Star Trek: Discovery

   I just got finished binge watching Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery. Even the music at the beginning and ending of the show stirs my soul and puts my imagination in hyperdrive. I’ve always loved Sci-Fi. As a boy, my mom got me reading science fiction as a way to keep my overactive brain engaged on boring, rainy days when we couldn’t go outside to play (yeah, in my generation we did that. There was basically nothing to do in the house.) I was a strange kid by anyone’s standards. I read the whole set of Encyclopedia’s Mom bought from a door-to-door salesman. I started with A and didn’t stop until I got to Z. Then I went to town on works by all the Classic writers that came with the set. Then, I read the whole Catholic Bible from cover to cover when I was 12.

  But science fiction grabbed my fancy back then and never let it go. They say that travel broadens your horizons. That’s a pretty fair statement, and I’ve done my share of that. But nothing broadens and opens your mind like science fiction. It opened my mind to endless possibilities at a very young age. And to this day, I never grow tired of reading science fiction and playing my “what if” game in my head. As most of you know, I’ve written four of my own science fiction books. People who’ve read them are always asking me how I come up with some of the ideas I expressed in them. I’m not always sure. Some of those ideas just seem to pop into my head as I’m putting words down on paper. I don’t know where those come from. Others emerge from conversations I’ve had with friends online or just from random things I’ve read over the years. I also, often have some pretty wild science fiction dreams.

  Star Trek: Discovery is the latest spin-off from the original Star Trek show on TV. I’m watching it on Amazon Prime. The first three seasons are all there. And now the fourth season is also on there up to episode seven so far. For the record, there is almost no comparison between it and the original. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the original. It was so mind-blowing in its day. But when I go back and watch those old reruns, it looks so cheesy now. Discovery supposedly takes place more than a thousand years in the future of Captain Jean Luc Picard’s day. And the tech on the ship is almost like magic compared to the old Enterprise. And like Spock would say, the interactions between the crew members are “fascinating”. It seems that no matter how far into the future we imagine our heroes to be, they are still caricatures of us. Captain Kirk and his crew, in the 25^th century, were pushing the boundaries of sexuality and society’s mores just like the hippies of the 1960s were – miniskirts and all. Also, audiences were totally shocked when white Captain Kirk kissed black Uhura in one episode. And when you watch the original Star Trek, you notice that although the crew is a mixture of ethnicities (with a very small handful of aliens thrown in for good measure), the main characters are white. Whereas, in Star Trek: Discovery, most of the characters are either aliens or black with only a few white people tossed in. I guess today’s political correctness carries over for thousands of years into the future, right? You’ll also notice a few gays, lesbians, and some “I’m not sures” on board this ship. And I don’t think they got around to swearing in the 25^th century (and it was definitely not allowed on 1960 TV shows) but the Discovery is under no such restrictions. An “F” bomb or two and then some are sprinkled in loosely, but they make it sound like what kids do when there are no grownups around. That has been a common practice in a lot of science fiction right from the beginning. And I’m pretty sure that librarians never read a lot of those sci-fi books they had stocked proudly on their shelves back in the sixties.

  I’ve discussed before, on my blog, what I thought the intriguing dynamic was in the original Star Trek series. It was the interplay between emotional Dr. McCoy, rational, logic-only, Mr. Spock, and blended/balanced Captain Kirk.

  In Discovery, however, the main emphasis seems to be on love for one another, no matter how different or diverse the cultures interacting are from one another.

  Now remember, I said that science fiction was very mind opening. For me, it always was. It really allows you to step outside your own culture and see things from a sometimes very alien perspective. And then when you look at our very real cultural differences, they don’t seem to be all that important anymore. Human beings are human beings after all. And we’re all in the same boat.

   But here I have to confess to some cultural bias of my own that made it difficult to watch Star Trek: Discovery at first. The whole gay and lesbian thing was hard for me to watch. My own religious cultural upbringing tells me to not judge the person but never to condone the behavior either. And I do my best not to, in my head. At the same time, I find it very difficult to watch two men hugging and kissing. Now on Captain Janeway’s starship, there were two aliens that were both male who were a married couple, and one of them gave birth to their child. But it never showed them actually kissing one another. I try to be open minded about it. But it’s not easy at all. And no, I don’t like to see two women kissing either. So, in theory, I like the overall theme of this new sci-fi series. I just hope the show doesn’t go too far in pushing at those boundaries. My mind is already open more than most from a lifetime of immersing my psyche into the weird and wonderful world of science fiction. And no matter how old I get, I’m still like a child lost in wonder when I have one of those amazing sci-fi books in my hands. By the way, if you would like an old-fashioned sci-fi adventure story, check out my four books above, and let me know what you think. Any mind opening going on when you read my stories?  

