It's Not That Simple, Stupid!

"It's the economy, stupid!" is what James Carville said in a meeting to then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's presidential campaign staff during the 1992 Presidential campaign.  That phrase has had a lasting legacy in political lore because it perfectly captured the mood of the American electorate during that campaign cycle where the United States was in a recession and 64% of Americans disapproved of President Bush's job performance.   It was the perfect phrase for the perfect time.   I would like to flatter Carville through imitation by offering a slightly different version of his message to my fellow Americans during this presidential campaign; It's not that simple, stupid! 

While watching the debate Monday night between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, it hit me why Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls.   To put it bluntly, he's simple.   He's a simple man.  He likes beautiful women, big buildings, and lots of money.   He lies constantly because some people believe him.   He routinely insults large groups of people in generalities.   He says Mexico is sending rapists to America although he supposes some of them are good people.   He says African Americans can't walk down the streets in their neighborhoods without being shot.   He calls women fat and ugly.   He talks about Marco Rubio being Little Marco.   He calls Elizabeth Warren Pocohantas.   He calls Ted Cruz Lyin Ted.  He calls Jebb Bush Low Energy Jeb.     He says no one will vote for Carly Fiorina because nobody wants to look at her face.   If I told you all of these things had come from a first grader you would not be surprised because we expect first graders to be simple.   But this came from one of the two major candidates for the Presidency of the United States.   And current polls show that half the electorate plans on voting for this very simple man.   The reason, half of America has become very simple. 

His solutions for Americans are also simple.   To stop the Mexican rapists from coming over he would simply build a wall.  To stop terrorists from entering the country he would simply ban Muslims from coming into the country.  To stop the press from reporting unflattering stories about him he would simply strengthen our libel laws.   To get the economy back on track he would simply negotiate better trade deals.  If NATO countries weren't current on their payments he would simply not defend them if attacked.  If an Iranian battleship taunted one of our Navy vessels at sea he would simply drop a bomb on them.  To defeat Isis he would simply wipe them off the face of the map.   To stop crime he would simply reinstitute stop and frisk even though the courts have already ruled it unconstitutional (of course then he said he would only do it in Chicago).   The solutions are so simple and according to Donald of the 320 million people in this country,  he is the only one that can save us because everyone else is so incompetent.    It's that simple.  (I'm not kidding he actually said that.  See the video)

But here's the problem for Donald, and for all of the rest of those who think that the solutions to this nation's problems are simple, it's not that simple, Stupid!  If it were that simple the problems would have been solved already.   I'm going to tell you guys something about Washington D.C. and the people who actually run your government day to day that you might now know.  They are literally the smartest people in the country.   Now I'm not talking about the elected officials.   We can all see that some of them aren't that bright.   I"m talking about the staffers, the lobbyists and the career bureaucrats, the people that actually do the work in DC.  That kid that was valedictorian of your high school class?   There are 200 kids smarter than that kid that will get turned down for White House Fellowships this year.   Chances are there are 3 people who work on your United States Senator's staff that are smarter than that kid.   There are probably 20 people who lobby for the NRA or Goldman Sachs or the Motion Picture Association of America smarter than that kid.   One of the reasons I love Washington DC so much is that there are so many incredibly smart people walking around that town every day.   I thrive on talking to smart people.  Washington DC is to me what I imagine the Miss Universe pageant is to Trump.  

And that's not even to mention the Presidential cabinet level appointees who actually run the agencies.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch has a degree in English and American Literature from Harvard and a degree from Harvard Law School.  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School.  Secretary of the interior Sally Jewell has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Washington. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak has a degree from Hamilton College in New York and a law degree from Albany Law School.  Julian Castro, the HUD Secretary, has a degree from Stanford and a law degree from Harvard.  The President has degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law School.  The First Lady has degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law School.   All of these highly educated people from the very best institutions of higher learning in the country are working full time on solving this nation's problems, but Bubba from Omaha who is in his second year at Omaha Junior college taking night classes has the solutions.   Because it's simple.  

