February 25, 2014 | THE BLACK LADDER

Relationships and Marriage- Assembly is required

By: Doc Swagg

I would like to deviate from my normal genre of blogs: science/technology, politics, and cultural issues. I want to share a perspective on relationships.

I think it’s imperative that we are realistic when we’re ready to date. I think that it’s good, normal, and human to have dreams, and goals about life. However, when does responsibility and accountability kick in to initiate the work to achieve and obtain our goals?

I often hear both genders rattle off what they want in their mate. I mean many people have an itemized checklist. That is good because it means you are specific about what you want. However, when I hear people talk about relationships and marriage, I get this imaginary fairy tale projection generated from their psyche. Many times this is subconsciously generated from what we’ve seen on TV, movies, books, and even an external surface view of the relationships of our family and friends.

I say this is equivalent to walking into a sporting goods store and shopping for a mountain bike. We know what we want when we see it. We walk around, and there it is, it has all the specifications, dimensions, and performance features you’ve been looking for. You’re ready to purchase, and so you find a sales associate to facilitate the transaction. You tell him/her that you want that bike “right there”, and they say, “not a problem, give me a second”. The sales associate returns with a bulky box with the picture on the box and starts walking to the register. You ask, “can I get that one I right there?”. They say, “Sorry that’s the floor model, it’s only for display”. You shrug and sigh because you were hoping they would say yes, but you accept the box and purchase it.

Assembly Required

The thought of sitting down, investing time to read the instruction manual, becoming familiar with the various parts, and tools seems daunting, but you do it anyway because you want that picture on the box. Yes, a little assembly is required.

When it’s complete, you are so anxious to ride it (no pun intended), that you hop on it and ride it to the sunset. You ride everywhere and you show it to your friends. You make sure you keep it secured with a lock to prevent someone from stealing it. You bring it inside during bad weather to protect it from environmental elements, and you check tire pressure to make sure it’s not getting flat.

Real life

So that was about the joy and pain of purchasing a mountain bike. Well portions of this analogy can be extrapolated to our relationships and marriage. Many of us want this picturesque relationship, but cringe at the thought of putting in the effort. We want the preassembled floor model. However, assembly is required, and in some cases, batteries are not included.

Dreams are worth fighting for and working at. Many of us are lazy about our dreams, but like assembling the bike, you must take time to understand your partner to build the relationship. You must know the various parts, mechanisms, and tools to use. You must know how and where things fit. We also must understand order of operations. The instruction manual has a step by step description that leads to a working final product, and if you skip a step or leave out a part, your bike won’t perform as described. Our mates have been who they are for decades, and they have their rhythm of life, and it’s important to see how and when we fit in harmoniously. During assembly we may attach the wrong thing, and have to stop, disassemble and then reassemble it correctly for it to be truly operational.

Furthermore, when we take time to build it from scratch (not preassembled), we have an idea of what may be the problem when things go wrong. This is similar to how a mechanic can listen to a car and say, “it’s the transmission”. When you and your partner build this dream together, you guys can detect and hone in on the root of a problem instead of guessing. Also, when both of you have built the dream, there is a sense of ownership because of the investment of time, money, teamwork, and energy that was expended.

Conclusion

Forgive me if I was waxing a bit poetic, but I’m also a published author of a book of poetry, and I can really indulge in metaphors. Much of what I said is very relative, and I’m positive that many of you already know this info. I just like putting a spin on topics to see the same object from a different view to help a stagnant perspective. Relationships and marriage are similar in ways to the assembly and maintenance of a bike (or any complex device), however bikes are inanimate and we are dealing with humans, so there is a dynamic variable that fluctuates with human emotions and experiences. The bottom line is, assembly is required and maintenance is mandatory, now enjoy the Tour De France of romance!

U.S. calls for reparations now, but not for blacks

Doc Swagg

This is lengthy but if you are African American, THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

The demand for reparations to African Americans starts NOW! I read an article last night in the Washington Post about how Secretary of State John Kerry, his advisers, and other State Department officials are in active negotiations with France to pay out REPARATIONS to U.S. Holocaust survivors.

The Background

Washington D.C.’s metropolitan subway system is designed by using color coded rail lines that demarcate which city sections it services. The city is developing its’ new Purple line route. A French company, Keolis, has won a $3 Billion dollar contract to construct this route. Keolis has a parent company, SNCF (Societe’ Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais). The route is 16 miles long. The Keolis subsidiary also has contract bids for railway systems in Florida, Massachusetts, and California.

This company is responsible for the transportation of approximately 76,000 Jews to Nazi concentration camps. According to the article, only 2000 Jews survived the slaughter. The French government had contractual agreements to compensate Holocaust survivors in the United Kingdom, Poland, Czech Republic, and Belgium. America was not included in the negotiations. $6 Billion has been paid to survivors in the aforementioned countries by the French government so far.

