N*****s and white trash

When I first came to Terre Haute, Indiana, back in January 2010, an associate at the Lighthouse Mission, a transport from the East himself, told me that what I would find in Terre Haute was (and I quote) “ N*****s and white trash”. Now I was offended by his statement at the time, and I certainly think his statement was an overstatement and only reflected a very limited perception, but having lived in the area, and leaving and returning, I cannot help but consider there is some justification for such a perceivable bigoted statement. I am not saying that there is a blanket generalized truth expressed in his statement, but depending on one’s status and living situation the quality of persons having to be related to may be of a lower nature or character than desirable. To state it plainly, though the “N” word (to my own estimation) has nothing to do with race or such discriminatory factors, it does hold significance as to the quality of lack of character (moral and ethical) of persons, of European, Asian or African descent. This is a situation I have found to exist in the South as well as the North, or on the streets among the homeless or amid the more privileged. The one seeming constant would appear to be the prevalence of a lesser state of “class” exhibited by those content in their lack of education and knowledge, and satisfied to remain in a stifled state of learning and understanding. This condition transcends economic and other cultural standards, and is thus not limited by apparent elevated states, it is truly egalitarian, though subject to one’s own desire and effort to overcome one’s current condition.

There was a time, before experiencing life in a lesser economic situation, I would not have recognized the necessity for taking measures to ensure the protection of my person and property. But, as a matter of being plunged into living below standards once enjoyed and making associations with persons of lesser ethical/moral character, and witnessing acts, both express and covert against innocent parties, as well as amongst themselves, means of self-defense and protection have become of greater importance, as legal police protection is in no way sufficient to monitor potential violators and provide security.

As one is able to live in a situation which distances themselves from these lower levels of life and ignorance the effects of reduced experience do seem to diminish, but that is no guarantee of never suffering the disturbance of negative intrusions into one’s life. Being the more materially compensated would seem to make one a target of those less fortunate and of diminished morals, but the up side is that regular police patrols and the obvious out-of-place nature of potential criminal elements draws attention, thus affording greater security, adding to the criminals difficulty. Yet in more depressed areas, where want and ignorance pervade and prosper, and life seemingly offering no escape to experience reality beyond present deprivation, a breeding ground for muggers and thieves and virtually every kind of drug and alcoholic escape exists, all compounding the other.

I cannot contend that there is any one, or multiple, answer to these realities. I can only attest, they exist. And, regardless of the “whys” for their existence, persons forced into life situations placing them in close proximity to be affected have little or no choice but to consider and implement whatever means of self-protection may be necessary to secure their own life situations. I realize that this necessity affords a certain opportunity for abuse and misapplication of the defensive measures, but as things do exist as they are that would seem to be the cost and risk of living in a less than perfect world. A world where disrespect for others and the right of others has little (or NO) meaning to violating parties.

I am not one to think increased police protection is the answer, not unless the community as a whole is willing to sacrifice (on a progressively increasing scale) substantial liberties we have come to accept and understand as “self-evident” and “inalienable”. I do not relish the idea of living in a “police state”. Neither do I like the idea of having to live in fear of my home being invaded and/or my person nor the one’s I love being violated, or even killed. So, as a matter of the way things are (things I cannot immediately affect), I accept my right and responsibility to secure myself and those dependent upon my protection, Whatever means that may entail as I recognize the threat.

 

 

lopsided perception

I know, and have known, of very few who are interested in the truth or another’s concept of the truth. Most, and this is a very large ‘most’, are only interested in hearing or reading what to one degree or another already agrees with or substantiates what they have already come to ‘know’ as the ‘truth’. There may be some reason to their own conceptions, but they on their own DO NOT establish what an accurate model of what true reality is. At most they present a limited, more often than not lopsided perception, which may work within a limited context, but are not universal and enduring. As long as the limited context is the extent of one’s experience they seem fine, but growing beyond arbitrary limits renders ‘lop-sided perceptions’ invalid and an inhibitor to greater experience understanding deeper truth and reality.

 There are points in the exercise of ones thinking process’ where and when a conscious decision is made to entertain some idea(s) which do not fit within the box of one’s own mental construction. A choice to expand the categories of thought and potential knowledge of reality. To many this is not a desirable proposition. It often means complete reassessment of what has been accepted as the normal bases of reality. Such reassessment could throw one’s whole life into a perceived shambles, disrupting the usual flow of life and affecting relationships well into the future. But to resist such reexamination when one actually “knows” (not believes, but ‘knows’) of reality existing beyond accepted limits renders a psychotic state, with destructive potentials to not only the one ‘knowing’ but other’s as well. The pressure of one’s peers, family and friends, so uninitiated into this newer, broader expanded understanding, becomes a retardant to the natural, and some may understand, divinely commenced evolution of human consciousness.

Thinking is work. That is a ‘dirty word’ to many, maybe most. But as I define work, I am not describing the laborious meaningless toil of the modern workers experience, but the creative investigation and search for knowledge hitherto unknown. A state of living to learn, to realize more than what is one’s present experience. The general accepted understanding of life seems to be to learn by means of forms of higher education in one’s early years and then settle into professions and occupations growing out of this education, and experience ongoing learning as one’s work experience requires. That is good, but only to a limited extent. The experience of life is more than the limits we as a culture impose, as it were, to fit within the cogs and wheels of industry and society. We have limited what is the human potential by limiting what is the proper and natural use of the minds we are. We are physical beings, but more than that, we are mental, thinking beings … some would say spiritual, and this I do not argue against, but whether purely mental or spiritual (I actually regard them as the same) we as the human race have forgotten and made a preference to focus on the physical, if not totally – nearly in total neglect of what is our greater human reality. To think is to be human, and thinking is the more than what it means to sustain our physical being.