OKAY. SO I'M DIFFERENT!

Do you ever think about sameness? Is it something we want to be, or is it something we just become? Do you ever get tired of "sameness" Even God seems to fight it, everything and each thing He makes, is divinely unique. Not so with man; ... Manufactured in Detroit or 'made in China' building millions of identical parts and products, that's man.

Sameness? Not just our people boxes ... sterile condos and apartment styles; people, like so many penguins, driving their SUV's and filling the Malls with a colorful variety of sameness. It seems everywhere there is social sameness, cosmetic sameness, entertainment sameness creating a fog of human sterility.

We've created a politically correct society where we've been encouraged to become one of millions of brainless and 'opinion-less' lemmings, content to follow the south end of the lemming in front of us, hoping the lemming he's following is going the right direction.

Unfortunately the bottom of the cliff brings us to an abrupt but short lasting reality.

Whether we become the waddling penguin or committed lemming, we're content to be, well, the same as everyone else.

Different could be dangerous.

Funny, within our sameness we dare to try and be unique in a sort of subtle safe way. I have a Nisson like a million others, but mine is white like thousands of others but WOW!!! ... my seat covers, now they are different! And look at my bumper stickers! My suit may look like anyone else's, but WOW! ... look at my tie, and here, check my socks out! Oh Oh, my teeth are a bit crooked, better get to an orthodontist quick; so I can look like everyone else.

Most of us strive to be comfortably common and content to located somewhere in the middle. I guess that's not wrong, it's ... normal.

While some of us just don't fit the common mold; not that we really try to be different, but that we simply are unique and quite comfortable with being that way. A refreshingly different person!

Is it a talent? Is it a gift? Is it genetic?

Many things could be said about my father Wolo; a puppeteer, artist, book writer, actor, entertainer, "Mr. San Francisco," but most of all he was a totally unique person. All that knew him would agree. He looked different, dressed different, thought different, spoke different even had a different name; yet somehow he fit into the society of sameness, and even more, was loved by society. In part because he was uniquely fresh. Indeed my father was different!

On rare occasions I'll pause to study myself, and I have to come out with the same observation ... the same conclusion; I'm a totally unique person like my father. I don't know why; I don't consciously try to be different, but maybe, just maybe, I'm different because my father was Wolo. The one and only, Wolo

Ref: http://www.woloart.com/

LIFE IN A NO-WIN WORLD!

The good thing is that the gangs in La Cruces and Laguna aren't fighting each other anymore ... the bad thing is that the have aligned themselves in a mutual hatred against the police and authority.

More excitement. More danger. In every barrio Feral teens are running in packs!

These kids are out gunned and under equipped but well compensated by knowing their territory and their hatred of the authorities.

Police; better watch your backs ... and your families. Hate is inclusive.

Maybe that's why the police cruse these areas in five police car convoys with their Christmas lights flashing! Makes quite a sight. Makes quite a target too.

Testosterone vs. testosterone! As the kids will say, "it all comes down to balls."

In Laguna one day I remember sitting in my car watching a bunch of teens messing around in their basketball court when the police arrived ... half the kids headed every direction like rabbits; the other six didn't run, just quietly stood there. The quiet kids just standing there were cuffed and hauled away in a police pick-up truck, interrogated, beaten and then released to walk home.

These undisciplined kids need their beatings and the police need to beat someone ... I guess they deserve each other.

Last night Victor, 17, father of two little girls, was walking home from work when he encountered the police near his neighborhood. They told him to stand still but instead he ran. Bad move ... the police shot him dead! Victor wasn't really a bad kid. He wasn't even wanted ... but he's a dead kid now! He lived in Laguna.

Another Cop snuffed out a young life. Sleep well Sr. Policia.

At the mortuary last night Victor's teen friends from Laguna gathered to kiss the casket. The police soon appeared looking to take all his teen friends to jail and 'interrogate' them. Fortunately Hortensia was there to talk the police out of it.

If you do, or if you don't, if you're one or many, stand or run ... You'll be pulled, interrogated, beaten and released.

Just a way of life for these wandering packs of feral teens.

These wild teens we work with are in every neighborhood with guns, knives or broken bottles ... they're armed and angry.

They hate! Their target ... the police.

Pray for us as we work their world; trying to make peace, and trying to convince them to take another direction. It's hard while anger and hate blind their minds.

But we Believe all things are possible with God!

By the way, somehow they found out the address of the policeman that shot Victor ... this isn't good! Sr. Policeman, watch your back!

HOW I DEFINE THE POOR

Some have been offended and others confused when I use the term 'the deserving poor'. I'm not putting these people down, I'm simply calling it what it is; poverty that's deserved.

Is it true that Spectrum works with the 'deserving poor'? Yes.

Naturally some of Jesus doctrine on giving to the poor would have a Jewish spin on it. I think what our Lord pushed was helping the poor including the 'deserving poor.' Examples: The leper, the blind, the cripple, the orphaned, the widowed ... those who had little or no part in they're plight. These poor were not responsible for their plight. Those I would call the 'un-deserving' of their plight ... the 'un-deserving' poor.

