regardless of your junior high student being on the honor role, enough of these movies can seriously mess up the wiring in a boy's (or girl's) brain.

There are some people out there who have never watched a pornographic movie, or bought "girly" magazine. And they pat themselves on the back because they have never endorsed or supported companies that knowingly endorse pornography.

Unfortunately, these people are wrong.

Comcast, AT&T, and DirecTV (owned by General Motors) all have pay-per-view adult movies.

Marriot, Westin, and Hilton hotels all offer adult movies and rake in the shared profits with the providers. (pbs.org)

At one point, Yahoo! had links to "all the fun" porn websites, but in 2002 they backed off and took the links down. (In fact, they seriously police their site to make sure no strays get in!)

Omni Hotels also removed all pay-per-use adult movies.

So if you have ever stayed at one of these hotels, or subscribed to the internet with one of these providers, or bought a car from General Motors, you have unknowingly supported the pornographic industry.

The smallest detail of this whole blog is back to the unreal expectations that are created when watching these movies occasionally.

The perfect lover will never exist for anyone. There will be mistakes, losses, arguments, down time, alone time, and make up time.

This is life. Let's live in the real and the now!

Another Picture from Lori B Wicks!

Black Lives Matter...

I can't argue with that statement. I do think that Black Lives Matter.

I have seen the hash tags, and I am proud that people are joining together to defend people.

But then again, I wonder if "Black Lives Matter" is the right way to approach this?

I am sickened recently by the acts of racial brutality that have occurred throughout the years here in the states:

·         The enslavement of Chinese Women as prostitutes in the 1860s,

·         The Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 with Coal Miners,

·         The Selma beatings of Black People in 1965,

·         Pesticides thrown on Migrant Workers in 1967,

·         The racial profiling by Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona.

This has been going on longer than history can remember.

But the police are not just beating up Black people.

On July 5, 2011, Kelly Thomas was severely beaten and killed by one White and one Hispanic officer, even though he was not resisting arrest. The officers were found not guilty, even though the video shows Thomas trying to comply with the instructions.

In August of 2014, police beat a white man who was intoxicated, in a Walmart in South Carolina. No charges were pressed against the officers, even though the beating was documented on video.

On April 9th, several officers surrounded a person who was a suspect in identity theft. He had stolen a horse to try and escape them. Even though they had him surrounded, they beat him.

On August 11, 2014, an unarmed Dillon Taylor, his brother, and cousin were stopped by a police officer because a 911 caller reported that they looked suspicious, and looked like they were gang-bangers. Dillon had his head phones on and failed to comply with instructions. The shooting was deemed justifiable.

Authorities empower themselves through violence... At least the bad ones do.

The issue isn't about Black or White, but with poorly-trained, aggressive law enforcement officials.

The media is conveniently over-looking this fact to create more sensationalism.

If they can cause a riot or two, while reporting the news, then it's just more news that they can sensationalize.

The problem stems from poor training, officers, poor testing to determine if a person should be a police officer, and poor follow up to training and mental testing of said officers.

If an officer works in a particularly violent neighborhood, does PTSD occur? The answer should be absolutely.

Like cigarette smokers, police officers are taught over and over again how to rapidly pull their guns. They are taught to work on reflex and make it a habit. When they walk up to a car, they automatically unsnap their gun holster to make the gun more accessible.

And yes, police officers get killed. They get shot, stabbed, hit, and harangued. It has become a society of US and THEM.

When I see a police car on the street, I let off on the gas... Even if I am going the speed limit. Pretty scary that even I have that instinctive fear of the badge.

One of the solutions should be to rotate police officers in and out of different neighborhoods. The idea of a "regular beat" should be null. There are neighborhoods that are less violent, and then there are neighborhoods that require a person be on their guard at all times. Getting out of the habit of constantly being on guard, will prevent some PTSD.

Most police officers spend their entire lives not shooting a soul, not having to hit anyone, and being safe. Killing someone should not be taken lightly at the mental or physical level, even if the killing is justifiable. The police officer needs to be immediately moved out of his "beat", and possibly put at a desk for more than just a month. (Can one recover from killing someone in just a month?)

We need more police officers. I know that sounds scary, hiring more "thugs" to patrol us.

But there is this thought that if there was backup, police officers would feel safer, less likely to pull his weapon unless it was needed.

I am tired of the bureaucracy backing up these deaths with the idea that it was justifiable homicide. Death is not justifiable. The bureaucracy looks after the wallet, and the wallet can be hit seriously if the death isn't justifiable.

What if every death caused by a police officer had to go to court immediately? Would an officer be less likely to beat or kill a person?

   

I think that just standing up and saying Black Lives Matter is Segregating them from the rest of the United States. Wouldn't that be a great way to keep a minority group down?

We need to empower the masses and unite, not segregate.

I was talking this over with my very wise mother. She told me a story about an incident at the VFW.

A table was arguing over something, and someone piped up and said: Ask "Jesus", he's Mexican!

They called out to "Jesus" and he turned around. They asked the question because he was Mexican.

He responded by saying: "I'm not Mexican, I'm American."

That's what we are, Black, White, Rich, Poor, Man, Woman, and Child. We are a country that is united regardless of race, creed, or color.

I think we should change a thought to "All Lives Matter", and move forward.