 

Visions of Heaven

  The Hebrews believed in at least three heavens, and they pictured them layered one on top of the other.  I agree with their assessment up to a point. The first heaven is the blue sky above us with clouds and all the birds of the air. The second heaven is the stars and all things big and small in the universe. The third heaven is not a layer on top of that one. The Throne Room of God is not just another layer on top of the universal layer. That heaven exists outside of the physical universe where God lives outside of Time and Space.

  Now what got me thinking about all this is Jesus’ mention of many mansions in heaven. Of course, in the heavenly realm, there could be as many mansions as God wanted there to be. And I hear people all the time talking about living in one of those mansions for eternity. I always caution them against that idea. If you died a believer anytime in the past or between now and the Second Coming, you might get your mail in one of those mansions for sure.  But it’s not going to be your permanent address. 

  You see in Revelations and elsewhere it states that after the Millennium rule of Jesus here on Earth, the Earth will be turned into a lake of fire, and then it will be destroyed after all the damned souls perish there. All of Earth, and all the heavens, even all the elements will melt in a fervent heat. And all we know of as reality right now will be destroyed. And God will create a New Earth, A New Jerusalem, and New Heavens. So, included in that destruction would be the old heaven with all those mansions. God’s Throne will be moved to the New Earth and located in New Jerusalem.

  Will there be mansions on the New Earth? Possibly. Many will reside in New Jerusalem which is described in the Bible as being a cube approximately 5,000 miles to a side. You could put a lot of people in that kind of space. But it does not say how big the New Earth will be. It does say there will be no oceans. Only land with rivers (at least one mentioned) and lakes. Build me a cabin next to a river filled with rainbow trout in a part of the land that looks like Tennessee, and I will be happy. No mansion required.

  Another thing the Bible does not tell us is that we will be confined to New Earth. In our physical bodies, we haven’t been able to get very far into the current Universe. But with indestructible, incorruptible bodies and given eternity we could go a long way away from New Earth and explore all the New Heavens (aka The New Universe). Don’t expect me to be home much. Get in touch with me through an Angelic Messenger and I’ll meet you there for some fly fishing. But otherwise, I will be exploring all the opportunities in the great sea of the universe.

  This brings up another question. Are there other civilizations (aka aliens) in our current Universe? Would God create them just to destroy them at the end of the millennium? Possibly. Many Christians are inclined to believe that we are alone in this Universe. If not, it would require that Jesus manifested himself to every other Civilization that might be out there. And furthermore, that He would have to then die for their sins like he did for ours. We would hope that He would not have to go through that repeatedly. So, we shudder to think of other civilizations in our current Universe for that reason. But I caution you not to jump on that bandwagon too soon. For you must remember that with God, all things are possible.

  And here is a final note to those who currently don’t believe in any of this and think that it was all just one big happy accident. And even if you think it’s all absurd and impossible, why would you take that risk of ending in a lake of fire when you could have eternity in a brand-new Universe? Being a believer, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Being a non-believer, you have nothing to gain and everything to lose. My friends, everything in science (even though scientists themselves are science deniers) and everything in Nature points to a Divine Designer. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Don’t let them spoon-feed you into the second death. God loves you. And He does not want that to be your end. Join me in worship and prayer, and maybe someday we will meet on the banks of that river and do a little fly-fishing together. God and I both would like that very much.

                               

                                            

 Looking Down The Road

  We (and I) need to stop referring to our government like it's a separate entity - a thing all its own. "The Government" does not have intentions, motives, values, or morals. Only the people who operate in it do. And our government, especially, is supposed to be of "We The People". So, if our government is corrupt, it is the people in it who are corrupt. And since it is supposed to be a representative government (representing all of us) then perhaps it could be said it is we (in general) who have become corrupt and have lost our way. When the rudder falls off, the ship will go astray, guaranteed. Looking at our society, in general, it is corrupt. Morals have become meaningless. Respect is passé. Manners are an old-fashioned concept. And God (at least the Christian one) has been banned from public life. And instead of mutual benefits from cooperation, it has become every person for themselves. And all that matters is how much "stuff" you can accumulate in this lifetime. Is it any wonder that the pool of available candidates for public office has become very shallow? I know that there are good, decent people in this country. But most of them are in a state of shock. And they are hunkering down, unable to fathom where it all went wrong and what to do about it. Of course, I could go on and on about our growing materialistic secularism as the main corrupting force. And the way I see it - it is.

