There is no Systemic Racism in America Today!

I recently received an email from a group of wonderful Catholic Nuns that is definitely anti-racist. It was a nice email, promoting the fact that there is only one race – the human race and it started out with the little picture I have above followed by a song — “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught,” from the 1949 musical “South Pacific.”

I remember the movie “South Pacific,” about ten years after the stage play.  One of my favorites.  I wish there were more musicals being made, but apparently their time has passed. It was indeed a finer time.

I agree 100% with the little picture and the song… Racism is indeed a terrible evil; And, there is no place for it at all in civil society and especially in the United States of America. 

More to the point, I refuse to take part in what is going on and what is being said and bought into by so many including many (too many) in our Catholic Church.  The truth is important – Most Important! Vague generalities serve no purpose. In order to root out evil, one must not only acknowledge that evil exists, we must name it and identify it, if it exists, and, specifically, if it exists in this case.

There is absolutely no systemic racism in the US today. 

No one can identify any organization of any substance that is racist.  Most likely many of us do not even know (personally know) one person  who is racist.

First to define our terms: in all cases, we are talking about racist being based on suppression or oppression or discrimination of blacks or African-Americans (whatever the latter may mean).

The police departments are certainly not racist; every major corporation in the US can be listed as ‘not racist;’ no national public service agency is racist; no state government or state agency is racist; no system of any public service is racist; and I know of no religious group that is racist;  And, I know of no group that is racist (other than the remnants of KKK, if they even exist as a serious group anymore; the Nazis and white supremecists — if they even amount to a group anymore). No police department or any group of police or law enforcement is systemically racist or even has a number of racists. In short, no local, state or national agency is systemically racist and I challenge anyone who says there is to identify it. Say their names!

(side Note: there is one Major Corporation that may be considered Racist based on the number of individual agencies or offices that are located in predominantly Black neighborhoods — Planned Parenthood. I noticed they are not being burned down.)

Furthermore, we have elected twice a US President who is Black, countless Black Congressional Representatives, Senators and local government officials and Sheriffs; In addition, all one has to do is turn on the television; in every show there are both black and white persons; in most every commercial we find Black actors; in most every store you walk in you are met by Black storekeepers or sales personnel, as well as in Restaurants.   Where do you go where there is no Black representation? Say their names!

Now, that does not mean there is no racism… there are certainly individuals and perhaps even some group or groups that is/are racist (oppresses or against blacks) — i.e. white supremecists/Nazis.  But few are police or other first responders; is there a cop who is racist?  Probably, but every event having to do with a white cop and black criminal or citizen isn’t necessarily a racial incident… some may be stupid/ignorant/senseless/mistakes of judgment and even criminal behavior on the part of the cop, but rarely racist, and if there is, it certainly should be dealt with as such.  I doubt you would find more than one or two racist Catholics in any Catholic Diocese.  I doubt you would find more than one or two in any Christian Church or Jewish Synagogue.  I doubt you would find more than one or two in any major size law enforcement department or in any law enforcement department.  If there is, Say their names!

 
So, where are they?   If they are out there, they should be identified.    Ask yourself these questions?

1. Do I know of any large or small organization that is systemically racist?

2. Do I know of any bureaucratic agency of any state or local or federal government that is systemically racist?

3. Do I know of any private organization of size — i.e. corporation, that is systematically racist?

4. How many individuals do I know that are racist?

5. How many of my acquaintances can respond that they know where systemic racism exists? (answer these same questions)

This entire thing is a socialist created enterprise to foment riots and violent protests because the progressive democratic party (read: ‘socialist’) had to organize some plan to defeat the only person who cannot be bought by the entrenched thieves/politicians in DC and around America.   The Socialists have encouraged this to be blown out of proportion to the incident which allegedly started it.  Racism is not the issue, the Socialist/Communist Revolution is the issue and agenda!

Finally, no one ever supported the cop in the George Floyd case. Everyone condemned him from the beginning.  So, why the riots?   The reactionary events are totally out of proportion to the alleged racism of any incident or all incidents combined.  The entire matter is continuing because socialists and others who are seeking to change the fundamental government of the US find it to their advantage, no matter who is hurt. The Communist/Socialist Revolution is the Agenda!

