Month: December 2012

December 30, 2012 — I don’t know…

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Someone killed someone else…

Why? Don’t know, ask them.

Who coulda, woulda, shoulda prevented or stopped or intervened or WHATEVER? I don’t know. It is done. Now, the only concern is going to be what will be the response.

Now, those without knowledge or real world experience tell us what MUST be done or who SHOULD HAVE PREVENTED this massacre, tragedy or whatever attention/emotion rendering moniker fits best.

Properly raised and guided people don’t take up a weapon and massacre other people. I will pause slightly for all of those who are part of the problem start justifying, blaming, excusing, minimizing, avoiding accountability and running from anything called responsibility…

You can’t give things to people without giving them the lesson and guidance on how to earn it for themselves.

You can’t systemically or randomly remove responsibility, accountability and the resulting consequences for actions without society believing there are no consequences for actions.

You can’t make or raise kids in less than a two parent home, and that would be a mother and father in the role of “parents”.

You can’t get away with it forever. Regardless of how effective you are at lying, cheating or stealing, your choices will eventually run out of hiding places.

You can’t continually change reality in an effort to protect people from discomfort. That will catch up with all of us and it may have already.

You can’t artificially designate “winners” or maintain an equal outcome for all. This perhaps has been one of the largest contributing factors to the growing sociopathy in our society.

You can’t legislate good judgment, morality or good behavior. (We are winning that war on drugs, right?)

You can’t undo the past.

You can’t spend more than you earn.

You can’t ignore unpleasant things and expect them to disappear.

You can’t let everything in your life be decided by chance or someone else.

I may have missed a few as this list seems to be growing in our society. The hard truth is that for a lot of these “can’ts” the truth is that you can. You don’t get a speeding ticket EVERY TIME YOU SPEED. That is why people speed, because they can. Sure, they get a ticket periodically, but it isn’t until the license is going to be revoked or the insurance skyrockets do they actually begin to alter their choices. Consequences, whether contrived or natural, ARE SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD. That is why they work!

Because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should. Eventually, without boundaries, our society will be an anarchy at best. My wife made a very good point the other day when talking about the “fiscal cliff” that our “leaders” are grappling … let me stop. I can’t put everything in quotes. We don’t have leaders in DC. They don’t care about fiscal cliffs, budgets or doing the right thing. If they did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now. Sierra Squared, Delta Squared is the same descriptor and result out of DC. Back to my wife! She pointed out that people actually think there is a fiscal problem approaching when all the talk is about the cliff coming up. She sharpened her point with clarifying that only a fool would believe we aren’t over the cliff and have been for a very long time.

You can do anything for a certain amount of time without any unpleasant results or consequences. From my training and education in the world of psychology and counseling, I see that our society is CREATING sociopaths. By allowing all of those “can’ts” above, we are encouraging, training and teaching people to be sociopathic. That day will come. That day  that you have avoided and even believed never would come, will come. It will all get worse and it will all fall apart. I don’t know what you will do. Do you?

— R. A. Grier

January 19, 2012 — Cattleman’s Association Speech

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Cattleman’s Association

January 19, 2012 — Dothan, AL

SAY – Thanks to Richard Meadows for inviting me to speak to your group tonight.

SAY – I have given many lectures and speeches over the years and when Richard asked me to come here tonight, I began trying to figure out what to say to you.

I have to admit that I struggled greatly to come up with my topic for presentation.

At first, I was going to go with a comforting, non-threatening political speech, but this isn’t a political event.

Then it hit me,

“Why are we fighting amongst each other about the appropriate color of shoes, when we have no feet?

That will make sense (hopefully) during the presentation.

BUT FIRST

SAY – Why should I listen to this guy?

I have been an audience member in a whole bunch of “guest speaker” presentations. If I didn’t seek out the speaker for a specific message, I always wonder, “Why should I listen to this guy?”