  But also, the things happening in the political arena are driving a wedge between people who should be recognizing their common goals and needs and working on that but are instead focusing on their different ideologies and shoving violently against one another, creating a divide that will soon become irreparable if it hasn’t already. The situation has nearly reached critical mass. I greatly fear the explosion that is sure to follow if the trend continues.

  Yet, still, I sense an impending backlash to all of this. People are growing tired of gridlock in DC. They’re tired of being labeled racist when they’re not. But they are being called that just because they don’t agree with your solutions to common problems that only suit you and your side. There is flat out no attempt at compromise anymore on either the right or the left. Both sides are equally guilty. And more and more people are getting tired of it. For way too many years, the majority of eligible voters have opted out of the system and refused to even vote. That of course, is making the situation worse because it gives greater voice to contentious minorities who only have their own best interests at heart rather than the welfare of the whole country in general. That must change. Instead of remaining on the sidelines and bitching from the peanut gallery about the results, everyone of legal status and age needs to participate in the process or forever sit by and watch as this country rips itself apart.

  So, all the above is a description of what’s happening. And what needs to happen to fix the problem. But here’s my prognosis for what will happen. I do sense growing unrest that may manifest itself in the form of a third-party movement. The best outcome of that would be a clean sweep of the bad actors involved in all phases of government riding us once and for all of their bad influence and representation. But I don’t see that happening in time to save us. I know our current President is taking on this daunting task, with the aid of a couple of branches of the military, as a part of a joint initiative with those services. How successful he can be in this remains to be seen. If he pushes too hard, those forces for a One World Government will kill him.

  What I do see happening, in light of our ever-increasing move toward secular materialism, is the eventual neutralization (self-destruction) of this nation and a sweeping victory for the forces advocating a “One World Government” (Code for Worldwide Dictatorship).

  That’s a scary thought, right? Well, it should be. I know there are those who are praying fervently for a different outcome. There are also some who are working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen. And they are up against a very powerful minority of elites working just as hard to ensure it does happen. However, the biggest majority of people are just oblivious as to what’s going on. And they don’t care one way or the other what happens (therein lies our doom).

  As for me, I’m trying to do my best to wake people up and prepare them for what’s coming down the road. How could I not? If I saw you barreling down the road at 100 miles an hour, and I knew the bridge was out ahead, wouldn’t I be morally required to do everything in my power to warn you? Well, this is me warning you. The bridge is out!

  I wish it would be possible to pray all these problems away. Or work them away. Or ignore them and hope they go away on their own. But, because of my religious convictions, I know better. My Bible tells me it’s coming whether I like it or not. And mostly we have brought it upon ourselves by distancing ourselves from the only one who could save us. But also, we have an enemy who is implacable in his intent to destroy us. The One World Government is his baby all the way. And he won’t rest until he sees it happen. Because he fully intends to make himself King of The World. And then force us to bow down to him and worship him alone.

  As the angels always say, “See you do it not!”

Mass Shooting: Fears and Speculations

  I’m starting to cringe at thoughts going through my mind right now. I don’t mean to be an alarmist or conspiracy theorist. But sometimes facts start to add up and move me to believe things might be so. Even if I don’t want to believe it at all. And I hesitate at sharing these thoughts with all of you because I know what the knee-jerk answer to them will be ahead of time. “Not possible!” is what I would even say if someone else said what I’m about to.

  We all understand the left-wing party in this country wants to ban all firearm ownership among all U.S. citizenry. They make their agenda clear more and more every day. With this agenda in mind, we must ask ourselves what lengths they would go to in order to achieve this goal? The answer in my mind scares me. And I don’t want to believe it. I don’t jump on conspiracies lightly without examining them closely first. For instance, I examined all the evidence available for years before I concluded that 9/11 was an inside job and had nothing to do with middle eastern terrorists. Rather, it was a con job perpetrated against the American people in order to move us to involvement in pre-planned foreign wars. You can call me a conspiracy nut all you want to, but that’s what the evidence points to.

   The conspiracy I’m considering now is one just as horrifying if true. It’s a conspiracy wrought by the so-called Deep State government to ban all private ownership of guns in this country. And they seem to be hell-bent on doing what it takes to make this happen. And just like 9/11, they don’t care how many people must die to see it through to their stated goal. Their goal is twofold. Ban all guns. And not because they are worried about mass shootings. Their ultimate goal is to squash individual freedom and take over complete control of our government. By taking away guns, they minimize the resistance they will face when they make their grand move. Their other goal is to limit our population anyway, so they don’t really care how many have to die to achieve their goals.