However another perspective surfaces in Matthew 25 where Jesus does address the 'deserving' poor. 'Visiting those in prison.' Grace appears for the sinners ... those of us who are 'deserving' of our plight.

The Believer's love or compassion must never become affected by 'hairsplitting' legality! The Bible gives no list of do's or don'ts when it comes to helping the poor. A legal doctrine as to how, who, when, and where would simply rule out Grace! Of course we must at times make a judgment call, but always with the honest of motives ... always with the bottom line of grace. The grace we received, we return to others.

I personally help both the 'deserving poor' and the 'un-deserving poor' and I try to free myself of a judgmental attitude.

As to what I call the 'deserving' poor; I would define them as those who are like most of the poor Spectrum works with; people who are living out their own consequences. Most of these 'deserving poor' are where they are because they have made bad decisions; many are lazy or addicted to drugs. Thousands captured and content with their poverty-sub-culture and confirmed by the many well meaning American groups giving them food and clothing.

There is no way we can turn our hearts from the innocent children born into this kind of 'subculture.' Indeed they are 'un-deserving poor' learning the lifestyle of poverty.

In Mexico there is a saying "what I don't see doesn't exist." Even as Christians many of us have the same philosophy and we turn our eyes away from the ugly and uncomfortable truth.

The big question for us as true Christians ... does grace discriminate? The answer is simply no. The way I read it; to God we're all poor, wretched, blind sinners awaiting condemnation.

Enter, God's grace.

How I relate to the poor around me says something about my Christian maturity. If I'm eager to discriminate between the 'deserving poor' and 'un-deserving' poor! It sounds a bit like the bigot Lawyer asking Jesus. “ and who is my neighbor?' The motive behind that question was so clear!

Many who love to argue the issue never give a cent to charity anyway.

It's true that as Christians we must make good and responsible decisions when we are faced with helping the poor, but our response must be the result of a clean and godly motive.

I hope to go through life with a godly balance in meeting the needs of all poor, the deserving; the un-deserving alike, and when I err ... may I err on the side of grace.

God, release my grip on the money you give me to do the good it was intended to do.

FUN AND FOOLS

I was very rich once, but walked away a few hours later ... bankrupt! Just as poor as I was when I started the game. This paper dream was fun while it lasted. Monopoly, one of the most popular board games ever invented! Mini capitalism on a board. Big money, buying and selling. Taking advantage of a simple throw of the dice.

Monopoly!

What powers this game is the same thing that powers Capitalism ... greed!

How fun it is to be rich! Filthy rich! Nothing else matters while you're throwing those dice.

Capitalism is a system that works. Capitalism: regulated greed that's open to all ... can't help but be successful; we all are born with what it takes ... greed! The smart energetic person is rewarded ... the dumb and lazy person, well, he loses. It's as simple as that.

The down side of Capitalism, and there is a down side. Capitalism gives us what we need, and that's good, but then Capitalism gives us what we want and that can be bad. What we want is seldom what we need. We want leisure, ease, pleasure, immorality, entertainment; we want what tastes good. We want, and can afford to buy, what makes us weak.

Alas, the better Capitalism works, the more affluent we get, and the more affluent we get, the more decadent we get. Like a pleasurable and slow acting narcotic we succumb to our desires. Weak. Spoiled.

The fatal blow comes when we begin to realize that it was just a card game and paper wealth after all ... and while playing the game we gained nothing and missed everything.

We missed what life was all about.

OUT OF CONTROL

When the family is out of control, the kids are out of control. Order begins in the family. Discipline begins in the family. Authority begins there too ... we were parented! We didn't grow like weeds.

The other day I saw a little boy in the market crying, screaming and throwing a fit! His mother stood there rather embarrassed with that 'what can I do about it' look on her face. Her little brat carried on for quite a while.

Nice mother, lousy parent!

Things like that just didn't happen in my day, or at least not very often. Why? It simply wasn't tolerated! Authority and order prevailed. We were parented!

Adults had authority. Adults were in control ... and it felt good.

My mother may have been thin but she was in control! Yeah, I grew up poor and I'm not ashamed of it; 1929 just wasn't a good year to be born. They say my first bed was a dresser drawer .... a 1929 'make do' basinet. Papers formed one of my blankets. No pampers only washable diapers. And my mother said food was hard to come by.

Looking back, being poor never hurt me, rather quite the opposite, it helped me ... made me resourceful strong and independent. I was the product of a single parent family; no one likes divorce but that's the way it was. I'm so glad I was parented by a stay at home mom that showed both love and authority ... I'm glad I was brought up the old fashioned way.

When I screwed up, and I did, mom got the coat hanger and used it.