This is substantially my response to the email I received, and I rewrite this with respect and good will, and I welcome any and all substantial evidence that might prove me in error. It is no longer sufficient to just say, ‘there is racism.’ It is time to say, the truth is important here: Say their names!

A few references:

“No, my friends, there is no systemic racism in America. Just systemic marxist elitism — an EVIL that uses, abuses and discards anyone for POWER.”
BURGESS OWENS

“I became a tenured, award-winning professor of political science at an Ivy League university…How did I do it? I worked hard. Not crazy, 24/7 hard. Just hard. I made good decisions. Not brilliant, three-dimensional chess decisions. Just good ones…But mostly, I think I was blessed in one crucial way. I was born in America, a true land of opportunity for anyone of any color or background. In this country, where you start your life does not determine where you end up.”CAROL SWAIN

“America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone’s going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism — or, at least, we used to.” 
LARRY ELDER

“I learned conservatism through my grandfather; I didn’t know that was the name. I didn’t know these were conservative principles. Starting his life on a sharecropping farm. Working tremendously hard. Five years old, picking cotton and laying tobacco out to dry on a farm, and today he now owns that farm.”CANDACE OWENS

Blessings

Be safe.

In Christ,

paul
b. paul pettie 

100 Days of Failure

Second thoughts!

Socialism is not the Answer

Frontpage mag

Bruce Thornton

All Biden had to do was not mess with Trump’s success.

The Biden administration took over the government with the wind at its back thanks to Donald Trump. With the COVID vaccines reining in the pandemic and things getting back to normal, all Biden had to do was not get in the way of success. But a lingering Trump Derangement Syndrome, and a leftwing, noisy base eager to complete Barack Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of the U.S., have led at home and abroad to actions and policies seemingly calculated to compromise our interests and security and erode our political freedom.

We can start with our southern border. Trump’s initiatives such as building a wall, stepping-up deportations, and striking a deal that kept asylum seekers in Mexico had slowed considerably the number of illegal crossings, leading to a reduction in violence from gangsters like MS-13 that flourished in…

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Why Republicans Shouldn’t Cave To Democrats On Guns

Socialism is not the Answer

Image via wallpaper202.blogspot.com

It’s not only to prevent a Democrat landslide in 2020. It’s because Democrats will settle for nothing less than gun confiscation.

The Federalist

Mark Overstreet

It has been said that Republicans are the “party of stupid” and Democrats the party of something worse. In their reaction to Democrats’ demand for gun control several weeks ago, President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared ready to prove the comparison about the GOP.

Soon after the multiple-victim murders in Dayton and El Paso—the former by a Democrat and self-described leftist supporter of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the latter allegedly by someone who, for the sake of the environment, theorized “if we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable”—Trump and McConnell said they were considering two elements of Democrats’ decades-old civilian disarmament agenda: “universal” background checks and a ban on so-called…

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A correct, if unusual, ruling provoked incorrect, if typical, responses

In the Light of the Law

The canon law under which Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson has prohibited Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School from holding itself out as “Catholic” is relatively straight-forward. More interesting, if wholly predictable, were the Jesuits’ attempt to redefine the dispute and CNN’s choice simply to lie about it.

Long story made short, BJPS has in its employ a teacher who entered a civil ‘same-sex marriage’ about two years ago. That teacher’s contract expired recently and the archdiocese requested that BJPS not offer him a new one. The Jesuits refused this request, which refusal triggered a broader discussion about whether BJPS wished to retain its identity as a Catholic school at all and, if so, whether it would take the administrative steps deemed necessary by Thompson to help assure the integrity of the Catholic witness offered by it faculty. Upon the Jesuits’ refusal to bring their personnel policies into line with archdiocesan expectations for…

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Why Climate Change Isn’t Science

via Why Climate Change Isn’t Science

Freedom to Choose

_{Freedom to Choose — A Gift of God}

_{The story of the fall of Adam and Eve, and the story about the tempting of Jesus are two interesting and contrasting stories. Most of all, they are stories about making choices.}