  I know I can’t produce hard evidence to prove what I suspect. But let’s look at some facts. Our government spies on each and every one of us constantly. They monitor every type of communication we involve ourselves in. They have been doing this for a long time. And with today’s technology, that job has gotten even easier for them. And I’m not speculating about this part. I was part of the surveillance team when I was in the military. We monitored all of our own communications as well as those of foreign governments. And our job, because of military reduction that occurred in the 1970s, was outsourced to the NSA. The NSA tried to recruit me before I left the military since I was already involved in this activity and already had a Top-Secret clearance.

  Now you would think with the type of invasive monitoring that they do these days on all of us, our government would be well aware of who’s buying weapons and making plans to do something terrible. Yet, you never see very much in the way of top-down effort to stop these mass shootings from occurring. Sometimes, not even at the local level. How many times have we heard that the FBI was aware of risky behavior by certain individuals or groups, yet nothing was done about it? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I know they are well aware of me right now and my sentiments as far as not trusting our government. But they also know that I don’t own any weapons other than a few swords and a bow. And that I’m at an old enough age that taking drastic action to do anything is beyond me. But the paranoid scrutiny on their part probably remains regardless.

  So, my point about the monitoring of us all is this. How can some young man who’s buying weapons and ammo, keeping to himself, and maybe visiting the dark web or questionable sites on the internet escape their scrutiny?

My conclusion is they don’t. And from that conclusion, I have to speculate that they usually know way ahead of time what’s about to happen. But they don’t do anything about it. They let it happen. And worse yet – I further suspect that someone on the inside is actively encouraging and aiding and abetting these sick individuals.

  Just hypothetically, let’s imagine that some teen or young adult goes on social media and starts talking about the futility of life and maybe even hints at taking their own life. How hard would it be for someone to anonymously encourage those feelings online and steer them in a certain direction? They could suggest things like mass shootings as an alternative to just turning a weapon on themselves. They could even clear a path for them to carry it out. They might buy the weapon and ammo for the event that will "make the kid famous". And promise to secretly pay off the family’s debt or provide loved ones with access to an unnumbered bank account with say a million dollars or so. None of which would be beyond their means.

And since the very Deep State agencies that make this happen are going to be investigating the aftermath, do you think we would ever find out the truth about any of it? Especially since the mainstream media seems to be bought and paid for by the same Deep State/Secret Government we’re talking about.

  Another thing that would be very easy for them to do would be to plant written manifestos on the internet claiming to be from the shooter a short time before the shooting begins. I’ve read the so-called “manifesto” that one of the latest shooters was alleged to have posted. This shooter was a 21-year-old young man. Now I hate to disparage the education system here. But I’ve seen many samples as to what passes for writing these days in our young people. And I could be wrong here since I don’t know this young man at all. But the writing and language used in this supposed manifesto does not seem to be typical. Either this was a very smart young man, or someone wrote it for him.

  Another thing I find coincidental is that when I was younger, growing up here in Texas, we all had access to guns. But no one came to school or anywhere else one day and just started opening up on people at random. We had differences for sure. But we settled them always in a less violent manner. So, what’s changed? If not the access to guns, what could it be? Granted our society has taken a turn for the worse, as far as I’m concerned, with our growing materialism and secularism. But is that enough to explain the difference? I’m not so sure. To me, the glaring difference, which represents a drastic change, is the direction and stated agenda of the left and the Deep State. We know where they want to go and they want to take the rest of us with them. Could they be capable of such horrendous methods to achieve their goals? The increasing frequencies of these mass shootings suggest to me that they would and are capable of anything.

  My hopes and prayers are that I’m wrong about all this. But my deepest fear is that I’m dead on about what’s motivating these lost individuals to strike out so drastically and violently in such senseless futility. God help us all if what I fear is the truth.

The True Story of Becky and Me

Yes, it’s true that Linda was the “Love of My Life”. I knew from the first date that we were destined to be together. But somehow, after twelve years of marriage, that train got derailed. Life really sucks sometimes and doesn’t always go the way we planned. That’s one of the reasons I quit making plans. Mine rarely worked out the way I wanted them to.

  After Linda and I divorced, I was adrift for several years. And I hate to admit it now, but I did indulge in a lot of self-destructive behavior. There was only one bright spot in all those years, and that was Wanda. She and I were together for two years. I loved that girl very, very much. And I wanted to settle down with her. I asked her to marry me three times during the course of those two years. But she swore she was never getting married again after her first husband died. And she finally convinced me she meant it, so I broke it off. The crazy thing is where she lived way on the outskirts of Vidor, Texas she had a neighbor named Becky. I never saw or met Becky during those two years although Wanda did tell me about her. The poor girl was being held a virtual prisoner by her overly jealous husband.

  I did meet someone after Wanda who convinced me that we should marry and settle down. Angelia and I were together for fourteen years. Then divorce happened again. So, a year or so later, I put myself back out there on this new-fangled thing called the internet. That’s where I met Becky.

