Insight from a Liar.

Today, during the Congressional hearings centered around Michael Cohen he answered Rep. Jim Cooper's question with these words: "... and I can only warn people. The more people that follow Mr. Trump, as I did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I am suffering!"

Mr. Cooper asked: "What warning would you give young people, who are tempted as you were. Would you encourage them not to wait ten years to see the light? What advise would you give young people, in particular young lawyers, so they do not abuse their bar license, as you did?"

Cohen spoke from deep within for this answer.

"Look at what's happening to me. I had a wonderful life. I have a beautiful wife. I have two amazing children. I achieved financial success by the age of 39. I didn't go to work with Mr. Trump because I had to. I went to work for him because I wanted to, and I've lost it all. So, if I'm not a picture perfect..." He glanced to his left pointing to something out of camera range which I assume was a derogatory statement in large black print about him hanging on the wall behind the panel before him, and continued:

"That's the picture that should be up there. If I am not a picture perfect example of what not to do that's the example I'm trying to set for my children. You make mistakes in life, and I've owned them, and I've taken responsibility for them, and I am paying a huge price, as is my family. So, if that in and of itself isn't enough to dissuade somebody from acting in the callous manner that I did. I'm not sure that person has any chance very much like I am in right now." - Gregory E. Woods [Feb. 27, 2019]

Contradictions over Time.

Kim Kardashian West is worth $175 million dollars in 2018. What she is really worth is in the realm of perception, high intelligence, and a knack for fitting into a hard world for women without the compromises ordinary women make to survive. It is a far cry, this reality for her, from the days of Europe's dark age, and from the Armenian massacre over a hundred years ago! For those two people is their reconciliation between the two cultures of her bloodlines, and marriage to a Black American man? This is a blood question only she can answer; we can only speculate, or judge her on this note.

What is it for us and the ancestry of our peoples we need to recognize and work with, and work through? Kim Kardashian West married an eccentric and gifted man whom she seems to understand and definitely loves. "How do we love?" is the more important question, and perhaps the best place to start a study of a person. But, that is not how people begin their assessments of each other, nor is it a place immaturity leaves a person!

Immaturity is a major factor in American culture. It is the financial support of reality stars, and it is foundational to President Trump's appeal, and is part of the spell he holds over his followers. For Mrs. West this works one way in the entertainment world; for the nation as a whole this fixation with immaturity is a facet of the political  and moral manipulation of America's sub-conscience. As a force, immaturity goes about its business with little fear of being corrected. It is a drug of the sort that does not hesitate to implode because it is forever trusting in its revival. Immaturity leads public perception directing inaction so skillfully millions of Americans have lost the reason it takes to be a major force in the complex world of global politics. These citizens rely on the cruelness of people like Trump who cannot fathom how and why the pieces that hold nations together needs a high level of education in many disciplines and deep respect for Life, in all its forms!

White people are at the center of this trauma in America. This is their creation we are conditioned to, their dichotomy entangled in our ancestral lines, and we of the darker hue are in this with a deeper responsibility. We are the carriers of what needs to be done to undo this mess. Our spiritual responsibilities have depth in the intuition of what eludes us: the truth, and those truths bath in the bloodletting of this nation's past and present.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
June 13, 2018

Kim Kardashian West wearing flip flops.

Oh, say! Can you see?

I am American as far as my thinking about what patriotism means in the context of being African and American. I am not white and the flag therefore signifies the cross of the Klan, and the killing of my people...  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Dark naked African woman is profound in her beauty and the testament of (her) suffering, release, glory and fortitude. Without words she is seen better. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Dressed by the shadows, photographed by Dominique Lara

Discovery in the shadows cast the quest into a new light. It is a reversal of a process leading towards the origin of a substance we came into the light of Life knowing! This is part of the wonderful understanding childhood is embracing while children play... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/7/18

Legacy of the British Empire.

Princess Diana.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky was a Zionist activist, orator, and writer who founded the Betar Movement. He was also a soldier who founded the Jewish Legion during World War I.

Jabotinsky (born October 18, 1880; died August 4, 1940) was born as Vladimir into a middle-class Jewish family in the Russian city of Odessa. At the age of 18, he left Odessa to study law in Italy and Switzerland, where he also served as a foreign correspondent for several well­known Russian newspapers. His reports and articles were widely read and soon became recognized as one of the brilliant exponents of Russian journalism. All his reports and articles were signed with his literary pseudonym “Altalena.” . . . continue reading 

President Ronald Reagan telling it like it is.

On the surface American Christians sound 'right' and justified vilifying Arabs, and those against Israel because of the Bible, and what is said in the Bible. It all incites self-righteous attitudes dipping its adherents towards a dogma, with a notion of supremacy over reasonable objections to the stance made by those in the so-called Army of the Lord.

Millions of American Christians cannot stray, with confidence, from the controversial reasons for saying, 'yea' to all aggression from Israel towards any perceived threat, or country against them; even if Israel started the misuse of power. The prophecies and stories in the Old Testament support the notion of 'right thinking' on this subject; meaning God is behind Israel and the Israelites are his chosen. This is the core of American policy towards Israel. New Testament philosophy began with this understanding of Israel's place in the Christian practice in the West. Despite the fact the first century followers of Jesus, who were accepted by Rome purposely worked to remove themselves from the vestiges of the progenitor of their new faith; today's form of Christianity informs the need to kill and take. 