_{For Adam and Eve, God gave them the Freedom to Choose. He gave them the opportunity to do the “right thing” – the right to be moral in their actions. They had the opportunity to live by choice, to live consciously, unlike animals who live by instinct. They could say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to God, and, as we know, they abused that freedom. In choosing evil, they, and we, abuse the freedom with which we are gifted, for the essence of the gift is essentially the freedom to choose what is right.}

_{Jesus was also faced with the decision to choose evil over good. It was not easy for he too had to struggle to do the will of God. He was divine, true,  but he was also very human.}

_{Every day we are faced with decisions — choices to do good or to do evil, to choose God or not. We have within us a certain self-centered attitude of “I know what is good for me;” or relativistic attitude of ‘what is true for you isn’t true for me.’ This is shortsighted behavior that leads to self-destruction.}

_{Jesus won in the desert, but that battle is not over. Everyday we have to make the same decisions over and over…the good news is that the more we make the ‘right’ decision, the easier it is to continue to do the same. The real punishment for choosing evil is that it is also easier the second and third time to choose evil and this becomes self-destructive behavior.}

 _{The winning is in the fact that not choosing evil does not bring us to the original innocence of Adam and Eve, but helps us to rise above sin and temptation; we become virtuous, unwilling to commit sin.   Jesus’ way!}

                                                                                                                                                                                       _{~ Deacon Paul}

The New Trump Cards!

And, no!  I am not speaking about the President of the United States.

If you know anything about card games, you have heard of playing the ‘trump card.’ The trump card always wins; whatever anyone plays in the current hand of cards is lost to whomever plays a ‘trump’ card.  Trump is always the winner of the hand; nothing beats it (save a higher trump card). When trump is played, the hand is won and done.

So what are the trump cards being played today and by whom.  Well the three big trump cards today are —

— You are a Racist;

— That is not politically correct;

— That is offensive.

Without regard to left or right of center politics, these three labels are used to attack the freedom of thought and of speech of any person who mentions any of the sacred cows in a conversation.

If you think and comment that a specific person, who happens to be black, is not doing a good job as a politician, you are stopped with the label ‘ you are a racist.’

If you have an opinion on a number of current issues contrary to whatever the prevailing thought might be, you are not ‘politically correct’ and should not voice those opinions. This might be combined with other trump cards such as Homophobe or Islamophobe.

If you speak out against any specific persons or comment on issues which happen to be related to some specific religious extraction, even though your comment has nothing to do with that specific religion (not unlike the Racist matter), then you are ‘offensive.’  It is as though not being offended is a constitutional right.

Now, getting to the basics of argumentation:  There used to be a general rule of fair and logical argumentation that ‘ad hominem’ comments — i.e. comments (name calling) against the person of a debater/arguer, were strictly out of bounds.  It is even said that once a person is reduced in his side of the argument to ad hominem arguments, since apparently he has nothing more to say on the issue at hand, he has lost the debate.

The use of the, now in vogue, trump cards are, to say the least, ad hominem arguments or attacks, which have no place in legitimate discussion.   At worst, and this is how they should be treated, they are the final bastion of the bully.

Using the trump cards is meant solely to cut off the speaker using his or her fear of being labeled as either a racist, offensive or politically incorrect.  It cuts off legitimate debate. It appeals to the masses as a winning strategy when the conclusion of legitimate debate would otherwise serve to inform and teach important points of politics, life or education. Its intended effect is to shut down fair comment; to keep the one who should be heard from being heard.   Bullies seem to win quite a bit in society today.

These bullying tactics should be rejected by society as just what they are — attacks by persons who have nothing of intellectual standing to support their own positions and which happen to be, also, emotionally and intellectually deficient and ignorant of the full or true facts of any situation.

These bullying tactics should be summarily rejected as irrelevant, but they should be rejected in some way to send the message that such tactics are no longer acceptable.

And, quite frankly, they should be met by the counter, ‘your attack on my person is not only truly offensive, but irrelevant to this discussion.’ Another response might be, “well I see you have nothing more to add to your side of this discussion. I win.”

What, Me Worry?

Most of us remember the iconic picture of Alfred E. Neuman on the cover of Mad Magazine with these words  – “What, me worry?”