  On our first date, after only corresponding via e-mail for a couple of months and never seeing even a picture of her, Becky and I agreed to meet at Cheddars in Beaumont. At that time, I was back living with my mother after getting laid off from my job about a week before Christmas. Yeah, sucks, right?

  Anyway, Becky and I hit it off right away. She was funny and witty – two things I thoroughly enjoy in a woman – and I couldn’t stop staring into her sparkling blue eyes. I was captivated at first sight.

  When I got home after that first date, my mom asked me how it went. I told her that it went way better than I expected. I told her there was just something about Becky that you couldn’t help but like. Becky and I dated for the next three months or so, mostly on Friday nights. Then one week, I couldn’t go on Friday. So, I asked her to go out on a Saturday night. She told me she couldn’t go on Saturday because she had another date already. I said, then how about Sunday night? Becky said nope because she had a different date that night too. I said it was cool and maybe next week then.

  Becky acted very surprised at this and wanted to know if it bothered me that she was dating other people. I told her it didn’t bother me at all, just as long as she saved at least one night a week for me. I assured her that I knew, just because we were going out, it didn’t mean I somehow owned her or had any say in what she did with her life.

  The next week, when I called her for our usual Friday night date, she told me to take a pick of any day that week. That her calendar was completely open. I asked her what happened to those other two guys she was dating, and she told me that she decided to tell both of them that she was dating other people. Both got jealous and demanded that she should pick and only date one of us exclusively. When she didn’t agree to that, they dumped her. She told me I won her by default. And we started seeing a lot more of each other after that. Another month or so went by, and I realized I was hopelessly in love with Becky. So, one Friday evening, when we had come back from eating out, she and I came in and sat on her sofa. She turned on the TV. But there was not a whole lot of TV watching going on. After about the third sweet kiss, the words just fell out of my mouth – Becky, I love you.

  As soon as I said it, Becky stood up and told me it was time to leave. I said, “Huh?” I mean, what else could I say? I was stunned and speechless. When I just stood there, she kinda took my arm and headed me for the front door. I asked her if she heard what I said. I figured she must have heard me wrong somehow. But she said, “I heard you. Now go home and call me tomorrow.”

  On the way home, I was completely flabbergasted. It was definitely not the response I had been expecting. I told my mother what happened when I got home, and she couldn’t believe it either. She was as stunned as I was because from what I had been telling her she was of the same opinion as me – that it must be love. The next evening, I called Becky with my fingers crossed. She told me to come over the next Friday and we would talk. Well, I can tell you right now, that was a very nervous week for me. I did a lot of soul searching and praying, wondering what I would do if it turned out she didn’t have the same feelings as me. Could I have been so wrong about us? During that week, I got called to come to work for Brand Scaffolding at Motiva. So, at least one thing was going my way.

  Well, Friday finally got there, and I was a nervous wreck when she met me at her door. To me, she looked so beautiful in that moment, and I knew  I didn’t want to lose her.

  We sat on that same sofa again and she looked me in the eyes for a minute before she said anything. I was wondering if she could hear my heart pounding. And then she finally spoke up. And this is what she said.

  “I heard what you said the other day, and I was afraid that might be coming. But there is something you need to know about me first.”

  I couldn’t imagine what that might be. We had talked so much about ourselves that I felt like there couldn’t possibly be too many secrets left between us. But then she continued.

  “I’ve been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and don’t have all that much time to live. So, with that in mind, I wouldn’t blame you if you got up right now and walked away and never called me again. That’s why I was just dating different people and not letting any one of them get too close. And if you leave, it’s probably what I’ll start doing again until I can’t anymore. If you decide that we can still be friends, then that’s cool too.”

  This is how the rest of that conversation went:

  “So, how long ago was it that the doctor’s told you this? And how much time did they give you?” I asked

  “Ten years ago. And they said I could go any day.”

  I sat there and didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. She waited patiently.

  “So, ten years ago they told you this and you’re still here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, silly, first of all, I’ve already told you I’m in love with you. So, what kind of jerk would I have to be to walk away from you now? And secondly, those stupid doctors told you that you could go any day, and you’re still here? Well, then, there’s no way to know how much time you have left. And, hell girl, I just got hired on at a refinery that could blow up at any time. I build scaffolds which is a very dangerous job. And I drive like a maniac. So, I could possibly go way before you. How about we just agree to make the best of whatever time we have and leave it at that?”

  “So, you’re saying you still love me anyway, in spite of what I just told you?”

  “Yes, Becky, I love you with all my heart and soul. And I promise I will keep on loving you until the end.”