This is perplexing, isn't it? 

The serious American citizen needs to look deeply into the Torah, the first five (5) books of the Bible, to gain a footing in the theology that allows our government to not intervene on behalf of the Palestine people. The average Christian needs to look closely at these justifications for a higher purpose: healing of their own souls, and release from the evil to whom (we) are devoted. For the slaughter and the taste of it; American foreign policy aims at Arabs and the enemies of Israel missiles, and gives financial support. The Israeli apartheid system designed around Palestinians to protect the Jewish systems of thought, and its contradictions comforts Jim Crow. Why would white Americans change for peace to take precedence over their predilections?

It doesn't make sense.  

So one last question remains: "How did conservatism, business, American dictatorial patriotism, and Christianity meld into one ideology?" We all need that answer. Without the truth as an answer, as soul singer, Curtis Mayfield sang, "If there's a hell below, we all gonna go!"  

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

5/25/18 

cartoon. "Please don't leave us... "

Views of 9/11. .

Online, a discussion was started on September 11, 2018 when Ali Cat wrote: "When I think of 9/11 I of course remember the tragedy that took place. What stands out to me, however, is later that day seeing a little boy standing in front of his house, for hours proudly and solemnly waving an American flag. The unity that America had, that’s what I remember and it’s what we need to go back to. "

Reactions were typical: "Preach." "I agree." "Word.' And so on. One man, Mathew Agel, said: "I worked rescue recovery at WTC for 4 months. As a country we all came together as Americans. Never felt prouder to be an American!" 

A Marine now working as a private security contractor, Chuck C. Charles, said: "I deployed Sept 17th and I came home in April spending most of that time in Afghanistan... For a 1hr bus ride back to base, the streets were lined with proud Americans. Flags waving. Patriotic citizens waving and screaming support... oh and women flashing... Can't forget that part... But it was one of the best displays of real America that I had ever seen and seen since... I miss that America!"  

A Black man, Don Hubbard Jr. said: "Unfortunately that type of unity only happens when there's a major crisis like 911 or an act of domestic terrorism!" Todd Wright, who by his photo could be a cowboy, responded: " I very much agree with you ! This country is on the edge and it's going to take a lot more work to get it back to being great again." 

Todd's response gets the same reaction from me: "When was it great? When was it not? What definition of greatness is employed in this call? What is really being said, expressed in such a way the real meaning does come out?"   


… From my perspective and many of us Native people, we did not share those sentiments. We had multiple memories of being massacred by Euro-Americans! There were other things. First, was the inevitability of such an event, and second was the reaction of the larger population believing sentimentality held a uniting force. That is how fear talks. The patterns of American history showed another pattern.

There was a window opened that day to reconcile with other nations most Americans were unable to perceive. It was, this notion of making peace, resented by white Americans when the idea came forth... I remember that more as each day passes under the current administration! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/30/18 

Ali Cat (r.) and a friend for September 11. "Make America Great Again!' 

Contradictions over time, within belief sytems...

Asian couple. rarely photographed like this.

Americans prefer the stereotypes... 

[Many] Asian woman's provocative way of being unstable in the stability of mutual support from a googling male population, and assertions of feminism in their own countries is a cultural challenge read by American culture with not much accuracy. Under the pleasure of assuming superiority many Americans think they understand Asian cultures. With this mistaken belief system the danger of negotiating with any Asian nation, from a presidency like Trump's, is a disaster waiting to express chaos. In the criminal mind weaknesses Trump displays with aplomb are played with by manipulative killers, because white men like Trump think there are no things unattainable to them. This makes them feel they are capable of outmaneuvering their tactics. It is an easy game when the mouse believes he can outwit the cat in the open! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6/12/18 

the Alphas

What a complex subject.

I think Americans believe in war, and resist  the inevitability of consequences with stoic determination. The price of war is the cost of freedom in the vernacular of a mentality that believes constant conquest is business linked to the right of killing and dominating in God's name. I know what 'freedom' means to white Americans. It is different for those conquered. For us freedom is none of the sayings thrown about. The contradictions are glaringly obvious, but speaking against those contradictions falls on deaf years and is heard as heresy, or worse anti-American!...

Peace will never settle here in the U.S.. It is too foreign a concept for a nation, a people used to killing and fighting others... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2/8/18

Terror is the things we fear, the things we know lurk in the dark.

"Should homeless vets receive government housing before refugees?" is like a Tet offensive thrown into the face of the lives of people in deep need. 

It is not a fair question. It is more of a challenge engineered to stir up two divisive elements: burning resentment towards one, and the spirit of dictatorial patriotism in another! The history behind the two are from different dark places in the belief structure of this country! The two have to be studied closely by citizens instead of citizens leaping on angry band wagons to fight each other! The attitudes governing the government's policies upon examination are shameful!

There is a lot of responsibility being a global citizen, and an American citizen. The two are one! None of us can afford to wade into complex issues with glibness and allegiance to being ignorant of what the rest of the world already understands!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

"and the complexity of the above mention issues requires serious long range grasp of more than one, or two issues!"

flag & the Black woman is a study unto itself.

www.ShadesGifts.com

"I am American as far as my thinking about what patriotism means in the context of being African and American. I am not white and the flag therefore signifies the cross of the Klan, and the killing of my people." this woman seems to be saying without saying! She is telling it like it is! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/5/17