Well, folks seem to like titles, so I will tell you some of experiences and titles:

EXPOUND & SAY –

  • provided leadership and developed several organizations
  • studied psychology and counseling for many years
  • traveled to 10 different countries
  • worked for each phase of government to include local, state and federal with my last employment being a contract employee for the DOD and Department of Military Affairs in Florida
  • And this June will I begin my 20th year as a counselor.

SAY – Over the years I have collected and earned many titles. I will share with you the 4 most important in the order of importance from HIGHEST to LEAST.

  • Ø Son
  • Ø Husband
  • Ø Father
  • Ø Citizen

Son – I am a prodigal son. If you remember the story in Luke 15:11, I strayed and came home.

I would argue that we all, collectively, have become the prodigal sons.

SAY – Church attendance is in decline and those proclaiming to be faithful or even followers of Christ are in sharp decline.

READ:

Three generations ago the percentage of attending believers was about 65%.

The next generation fell to 35%

The following (roughly present generation) is 15%

AND the rate for current teenagers is about 4%

 

SAY – I wonder when the prodigal children will come home.

Well, there may be a small glitch in this. The story in LUKE, tells of someone who was in the “fold” to begin with. What we are seeing is a bunch of sheep wandering that has never seen a shepherd, much less the manger. And today I fear that those who are saying that they are shepherds are often times WOLVES.

It draws to mind an analogy created when discussing the condition and fixes for the youth of America and the decline in discipline, structure, etc.

In these settings, people often speak of getting these young people “back on track”, but frankly, too many of them have never seen a track.

SAY – How do you put a train back on tracks that don’t exist?

SAY – My second most important title is:

Husband –

As of 2010, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, married couples had fallen to barely 51% of U.S. households, with a full 5% drop in new marriages between 2009 and 2010 alone.

Father – According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in November, 2009, there were approximately 13.7 million single parents in the United States today, and those parents are responsible for raising 21.8 million children (approximately 26% of children under 21 in the U.S. today).

Combine – Husband and Father topics into condition of the family over the past 20 years.

Expound and Elaborate –

SAY – The last title I have that is important is that of citizen.

Citizen – The economic ills we suffer have come about over decades, not years.

If no one is capable of governing himself, then who has the ability to govern others? Our government has no power except that which is given by the people.

SAY – These four titles: SON, HUSBAND, FATHER and CITIZEN are what I believe will give us the legs and feet to stand on in this country.

BUT the surgery won’t be easy.

If you excuse my inability to memorize, I would like to read a passage from the Bible:

READ –

Deuteronomy 6:10-15

And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your father, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob to give to you — with great and good cities that you did not build and houses full of all good things that you did not fill and cisterns that you did not dig and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant — and when you eat and are full then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You should not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you — for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God — lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you and he destroys you from the face of the earth.

TELL JOKE: Little Johnny…

Our country isn’t lost forver, just in need of a good map and a few guides.

SAY – That is why I am talking to this group!

Cattlemen and Farmers know what it is to work, to be responsible to do extremely difficult things, often with little or no gratitude from those receiving the fruits of their efforts.

SAY – Folks – We can’t look to the law to tell us right from wrong.

The basis for law changed in the 1870’s from having the Christian framework to follow to that of case law. (EXPOUND???)

THE WAY FORWARD –

My father was born in 1914. I am not sure, but I think my grandfather was dead before the turn of the 20th century. I know what it is to be taught to be respectful and defer to authority. I know what it is to be taught to focus on providing for your family and not involve yourself in other people’s business. I was raised by a man who was a combat veteran of WWII. I was taught my “place”.

BUT, if you are sitting there still thinking that you should honor your elders’ teachings and wishes, I will ask you to do exactly that, but to take it back a few hundred years to some of your OTHER ELDERS.

Our forefathers understood that tolerance was the fact of accepting that which was wrong. They reached a point where they could tolerate no more and fought back against the most powerful man on Earth… and won!

SAY – And this is why I am blessed to be here tonight to ask you for help.