  “The end could get ugly.” She said, being as honest with me as she could.

  “I don’t care. I promise I will be there holding your hand if that time comes. And I will be loving you more than ever.”

  The tears started to flow at that point, and she said, “In that case, I love you too!” She threw her arms around my neck and almost squeezed the life out of me right then and there.

  Soon after that, we rented a house in Port Acres, Texas and spent some of the happiest years of our lives together. It took a little coaxing at first to get her to pull that one foot out of the grave and throw away the banana peel she was standing on with the other foot. But she eventually came around and just began to live for the day. Once she did that, Becky was such a joy to be around. She made every day fun. Even knowing how it would end up, I don’t regret a single day of it. We were together for five years. The last six months were hard to see as she quickly descended into worsening health. But I kept my promise. I was there holding her hand and telling her how much I loved her until she took her final breath.

  I miss Becky every day. I miss her laughter. I miss her playful spirit. But I know I will see her again. And when that day comes for me, I may not be able to see it until it’s over. But I know she will be there holding my hand, too, the whole time.

  I love you, Becky.         

How Are We Doing?

  When I was still in school, Port Arthur, Texas was still a segregated community. I had the occasion to see and interact with different groups of people through my father’s work as a police officer. He often brought me with him to work when he was a desk sergeant in the Port Arthur PD. On a Friday or Saturday night, what I saw and learned there left a lasting impression. I saw the public face of the police department, but I knew the private one. And the two were nowhere near the same. My own father was a very bigoted person. And at the time, I didn’t even know what that word meant. Please, don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t the only adult I knew of that was like that. And I just knew that the way he acted towards other racial groups publicly was nowhere even close to what he expressed to me in private.

  I must admit here, that as a youngster, I was very naïve about the world and how it works. I read all the time. And for me, the world should be like those fantasy worlds I read about. To discover that it wasn’t like that, was a shocker and an eye-opener to me. I was one of those kids that was always asking, “Why? or Why not?” In the science fiction books that I read, people came in all colors, shapes, and personalities. Science fiction asked you not to judge who were “people” and who wasn’t based on their looks at all. Instead, you were expected to judge them solely on their personalities and actions alone. They could be blue aliens or little green men, or even giant preying mantis type beings and still be “people” as long as they behaved in an acceptable manner.

  But Friday and Saturday nights at the police station, I saw that this wasn’t the case in the real world. For the life of me, I didn’t understand why not. The first opportunity I had to actually talk to and interact with a person with very much darker skin than my own, was when I was about ten-years-old. A black man, whom my father dealt with, owed him some money. To help pay off his debt, my father allowed the man’s wife to come and help with chores, including doing windows, around our house because my mom was pregnant yet again. I don’t remember the lady’s name now. But she was outside on a ladder washing the windows one day, and I was standing there watching her. My curious mind wanted to get to the bottom of why I wasn’t supposed to like her based on her skin color and nothing else.

  I was born with a fairly dark complexion. And during the long, hot Southeast Texas summers, I got very dark. The black lady on the ladder, finally noticed me standing there watching her. She smiled and said, “Boy, you better get out this hot sun before you get as black as me.” And then she laughed with a very genuine and friendly laugh that put me very much at ease.

  As I was very shy when I was young, I had problems talking to anyone. But for some reason, her laughter made my shyness go away. I told her that I didn’t care how dark I got and that it was like that every summer. I asked how come she was working on our house. And she explained to me what the situation was. I think I sat there talking to her for about thirty minutes before my dad came out and told me to go play and quit bothering her, so she could get her work done. Even though he never said it to me, I got the distinct impression that he didn’t approve of me talking to the woman at all. And again, I couldn’t understand why not. I thought the lady was nice and funny. I liked her. At that time in my life, I couldn’t say that about too many adults at all.

  From that day until my senior year in high school, I had no other interaction with anyone of color other than one of my best friends who was Hispanic. Back in those days, the Hispanic invasion of our southern border hadn’t happened yet. And the few Hispanics here, could probably trace their heritage back to before the Alamo. Even so, I saw first hand how some folks viewed even him when I heard them calling him “Spic” behind his back. Then in my Senior year, it happened. They mandatorily enforced “racial integration” of our schools. I remember, just before that school year started, everyone was bracing themselves for the violence that such a move might ignite. It had in many other parts of the country. I heard my friends and family members speak in hushed tones about how awful it was going to be, and how we all had to watch each other’s backs.