My point is this.  Nothing simple gets to the President's desk.  Anything simple is handled well before then.   Again, the President of the United States has at his disposal the very smartest people in the country working on all of these issues that we fight on Facebook about every day.   That's all they are focusing on.    And when they come up with proposed solutions they have to forge consensus with other people who are also the very smartest people in the country.     And then they listen to lobbyists who are some of the very smartest people in the country.  And then they have to get those ideas through to Congressional staffers who are some of the very smartest people in the country.   And then it goes to those Cabinet level departments, and eventually may get to the desk of a Cabinet Secretary.  And if all of those very smart people can't come to a consensus, it might end up on the President's desk for an executive decision.   So you take something that a lot of folks think is very simple like the Keystone Pipeline.    All of those very smart people have been working on this for years and still have not come to a consensus.   What are the odds that Bubba from Omaha is going to figure it out when has not yet figured out his remedial math classes that don't give him any college credit.   If it were simple it would be fixed already.  Donald's evidently to simple, or to stupid, to know that.  

Is the Church Failing Us??

"It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning?" - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I went to church this morning.  Although I still consider myself a Christian, this isn't a regular occurrence any more.  But my wife is out of town and this morning I went to church with my daughters.  Although I stopped believing in literal interpretations of the Bible years ago it is still the book that is the foundation of my belief system.   Even though I"m in the midst of a personal spiritual journey, the words of Jesus Christ have been my moral compass for my entire life.  Those teachings have served me well, and my wife and I try to impart those teachings to our children.    

 I also went to church this morning because I felt that I needed something to help me deal with the mounting anger and frustration I've experienced this week in the wake of two more police killings of black men that by all appearances were unwarranted.   Two more people that look like me who are no longer alive primarily because they looked like me.  Two more families who will have to survive the loss of a loved one unexpectedly for no reason at all.   President Abraham Lincoln once said, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day."  That's part of the reason I went to church this morning, the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.   

 The church I attend is one of the contemporary, non denominational churches that have become so popular in America.  That's an actual picture of the sanctuary above.  An accurate description of one of the services would be Amateur Night at the Apollo with a sermon at the end.  Today's service was pretty typical.  The sanctuary reminds you of a modern Broadway Theatre.   There is awesome lighting and the optics and sound of the production from the stage is phenomenal.   Service started with a few contemporary gospel selections from a Praise and Worship Team right out of VH1 central casting.   The music, vocal performances, and stage presence were outstanding, as good as you will see in nearly any professional theatre production.   The words to the songs and a live stream of the stage were displayed on the three gigantic plasma screens surrounding the stage and the crowd was really into it, signing along and really into the music.  As I stood and tried to follow the words to the song one thought kept popping into my mind.  How can all of these people be so happy?  Do they not know what happened this week?  Am I missing something? 

 A little more background about my church.  When I first started attending the church we met in a small hotel meeting room, and the church had about 60 members.  Today we meet in the sanctuary above, which seats 2500 people.  There is no mortgage on the building, the final $1.2 million payment was made last year.  There are multiple services.  The church does wonderful work.  There is a phenomenal children's ministry.  They do mission trips to spread the gospel.   One of the things I love most about the church is everything is done in decency and order.   Every volunteer worker you encounter is friendly and professional.   The motto is "a place where no one walks alone", and I know from experience that they work hard to make the slogan a reality.   

 The church congregation is overwhelmingly black.  There is probably 10 to 15 percent non black membership, but it's a "black church".   The church is located in Collin County in Texas.  The median household  income in our area is over $90k per year.  I think that black people make up about 7% of the population.   One running joke I like to tell half in jest is there is one black family on every street in Collin County, and they all go to our church.   Even though the church is overwhelmingly black, it's message is race neutral.   As the minister said in the sermon today, we consider ourselves "Christians first".  A white female was the first person to appear on stage to address the crowd this morning, and the sermon was delivered by the Director of Family Ministries who is also a white male.   The church really does practice what it preaches. 

 So back to my dilemma this morning.  I think every day about the number of black men that have been murdered by policemen on camera, and the fact that the murderers often face no legal consequences.   The main tenet of the Christian faith is that God is in complete control, and nothing happens unless God allows it to happen.   So I'm wondering in church this morning how can all these black people be so happy worshipping a God who continues to allow our people to be murdered, and who continues to allow their murderers to go unpunished?   Am I the only one in this sanctuary filled with black people that wants to know why God is allowing this to continue to happen?   Am I not a good Christian because I have that question?  How can we have an entire church service this week when we've had two high profile killings of black men caught on camera and have only a couple of passing references to "systemic racism"?  Am I the only one wanting to hear something that gives me hope that I won't be the next black man lying dead in the street because a police officer thought I "looked like a bad dude'?  I'm listening intently to today's sermon on being a "Christian first", and I'm wondering how this helps me when a cop pulls me over.   