Yeah, mom taught old fashioned ethics ... Fear God. Respect adults. Sparing the rod will spoil the child, kids should be seen and not heard. Telling the truth was an essential and keeping my word fell in that category. Do your best in school, you can do no more. Take care of the toys you have. And, oh yes, always say thank you!

Did we go to church? Of course we did! Every Sunday we walked to church with our Bibles in hand. Mom always found some church somewhere that was filled with Believers.

The old TV set we watched in the store window provided us with good, clean entertainment which was an assist in teaching good Ethics. There were good guys and bad guys and the good guys were the heroes. 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Father knows best' weren't icons of ridicule but examples of what should be ... examples that helped teach us ethics.

In those early years we watched TV and listened to Radio which actually helped reinforce the ethics we were learning at home.

As kids if we wanted something, it was understood that we would save our money until we could buy it. Most of us learned to work early. My first job was selling magazines. The Saturday Evening Post magazine.

Early I learned that work was a good and necessary ethic if I was to be a man. It may seem shocking today, but I wanted to be a man.

Sadly, everything I've written above seems to clash with the liberal Californians of today. I scratch my white head and quietly ask ... what happened during this span of time? I find I no longer belong!

MY IDENTITY IS BEING STOLEN!

I was born a free individual but ever so gradually I'm being reduced to a statistic.

I'm confused, not only as to who I am but as to where I am. Am I here or have I been painlessly dissected and placed in a billion computers around the world?

I'm tired of being a statistic, a digit, a stroke, or a vague cyber mark. I feel uncomfortable being the target of studies somewhere. Just one ingredient in a demographic stew ... or worse, a piece of data lost in group marketing.

Is my end only to be pounded into a kind of cyber powder and then fed into a millions of databases throughout the world.

Am I not worth more individually than collectively?

Sadly it seems answer is no.

Like everyone else in this age of disconnect, I hunger to be recognized as an authentic flesh and blood individual with a personal name and of personal value ... actually living here in San Diego with real friends.

I'm not a vague entity content to play out my life vicariously

Looking into my mail box doesn't help much. Letters to me addressed Dear Occupant, Dear Customer, Dear Senior Citizen, or Dear Home Owner. These warm and enduring titles leave me flat.

Or the random mechanical phone calls I get that start with "Are you the head of the household?" If so press one, if not press two.

Who knows me, who knows my name? For that matter who cares?

Oh! But this year the censes is coming and just in time. Cheers! Finally they're looking for real people and I'll be included.

Whoopee!

Well, the censes starts off with me as the star, but as we go farther down the list of questions we painlessly merge into the default mode ... 'marketing!' "Do you have a dishwasher in your home?" "Yes, but she's out shopping!" Again, I find myself being painlessly transformed into data ... living data.

Little by little I'm disappearing by simply being absorbed ... into the world of data!

MY LITTLE CUBE OF FREEDOM KEEPS GETTING SMALLER!

Last month Time magazine wrote that in U.S. Congress last year, 8,696 Bills were introduced! Lots of laws eh? Now let's add the State legislators list of their bills and laws affecting us at a State level, then of course our thousands of thousands of city legislators making more and more laws and ordinances continuing to cut even more of our individual liberty down.

Maybe it's because when I was young each American's area of individual freedom was a cube that was big and wide.

Of course we had simple and common sense laws; laws like no chewing gum in school, or no-fishing or no-swimming gradually a few no-hunting signs appeared.

Now in my later years I can actually see the little cube of freedom my government allows me continuing to shrink. It's so small now that almost anywhere I step I've violated some ordinance!

Have you ever noticed that the smaller our cubes of individual freedom get the larger the prison population gets? Still the legislators keep chopping our freedoms down with new laws.

Be happy and content in the cube of liberty we allow you ... for the good of all!

Living in America used to smell free! I remember awakening each morning breathing American air. I breathed freedom and it was good.

Today's younger generation has adapted quite well to their shrinking cube of freedom ... finding a corner in the their box of liberty they sit contentedly with their 'GameBoy's' living out their vicarious dreams. Another synthetic solution.

Three cheers for the technology that will keep us amused and contented as our shrinking box of freedom grows ever smaller. Does it bother you?

I guess only a few of us are uncomfortable with what's going on.

Not only is my little space of freedom shrinking but my independence is becoming cramped. It seems that my independence is becoming a threat to others. Especially when we are all being groomed to be dependant and politically correct.

I've always been proud of being part of the top of the species line ... 'Homo sapiens' and specifically proud that I was created a man, however being an intelligent man I refuse to lower myself into being one of the politically correct and dependant lemming of today ... playing 'follow the leader' over the cliff! A rather terminal concept. Not for me.

Every year, out of the schools, colleges and universities pour millions of young, politically correct lemmings. Prepared by the professors of academia to be led; well prepared to fit into the lemming parade.

As I see it ... the fate of a lemming is nothing to be proud of!

I wonder what it would be like to smell again the sweet fragrance of Freedom? Boy it's getting tight in this little cube.