My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.
“A family that prays together stays together” or so says the proverb. Supposedly, the idea behind that principle is that the family unit is a faith-based structure, where children are born and raised in a loving environment and taught, among other things, the importance of family, values, and responsibility. Unfortunately, that key element — the religious foundation — that is meant to strengthen the family sometimes turns out to be the very thing that drives families apart. A “house divided against itself shall not stand.” (Matthew 12:25).
What is so divine about an alleged religious organization that promotes policies that encourages devisiveness among family members who are not affiliated with their group and considers only its own teachings to be the truth, while denouncing all other religions as pagan? Is it any wonder that so many people have become disillusioned with and distance themselves from organized religion? To be continued….
About nine years ago, I reunited with my two best girl pals whom I had not seen since high school. We enjoyed our reunion and spent time updating each other on current activities, retirement plans, our Generation X children, and grandchildren. As my friends and I were preparing to depart, I suggested that we exchange email addresses, and was surprised to learn that neither of them had an email address. “I don’t even own a computer,” one of them said. Then the other added, “Neither do I. I don’t have time to bother with that nonsense.” Nonsense? I thought. Um, is she smoking that stuff or just computerphobic?
I am a computer junkie and wanna-be techno geek. I admit it. I like everything about computers, even the daunting challenge of learning new software programs, which sometimes discourages, but does not deter me. And although I understand why some boomers feel intimidated by the machines, I also believe that the refusal to venture outside our comfort zone engenders missed opportunities.
My PC is like an extension of myself, so much so that when it isn’t working properly or — God forbid — it has a virus, I feel ill. A couple of years ago, I discovered that my computer was infected with a Trojan virus, and I became so distraught that by the time my son cleaned the bug off of my PC, I was one megabyte from melt down. I know that I am not alone. There are millions of you out there who feel as I do. Some people consider their vehicle as their first love, for other’s it is their pet. My computer is my baby, and the lyrics of one of my favorite Sam and Dave oldies says it all, “When something is wrong with my baby, something is wrong with me.”
Here we go again in 2010. Another white person falsely accuses a black person of committing a crime against them. How long will this keep happening? When did it all begin?
It certainly didn’t start in 1931, when nine black Scottsboro boys who allegedly gang raped two white girls on a Southern Railroad freight train in Tennessee were convicted in Scottsboro, Alabama. It didn’t start in October 1989, when Charles Stuart of Boston, Massachusetts invented a cock-and-bull story about a black gunman who forced his way into the car in which Stuart was driving with his wife in the passenger seat. Stuart claimed that the car was stopped at a stoplight, when the man climbed inside and ordered them to drive some distant before robbing them. The man then opened fire, allegedly shooting Charles in the stomach and his pregnant wife, Carol, in the head killing her. A couple of months later Stuart further perpetuated his lie by picking a black man named Willie Bennett out of a police lineup and claiming that he was the shooter. It didn’t begin with the act of deceitfulness in 1994, by Susan Smith who drove her car with her two sons into a river in Union, South Carolina then claimed that a black man had taken her car and kidnapped her sons. Here we are now in 2010 and Bethany Storro disfigures her own face with acid, and then concocts a story about a nonexistent black woman who allegedly threw the acid in her face. According to media reports Storro’s story began unraveling when she allegedly pulled out of a scheduled appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” fearful of the questions that she might be asked. If Storro’s fairy-tale wasn’t so tragic it would be laughable. An accusation made against a fictitious black woman is exposed by a reportedly planned meeting with a real, and powerful African American woman.
If any records exist of blacks falsely accusing whites of crimes, they cannot be nearly as numerous as the list of false accusations by whites against blacks. When is this race-based insanity going to end? Not only do trumped-up accusations like these fan the smoldering fires of racial tension, but as history has proven, such blatant lies have caused innocent people to be hunted, prosecuted, convicted, imprisoned and killed.