 The minister today said that God allows those in positions of authority to be in those positions and we should respect that fact.  So by that rationale God allowed Betty Shelby to be in the position where she could end Terrence Crutcher's life on that highway in Tulsa last week.   Am I the only one that has a problem with that?  This is a recurring theme at our church, that God allows those in authority to be in authority and we should respect them until God replaces them.   So does this mean Rosa Parks was wrong for not giving up her seat on that bus?   Was Harriet Tubman wrong for leading slaves to freedom?   Were those students in the South wrong for sitting at those lunch counters in Woolworth's when it was against the law to do so?   Was John Lewis wrong on that bridge in Selma? Being that the church has always been so fundamental to the black community in America, how does this teaching impact our existence in this country. 

 There is a theory that Christianity was forced onto slaves in this country to make them more amenable to being slaves.   The belief being that being a slave was God's choice for them and that their role as good Christians was to find a way to be content in their circumstances and await their reward in the afterlife when they get to heaven.  Again, when you accept the main tenet that God is wholly omnipotent and in complete control it makes it easy to accept this "life that was chosen for you" belief.   And that's what bothers me about my church experience this morning.   I went there looking for something to bring some level of understanding to why black men keep getting killed in the street by police officers.  If not understanding at least some sense of comfort that I could take into next week.  What I got was that these killings are somehow a part of God's ultimate plan, and my job if I'm pulled over by a police officer is to be a "Christian first".   I'm just wondering how Terrence Crutcher would have communicated that to Betty Shelby.  The Tulsa cop in the helicopter didn't say "that looks like a Christian".  He said "that looks like a bad dude".  So how do I as a "Christian first" deal with a police officer who may not recognize what that looks like? 

 The civil rights movement in this country was led by the black church.  Ministers were and in many cases still are some of the most revered figures in the black community.    Black churches are historically among the most successful organizations in the black community.   The black church of the 60s by and large encouraged their congregations to be a part of the movement.  They allowed civil rights groups to hold meetings in their buildings.  They organized marches.   They formed informal operations networks that fed, housed, and helped protect leaders of the movement when they came through their towns.   And this was before cable television, the internet, and social media.   Without the black church, there is no Montgomery bus boycott.    There are no lunch counter sit ins.   There is no March on Washington.   There is no voting rights act.    The black church was instrumental in all of these gains that changed life in this country as we know it.   

 So what about the black church today?  What other black organization has built multi million dollar buildings completely from member donations?  I find it interesting that the black church is one of the few institutions that black people have never really tried to integrate.  Some estimates show that black churches have collected more than $420 billion dollars since 1980.   Rev. Creflo Dollar's World Changers Ministries reported $69 million in revenue in 2006 according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.   These are non profit organizations whose product, Jesus, is free to everyone according to my understanding of the Bible.   I'm wondering if the black church today, especially the black mega church, has become too much about entertainment and net worth than about helping to improve the lives of its community.   Dr. King talked about the disappointment of the black community with Christian churches in his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community.  He wrote "it is disappointment with some Negro clergymen who are more concerned about the size of the wheel base on their automobiles than about the quality of their service to the Negro community."  This is the disappointment I"m feeling today.   Substitute "size of their plasma screens" or "size of their private jets" or "size of their campus and main sanctuary" or "size of their television audience" for "size of the wheel base of their automobiles" and I am feeling that disappointment.   I don't know what the solution to the problem of the police killing black people with no consequence is, but I do know that in America if you have $420 billion you can find a way to solve almost any problem.  