Believe it or not in this Country today those who are good, faithful, upstanding citizens, who honor their marriages and teach their children, are the majority in this country.

It is time to honor our forefathers and stand up for what is right and protect that which we were given only through the grace of God.

God first

Honor your spouses and the union

Raise your children

Be the good stewards of the ENTIRE land as you already are with yours.

Final remarks:

SAY – I promised Richard that I wouldn’t endorse a single candidate in my presentation.

I keep my promises.

The single candidate that I WILL NOT ENDORSE in the November elections is….

December 17, 2012 — What now?

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For a few years, I have been uneasily maneuvering through the society of the United States. The short version of this ever-increasing feeling is “None of this makes sense, but we are doing it anyway!” I have met many that think as I do and bet that you may think this way too.

Blogs, pundits, talking heads and just about every water cooler conversation will fill you in on the specifics and details of the things in society that don’t make sense anymore. I won’t bore you with more examples here. My goal is answer the “What do we do?” questions that most people ask me.

The first thing you need to do is just relax. Seriously, you aren’t going to change the world tonight and all that stress you have created trying is emanating from you to your family, coworkers and anyone else in a 10 meter radius. Chill out! The practical result of relaxing is that you (I, they, we us…) don’t do our best thinking or performing while we are stressed. In the coming months, we will need to be focused, intentional and realistic. I learned a few things when I played high school tennis. First, I learned that I wasn’t the best, skill-wise on the court. Second, I learned that if I made a slight, but audible laugh each time my opponent made a mistake, then they would more than likely eventually get so frustrated that they would nose-dive in their performance, ergo helping me win!! If you are busy being pissed-off and frustrated, then you have little time to do anything helpful or productive.

The second thing is STOP FEEDING THE BEAST! This concept is multifaceted, but boils down to how you spend your time, resources and energy. Of the three resources, time is the most precious of commodities. You can’t get it back and you cannot create more of it. The head person of the GOP sent me (and a few million more) an email asking for donations to increase the fight and continue the struggle to get the message out. Folks, WE ARE NOT dealing with uninformed people or unconvinced citizens. What you see happening in the USA is the results of a multi-decade endeavor of ignorance, selfishness, greed, corruption and outright running from anything that smells like truth or feels like responsibility. Don’t donate a dime or waste a second trying to bang your head against the wall trying to argue with the new power religion in America that is Progressivism/Liberalism. You will lose both time and money and will be no better off.

Take your resources and re-focus their capabilities to produce real, tangible changes and useful tools in your world. I would recommend spending money on real things that can produce things for you and your family. Buy a gun, build a barn, buy a tractor… Seriously, we are butt-deep in the season of orgy-like acquisition that is somehow done in the name of Jesus’ birth.  Don’t you think that spending hundreds at Wal-Mart for crap that doesn’t matter and probably causes problems in you house anyway is a laughable waste of resources? But, “Little Johnny might be sad and upset if he doesn’t get the super awesome electronic game wizygig!” Well, if Little Johnny gets sad or mad because you don’t consistently provide “things” for his entertainment, then you are absolutely part of the problem in this country and you really need to go do some soul searching about what is important in life and who should be running the show in your house.

I would also highly recommend that you learn how to do things. I would get a few books (the real paper kind) on how to grow food and make things. Get a book on first aid and triage medical care. Currently, land is cheap and loans are almost free. Pursue both.  If in the end I am wrong, then you have learned how to raise children, teach values and provide for yourself. I don’t see that as a waste of time or effort.

If you are concerned with what the neighbors might say or with how this will affect your image, than I will offer a few choice words by Rhett Butler. Jokes aside, if are truly bothered with these things, then you may want to take a hard look in the mirror and ask who is in charge of you and who is running your life. AND IF you are happy being a mindless pawn and slave to the whims of social media, image building, the myriad of useless conventions then I will ask you to kindly do that somewhere other than near me. I don’t have the luxury of time anymore to be entertained by fools.

— R. A. Grier