The U.S. General assembly is blocking further contracts to this company to build the Purple line until negotiations between France and the Keolis-SNCF connection are resolved and reparations are made.

The Discussion

The mere fact that the American government can currently acknowledge, engage, entertain, negotiate, and fight for payment of reparations to Holocaust survivors shows tremendous amounts of disrespectful hubris to African Americans. The Jewish community deserves their reparations to the fullest extent, they do!

However, the fact that our own country is mute, mum, and incredulously obstinate on righting the injustices done to African Americans in America is beyond belief. The first thing that will be said is that “there are surviving Jews from the Holocaust, and they have tracked down their Nazi affiliated violators”.

Well this is my answer. There is evidently no statute of limitations on time elapsed to bring violators and their benefactors to justice. Secondly, America has delayed, procrastinated, ignored, and refused to compensate African American reparations from generation to generation, thus, all surviving victims of American slavery have died off. The intentional, and negligent stalling on executing reparations has resulted in the temporal death of our ancestors that would fit the eligibility criteria for reparations as survivors of slavery.

America is delinquent in its attempt to address its iniquities and atrocities against African Americans. The failure to be accountable and assume a position of immunity against reparations is a slap in the face, especially when America is willing to negotiate with France to get reparations for Jews.

America,…….. are African American lives worth less than Jewish lives? If so, please furnish the criteria and protocol, and the authors of it. America didn’t ship Jews to Nazi concentration camps, but it will use African American tax dollars to conduct contractual commerce with a Nazi affiliated company and to facilitate payments of reparations to Jews. However, the United States itself, profited from the system of slavery for centuries, and AND NOBODY CAN BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE? WE CAN’T EVEN HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT IT? This is flagrant and blatant hypocrisy.

I’m not interested in hearing that we can’t trace back who was involved in slavery. We have several groups and organizations that have meticulously traced the beneficiaries, ancestors, and institutions that were active participants in slavery. For starters, John Kerry and President Obama can start by reading The Debt by Randall Robinson. I don’t know why president Obama is not for reparations.

The death of the participants in slavery doesn’t relinquish their ancestors and government from paying African Americans our reparations. WHEN I OWE BACK TAXES FROM YEARS AGO, I HAVE TO PAY IT OR THE GOVERNMENT WILL GARNISH MY EARNINGS AND CONFISCATE MY PROPERTY RIGHT? Here is my argument for beneficiaries that say they have nothing to do with slavery and that it was their great great grandfather that was involved. WHEN I OBTAIN PROPERTY, I ACCEPT ALL LIENS AND TAXES ON IT, AND I’M RESPONSIBLE TO PAY IT DESPITE THE FACT THAT I WASN’T THE PERSON THAT ORIGINALLY GENERATED THE LIEN.

African Americans were considered property, and that property has liens and back taxes on it that require payment on delinquent holders. The interest alone would bankrupt America!

This is why I am so impassioned about this. I see a clear double standard of justice happening before our eyes. The fact that MILLIONS of our African American ancestors lost their lives in the system of slavery and were never paid for the building of America is a resounding call for justice to be done. Let’s not selectively fight for and reward one group and deny another. How do we entertain talks on minimum wage today, when minimum wage for ancestors were Chitlins and bread? How do we talk strong on income equality today, when there was no income for African Americans period? How do we talk strongly on child labor laws, when children slaved day in and out for profit? How do we talk so strong about human trafficking, when human trafficking of African Americans raised America to capitalistic prominence and generational wealth?

The system of education demonstrates just one aspect of the crippling effects of slavery. Harvard was founded in 1636, Yale in 1701, Princeton in 1746, Columbia in 1754, Brown in 1764, Dartmouth in 1769, U of Penn in 1740. The Ivy League Schools are considered the upper echelon of education. Since Harvard’s founding, more than 2 centuries of education was afforded to whites, while concurrently and simultaneously, reading was a criminal act and books were contraband for more than 2 centuries for blacks. However, we allowed affirmative action to be sabotaged and dismantled. Aside from the Native Americans, no other ethnic groups in this country has been subjected to violent systemic subjugation in America. The Indians have received, and still receive subsidies from the American government.

I would like to quote what one of the Jewish Holocaust survivors said in the article. Leo Bretholz, a 92 year old survivor said, “It’s important for one reason: Justice should be done. When they [pay reparations], they admit they did something wrong-terribly wrong-sending people to be murdered.”

Finally, I’m going on record to say this is not about hate speech or being Anti-Semitic. I’m saying, African Americans want the U.S. government to actively work on compensation just like they are doing for the Jewish community. I stand as a single voice of millions that feel America should vigorously and diligently prepare compensation for African Americans and open negotiations. Stop hiding behind technical legalese, law lexicon, and constitutional verbiage and shoddy constitutional excuses and do what is right and just.

What are your thoughts, am I alone on this??

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