 I talk about the black church because that's my community but this isn't to say I don't have the same questions about Christian churches with majority non black memberships.   White Christian churches also played an enormous role in the civil rights movement.   They were often in solidarity with the black churches.   Like the black churches, they offered their buildings for meetings and encouraged their members to support the movement.  They participated in marches and lunch counter sit ins and they participated in those informal networks that were so important to the movement.   In talking about the disappointment of the black community in Where Do We Go From Here Dr. King also said "it is disappointment with the Christian church that appears to be more white than Christian, and with white clergymen who prefer to remain silent behind the security of stained-glass windows".   The Dallas area is very conservative, there are churches on every corner.   I wonder how many white churches today even mentioned the killings of the two black men by police this week?    If white Christians don't hear their religious leaders talking about these incidents, that may explain why so many white Christians are comfortable being silent on the issue.  Or worse, they feel comfortable trying to find ways to justify the killings.   They certainly aren't silent when someone kills an animal.   Any sensational animal killing is sure to flood my Facebook timeline with remorse and regret about the inherent value of "all of God's creatures".    Yet these same Christians have not had one comment about Terrence Crutcher being executed on camera by Betty Shelby.  What are they teaching in these churches on Sunday mornings.   

 I am a Christian.  I've tried my best to live my entire life based on the teachings of Jesus.   My Christian faith has carried me through some very difficult times in my life.   This for me is one of those times.   Words can't describe the level of frustration and rage that are running through me right now, or the fear that I might be the next hashtag.   Or worse, that one of my kids might be the next hashtag.   Hardly a day goes by where I don't see a police officer.   It's hard for me in those moments to think of myself as a "Christian first".   I know that if I have an encounter with this police officer for whatever reason, I could end up dead and the officer would probably walk away unpunished.  I know the first thing they will print is that I was 6'4 and 250 lbs.  I know that reporters would dig through my past and print every unflattering thing they could find about me and not do the same for the policeman.   I know they will find the most unflattering pictures of me.  I know they will go through my Facebook posts and paint me as an angry black man who hated police officers.  I know they will write about the time I got suspended from elementary school for participating in a childhood prank.   I know they will talk about the time the police arrested me in college for stealing a car.   I know they won't mention that the car was actually mine and the charges were dropped.  I know that at least one conservative website will find another Tyrone Wilson who has done a lot worse stuff than me and report that it was me, and I know that article will get 15 thousand likes on Facebook.   

 This knowledge eats a little at my soul every day, but I am a Christian.   So I went to church today seeking solace, seeking refuge, seeking something that would help me to better deal with the feelings that this knowledge arises in me every day.   Karl Marx once said "religion is the opium of the people."  I went to church today looking for that opium.  I don't think I'll be going back next week.  

The Election We Deserve

It's been a while since I've written in this blog because, frankly, the choices in this election disgust me.  I keep saying to myself that America is better than this, we should have better choices to hold the highest elected office in the country.   Then I'm reminded of something my parents always told me; you get what you deserve in life.  What they meant was if you are an adult, whatever your present situation or status is, it's a result of choices that you have made over the course of your life.  That's when it hit me, this is the election that we Americans deserve.

American society is as polarized as I can remember in my lifetime, and this election is a direct reflection of that polarization.  You see it everywhere.   The opening weekend of this NFL season had the same fans who were calling San Francisco 49ers quarterback Collin Kaepernick unpatriotic for peacefully protesting by kneeling during the national anthem booing President Obama while he was making a statement remembering the 9/11 attacks.   I'm sure those people see no contradictions in those actions because to them the national anthem and the flag represent America but President Barrack Hussein Obama does not.  They see no irony in that position.  This is where we are as a country.   

Thanks to the internet and social media, we now live in a country where we can have access to only the news that reinforces our predetermined positions.   Ever since Rush Limbaugh proved in the 90's that there was money to be made in media outlets dividing Americans, more and more entrepreneurs have been creating new ways to divide us.   Of course there was a liberal bias in the media prior to the advent of Fox News, but it was nowhere near the extent that conservatives claimed.  And the fact is most reporters before the advent of Fox attempted to be objective reporters of the facts.  But Roger Ailes and Fox News proved that there was money to be made in completely biased reporting, and the rest of cable news quickly followed.   And now we are at a point where you can get completely partisan news on television or the internet all day long.   You can watch Fox if you're conservative or MSNBC if you're liberal and never have to really get an opposing point of view.   You can subscribe to Brietbart or the Drudge report on the internet and have conservative propaganda delivered to your email box every day, or you can subscribe to Raw Story or The Huffington Post and get liberal propaganda delivered to your email box all day.  This is where we are is a country.  