  Then the big day came when they bussed over approximately one hundred students from the black community into ours. It was obvious that everyone on both sides was uncomfortable with the situation at first. But nothing really happened because of it. No riots broke out. No fights. After a couple of weeks, it was just a bunch of kids trying to make it through the rigors of high school in one piece. My own experience during my senior year was that I made several new friends from the wrong side of the railroad tracks, and I got labeled a “n….r lover” by many of my white classmates. But in my case, I was always on the outside looking in. Hey, I was already the guy who hung around with the Hispanic guy, so I didn’t have much to lose. And my social standing could not have fallen any further down than it already was. So, it hardly phased me at all. But other than a few racial slurs, I have to say that our community handled the situation much better than some others elsewhere in the country were doing at the time.

  After graduation, I worked for a year at a job on Houston Avenue in downtown Port Arthur. I was the only white boy in a completely black neighborhood. And I have to say that I never felt threatened or discomforted because of my skin color in that part of town back then. I even walked several blocks through town every day to go to lunch at one of the neighborhood cafes (this old white boy loved him some soul food). No one ever bothered me.

  My next stop was Uncle Sam’s Army. There they pounded it into our heads that Uncle Sam’s Army only recognized one color and that was OD Green. I had a friend in basic training who was black and had a PHD in mathematics who worked for NASA in Houston. He had been drafted and could have gotten a deferment avoiding service altogether, but he chose not to. Once in, they were always bugging him to go to Officer’s school or take a direct commission to the officer ranks. He turned them down every time. He told us he just wanted to serve his country for the two years he was in for and then get out and go back to NASA. We didn’t know whether we should admire him or call him completely insane. But that was the first time I ever interacted with someone who was demonstrably way smarter than me. Another eye opener!

  After the army, I began working at Texaco Refinery in Port Arthur. My first year there, I met a black man whose last name was Johnson. I don’t know if I ever knew his first name. I always just called him Mr. Johnson. He was in his sixties and I was just a punk kid in my early twenties, but we became very good friends. I was working full time and going to college full time as well. Mr. Johnson didn’t have much of an education at all. He could not read and write. He had started working at Texaco when he was ten-years-old as a water boy carrying water to the work crews out in the field. He was fascinated by my studies in college. Every day he would ask me what I learned in school that day. I would tell him everything my professors had gone over in class and he would listen intently. Sometimes, he would smile or laugh and say, “Well, that might be what they say in your school books, but it was my experience…” And that was always the way of it. He would never outright disagree with anything I told him. The first words out of his mouth every time was, “In my experience…” It wasn’t long before I realized that this was one of the wisest men I had ever met. Uneducated, yes. But smarter than most of the people I knew. Thinking of him always kept me humble when I finally did earn that college degree. Because of him, I never felt like I was any smarter or wiser than anyone else I might run into.

  Port Arthur also had an influx of Vietnamese after the unfortunate war ended there. They were met with a little animosity, at first, from both the white and black communities. There was some friction between the different groups for a while. But it settled down. Now the third and fourth generations of Vietnamese kids are just as Texan as any of the rest of us.

  So, how are we doing as a community? I say I must be proud of our community overall. At least of the ones who remain in it. Many left, of course, due to what’s been referred to as “White Flight”. There has also been some “Black Flight” from the influx of Hispanics pouring into our area as well. My mother never left her general neighborhood in Port Arthur. And she saw her area go from all white to all black (except for her), then to Vietnamese, and finally to just about all Hispanic. So, there have been some major influxes. Right along with all that, there have been many different peoples coming to our area from all over the world. Just go into any convenience store in our area, and you will see what I mean. Are we killing each other or rioting in the streets? No. Are there still some who sling about racial slurs and wish to separate themselves from anyone who is not like them? Sadly, yes.

  But overall, I think we’re doing well. I was sitting in a coffee shop in Groves, Texas, where I live now, which is a small community that is basically a suburb of Port Arthur. Traditionally, Groves has always been a white-only community. But that is changing. As I sipped my Sugar-free, Vanilla, Latte, and read my latest science fiction selection, I saw a couple of black people come in to get coffee. They were pleasant and were greeted pleasantly by the owner. No one else in the place even glanced up or paid them any never mind (as my momma used to say). And it got me to thinking about how far we’ve come. At least in my part of the world. And it made me proud to be from a town that has seen good times and gone through bad times but has come to understand that we are all in this together. None of us can afford to go it alone anymore. We all need each other to survive. One thing I’ve learned in all my travels and in my job I have now, where I meet people from all over the world, is that people are just people no matter what their skin color is. We all want the same things. It is high time we stop thinking of race as something that separates us. There is only one race on this planet. And it is the human race. For the human race to survive and make it much farther down the road, we are all going to have to work together for that to happen.