Worry is something that affects us all.  It is part and parcel of our daily lives. Worry is usually something we choose to do; In spite of what we may think, it is not caused by external circumstances only, but also by internal disposition.  Most often we are most anxious about those things that might happen rather than those that have happened to us. Usually, when it is all over, we realize we made ‘much ado about nothing.’

Even though it is impossible to live a life beyond all fear and anxiety, a human frailty, it is possible to reduce the power of worry over us.   Jesus, as always, gives us the answer.

Jesus tells us to concentrate on what is essential (our salvation); He tells us to focus on doing the will of God.  When we trust in God and desire to please him worry is banished. When thoughts of God and what is eternally important in our lives prevails, there is little to no room for worry.

Worry is essentially distrust in God. Difficult though it may be for us to live worry-free lives, we should work towards handling just the present day’s problems as they come, and not look for tomorrow’s troubles that may never occur.

The Bishop’s Appeal motto this year calls us to ‘Trust in the Lord.’  This is where we should focus our minds and hearts if we are to be good stewards of all that God has given us — whether we have time to give; talent to share or a little bit of treasure to spare, if we focus on God, we will know what to do.

The only way to get rid of worry in our lives, or at least most of it, or to lessen it, is to focus on God and do what we can.

St. Augustine said, “Entrust the past to God’s mercy, the present to his love, and the future to his providence. “   Truly, everything else is the ‘small stuff.’

~ Deacon Paul

What of Our Salvation?

“Be Perfect, therefore, just as your Heavenly Father is Perfect”

I am confident that at one time or another in each of our lives we have had a ‘situation’ that totally consumes our every thought. Something that is so worrisome that throughout the entire day – whether at work or play, with others or alone or even at a party or joyful gathering, our thoughts are on the problem or situation. We are preoccupied with it. Usually only to find out that it was not all that much to worry about when it is over.

Well, what about a more important ‘situation.’ Our Salvation! Do we ponder this every moment of every day, wondering whether our salvation is secure. Is this our first thought in the morning or last thought at night? Are our minds more tied up with vague, idle, earthly or worldly thoughts? We must judge for ourselves if we really have the business of our salvation more than any other at heart and what there is for us to hope or to fear in eternity.

What matter; what affair; what event is more important than our salvation? And, why is it, that this most important of matters is given little to no regard in our lives?   We do not sufficiently appreciate the importance of salvation.   We tend to live a false security of believing that there is still time. Someday, there simply will not be any ‘time to prepare.’ Jesus warns us many times in the Gospel [fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you!].

This is the point that Jesus makes at the very end of the Gospel Message today. We are called to perfection. No doubt we cannot attain that lofty goal, but Jesus’ point is that we must try – do our best.   The proverbs tell us to ‘be in fear of the Lord all the day long, because thou shall have hope in the end.” St. Aloysius tells us to be guided by this: “What is this [event, situation, worry] to Eternity?”  — i.e. What is more important than Eternity?

~ Deacon Paul

What of the Law?

You have heard the law… but I say to you!

You and I are subject to the law and Jesus himself was subject to the law, both human and divine.  As Jesus grew up he obeyed Joseph and Mary. He obeyed the law of the land (Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s).  And, of course, he obeyed the law of God.

In today’s Gospel if we look deep enough, it is Jesus’ attitude about the law that is important to him… and to us!

He found no fault with the law. His problem was the way it was interpreted and applied by the leaders of the day.  For them  it was the letter of the law that was important. Follow that and you were okay.  But for Jesus it was the Spirit of the law that was important.  What was important was not how many commandments we follow or obey, but the spirit in which we obey them.

The Pharisees, both of the time, and the Pharisees of this time, look only to the outward sign. God looks at the heart.  So Jesus tells us to look not just at our actions, but at our thoughts and desires, even though they may never lead to actions.

When we look at the commandments as only addressing acts and actions, such an interpretation leads to minimalism… doing enough just to get by…doing the bare minimum.  But Jesus says they must be interpreted in a positive way; One example: thou shalt not kill.  But he said, interpret this in a positive way.  You must love your neighbor. Another example: thou shalt not steal; And he said you must share your goods with your neighbor when he is in need.  Thus also giving rise to our need to be good stewards of all that is given us… God’s gifts!

~ Deacon Paul