There have been a series of incidents captured on video where police have killed unarmed black people who were stopped for minor incidents and walked away with no legal consequences.  At the same time, we saw white criminals like Dylan Roof taken alive after killing nine people in a South Carolina church.  Not only was he taken alive, but the police actually made a stop at Burger King to get him some food because he was hungry.   These incidents lead to the formation of the #blacklives matter movement.  This is literally a movement that was simply asking police to stop killing black people.  Many on the right immediately came back with an #alllivesmatter movement, which evidently missed the point that every one of these high profile incidents involved a black victim.  Some United States Congressmen on the right even labeled #blacklivesmatter a terrorist group as did FOX News number one host Bill O'Reilly who vowed to have them disbanded.  This is where we are as a country.

There is big money to be made in dividing Americans, so we are divided daily.   We are divided based on race.  We are divided based on income.   We are divided based on geography.  We are divided based on religion.  We are divided based on sexual preference.  We are divided based on education.   The media loves the divisive stories because when they touch one of these hot button topics they ignite our passions, our fears, and we watch more intently.  What better way to get the Latino community to pay attention than to keep playing clips of Donald Trump saying that Mexicans are rapists?   What better way to get poor people to pay attention than to keep saying that Hillary Clinton won't release her Wall Street transcripts?  What better way to get African Americans fired up than to keep playing clips of Donald Trump saying we can't walk in our neighborhoods without being shot?  What better way to stir up resentment in white Americans than to keep playing clips of Hillary calling half of Trump supporters deplorables?  The media keeps putting the most incendiary stuff out there, and we keep eating it up.   This is where we are as a country.

And finally there is the internet and social media.   I will be the first to extol the virtues of social media, but there is also a dark side.  That dark side allows many of us to express our ugliest and most revolting thoughts behind the safety of a keyboard and computer screen only to those we deem most likely to be receptive to those thoughts.   Worse yet a lot of the websites that post news stories let us post things anonymously.  If you go and read the comments section under any article that deals with anything remotely controversial (and even some things that don't appear to be controversial at all, like the President's daughter's admission to Harvard) you will find some of the most vile and disgusting things you will ever hear coming from a human being directed at another.   This is the real America.  This is who we are as a country.

Which brings me to this election.   Of the 321 million people in this country, we are left to choose from two millionaires from New York to be President.  One is a reality TV show star who is a prototypical con man.   He refuses to release his tax returns.  He lies so shamelessly and constantly that reporters don't even try to get the truth out of him anymore.  He's insulted Latinos, African Americans, muslims, women, and veterans on the campaign trail.  He mocked a handicapped reporter at one of his rallies.  He repeatedly retweets white supremacists on Twitter.  He has talked on numerous occasions about how he would like to date his daughter.   The other candidate has been in public life for nearly 30 years and has been involved in scandals for nearly the entire time.  From her great commodities trading results in Arkansas to Whitewater to Vince Foster's suicide to the emails and the Clinton Foundation.   Her supporters will say none of those scandals ever resulted in anything, but the fact is there is a trail of people who have been charged and convicted or plead guilty in many of those scandals, and every poll shows that people just don't trust her.   But the Republican primary voters rebuked their party leaders and gave us Donald Trump as their candidate.   And the Democratic establishment made sure that no one was going to beat Hillary Clinton to be their candidate.   This is where we are as a country.

The Bible says you reap what you sow.  My personal hero Malcolm X once talked about chickens coming home to roost.   America was on the right trajectory coming out of the civil rights movement. The progress was slow and painful but it was evident.   We were moving towards being more inclusive, more diverse, more tolerant of people who did not look like us or who worshipped differently from us.   Somewhere along the line we turned backwards.   I'm not sure it began with Rush Limbaugh, but I do think Rush was the first to figure out how to make money by pitting us against each other.   This being America, it didn't take other entrepreneurs long to catch on and copycat.   For the last 25 years in this country these entrepreneurs have been dividing us, and we fell for it.   Instead of continuing to embrace the differences that made this country great we retreated to our tribes and developed this "us versus them" mentality.   Most of us can easily get through the week without once having a meaningful conversation about an important topic with someone who has a different point of view than we do.    That is why we are left with these two deeply flawed candidates.   I love this country as much as anyone.   That's why this election is so disappointing.

As my parents always told me, you get what you deserve in life.  This is where we are as a country.  This is the election we deserve.