  I am nearly seventy years old now. Over the last fifty years, I’ve seen attitudes change – sometimes more slowly than we’d like. But they have changed, and it’s mostly for the better. However, today there is a new divide happening right in front of our eyes, and it’s a very sad thing to have to witness after we were making so much progress. Now it’s Conservative vs. Liberals. And there are different sexes, races (so-called), ethnicities, and religions in both camps. And they are both ratcheting up the rhetoric and hate speech against the opposing side to the point of almost coming to blows. There’s even been talk of a Civil War brewing. Come on people. Don’t let politics tear us apart again. It’s just insane.

  We are all Americans, and we need to get our act together before it does come to blows. And to me, it’s more than that. We are all children of God. It definitely would displease Him to see his children behaving so badly towards one another. I can’t say that I will always agree with you. But I can say that I will always love you as a fellow human being no matter what you believe or how misguided I might think you are. Going forward, lets put our heads together and work out the problems we can. And for those problems that seem insurmountable right now, let’s just put them aside and maybe the solution will come to us down the road with God’s help. Let’s keep the progress we’ve made so far and not throw it all away just because someone has drawn a line in the sand or down an aisle.

  

Some Kind of Beautiful

Amanda Jones                                                                                           Watts

                        

  It sure is awesome to be off on a Monday. I slept in late this morning. Got up and just watched an old movie on Netflix called "Some Kind Of Wonderful". It's a movie I've seen 20 times if I've seen it once. It's one of those movies I end up watching every time I come across it on TV. I always thought the guy was blind and stupid if he didn't see the love he had staring him in the face. Yeah, Amanda Jones was beautiful, and Watts was just the tomboy next door. And when I was in school, I used to crush on some of the popular, beautiful girls like Keith (Eric Stoltz) was doing with Amanda. I learned the hard way the sad truth that, with most of them, their beauty ended just barely below the skin. Real beauty is something transcendent, and it radiates from the soul.

  I knew a plain girl with inch-thick glasses once who desperately wanted to be loved. She threw herself at any guy that would have her. But most of them just took what she offered and then tossed her aside. In her mind, it was because she wasn't pretty enough. So, she spent years fixing what she thought was her problem. She worked out at a gym and lost weight. She had a boob job. She got contacts. She had a complete makeover with hair and makeup until she was drop-dead gorgeous.

  I hadn’t seen the girl in years and had forgotten all about her. She came to the nightclub where I worked one night looking for the one guy who had always treated her with kindness and respect. All the guys in the place were falling all over themselves to get her to notice them. But she ignored them and went up to that one guy. He didn't recognize her at first. She looked nothing like anyone he had ever known. But when she reminded him of the nickname the other guys used to call her, “Ashtrays” (because of her thick glasses) it finally dawned on him who she was. Once he recognized her, she threw her arms around his neck and said, “Take me home tonight. I did this all for you.”

  He shook his head looking at those now quite beautiful blue eyes (and trying desperately not to look any lower) and pulled her arms away from his neck.

  “No, he told her. You did all this for yourself. And don’t get me wrong you look great. Better than great. And it’s a good start. But now you need to work on what’s inside.”

  “What do you mean?” she demanded angrily. “Are you saying you still don’t want me?”

  “Exactly,” he said. He could see the shock in her eyes and knew she was asking herself how this could be possible. Wasn’t she now what every guy dreamed about having?

   “It was never about your looks. I always tried to be your friend. But to be honest, you’re so empty inside except for the self-loathing. You don’t even like yourself. How can you expect anyone else to like you? And, besides, you don’t even really know me.”

 “So, you’re turning this down?” she asked indicating with her hands what she meant by “this” as she moved them down her now incredibly sexy body.

  “Yes,” he told her. He saw a tear roll down one check. And for a moment it almost melted his resolve not to do something he would regret. He had always been a sucker for tears.

  She turned away and left him standing there. He shook his head sadly and then went about his business. He didn’t notice her again until he saw her making out with the bartender. The bartender came over and asked me if he could get off early that night. I finally let him talk me into it. With a big grin, he was out of there like a shot. I thought maybe I should have warned him about that girl. But some guys just have to learn the hard way that beauty isn’t everything. Especially, when it is only skin deep.

  When all the other guys realized that the pretty girl had come in there for that one guy and he had turned her down, they all wanted to know what was wrong with him. They knew he wasn’t seeing anyone at the moment. Was he sick or something? They had to know. He just shook his head and smiled and said, “Ask the bartender tomorrow.”

  So to all the pretty girls out there (yeah, you know who you are, and we all know your modesty is fake), if you were born with good looks, be thankful. But don't be satisfied with just that free gift. Work on being beautiful from within. That beauty will never let you down, and it will never fade.