My Mental Mind

My Mental Mind

There are a number of ideas and thoughts that have run through my mind over the past few months; for one reason or another they never materialized into full-fledged posts, so I decided to share with you what I could. Keep in mind that these are just my thoughts, not developed ideas:

The Elephant in the Room

Election years are the pits! It is during the year and half run-up that we see just how far we are from the great nation we proclaim ourselves to be; it’s during this time we see just how ugly our truths are and how divisive we can be in the land of the free. These truths were no more self-evident than at the Republican National Convention when speaker after speaker took to the podium announcing the need to take America back, restoring pride and faith in government, bashing President Obama and claiming to have built their power structure from the ground up and the lies continued.

The lies have never been more prevalent than when Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan opens his mouth; the Boy Wonder lies about everything from Medicare to his marathon times, all in the name of degrading President Obama. When Ryan’s allowed to speak to the media, he loves to point out how Ronald Reagan turned the economy around, but often leaves out facts that tell the entire story, not to mention a complete disregard for social programs Reganomics repealed, revoked, removed or were completely repulsed by.  

At the top of the hill is Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican choice to lose this election. Notwithstanding his debate showing last week, he spent much of the summer trying to figure out ways to lose the election, making misguided remarks about foreign policy, the leaked video about the “47 percent” and showing up to Univision attempting to brown his skin in hopes of appealing to Latino voters. I find it insulting the Party of Lincoln would trot out such an inept candidate, there hasn't been an idiot in the White House since…I digress.

If You Can’t Feed Your Babies…

First Montell Williams, now the Octomom is trying to convince broke people to get a payday loan? Is this what it’s come to for this woman? As if having the attention of the world trained on you for having eight children at one time and fourteen in all wasn’t enough, she has to pop up during Judge Mathis and Maury to convince the 47% they need to grab some duckets from the service she’s endorsing. Straight trash! Did I mention that she also did a porn movie this summer? She filed bankruptcy earlier in the year and was denied, so I guess she believed selling herself (literally and figuratively) was the next best thing, sounds like child services or Benson and Stabler need to get involved.

How Can She Lose, With What She Use?

I guess Tamar Braxton is going to take the Reality TV route into drumming up interest for a solo album, because no one’s been checking for her music in the twelve years since she released her debut album. However, it finally seems as if her business arrangement marriage to Vince Herbert is paying off for her as she’s preparing an album for release on Universal Records next year. It can’t be too bad of a deal to be married to a power broker in the industry and once he realized it was cheaper to keep her, he threw some of his weight around (no pun intended) and landed her a deal. Whether that deal materializes in a substantial amount of sales will weigh on how many fans of television personality carry over into her music.

Substitute Teachers

It’s amazing how the NFL has been doing everything in their power (and beyond) to protect the safety of the players, yet when it came to an agreement with the referees, the on-field purveyors of safety, they were content to hang them out to dry. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet the way they treat those responsible for building the game is deplorable. It’s bad enough former players are treated as yesterday’s news, the majority of current contracts are non-guaranteed, but now referees were being treated as just another byproduct of America’s game. Too bad it backfired on the greedy league as backlash against the replacement refs began from the first snap of the season and rose to fevered pitch after a botched call cost the Green Bay Packers a game on Monday Night Football. It didn't take long for the league to cave and an agreement to be made with the referee’s union. It’s not that the replacements were bad guys, but would you want a substitute teacher preparing your kid for a big test?

Let’s Put Our Heads Together

I’m not really one to give out advice; for the most part, people are going to do what they want anyway. To avoid confusion, I generally just listen, observe and unless my opinion is solicited, watch a new fool being made. However, in the case of Chad Johnson (nèe Ochocinco), I felt I needed to help a brother out. A while back I reached out to the cat and told him to get the ring back from Evelyn Lozada, because there’s no way she could be the type of woman he wanted to marry. His response, a resounding “F you!”, so I laid in the cut and waited for it all to blow up.

The atomic bomb came in the form of a head-butt, charges filed and divorce sought days later. To add insult to injury, he was cut by the Miami Dolphins on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” rocking his house shoes, VH1 cancelled “Ev and Ocho” and Evelyn has been able to make the rounds from “20/20” to OWN trying to rehab her image and playing the ultimate victim. Conversely, this fool tatted his face on his leg, prolonged signing those paper, dropped $300K on a new car and still hasn't gotten a call from the NFL.

Chad, I hate to say I told you so, but nigga…

The Bullet or the Ballot

I found it amusing that Cory Booker came under fire for not highlighting Jerusalem at Israel’s capital from both parties, while the city of Chicago seemed to go unnoticed by all who took the stage those late summer nights. The Windy City is averaging a murder per day and totals surpassed 400 with three months remaining in the year, but none of that seem to concerns the politicians. Rahm Emanuel resigned as the President’s Chief of Staff to be Chicago’s mayor and I imagine there are days he longs for those nights spent strategizing with Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and the others. Instead, he’s up to his neck in gang wars and a city festering with hopelessness and anger, but an apathetic government at his back.

To their credit, Emanuel and Chicago Police Department seem to be working every angle at slowing the violence in the city; he’s hired additional police officers, extended the shifts and implemented anti-violence initiatives, but anything short of the National Guard and a miracle can’t stem the tide of what’s going in Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Philadelphia, Camden, Oakland and everywhere else poor people position themselves for the onslaught of life.

The generations lost to despair may be irreparable; we've come face-to-face with the results of the Reagan White House thirty years later and at alarming consequences. While we spend trillions fighting wars and play Israel’s big brother, our infrastructure is crumbling at its core. There’s not enough time or money being given to our intuitions of foundation (family, education, civil society and industry), but the prisons are swelling from the lack of attention. However, that’s not a conversation to be held publicly these days. It’s not a conversation to be held outside of the boundaries of the slums and ghettos it’s confined to. It’s not a conversation to be held by the President of the United States of America…so I guess it’s a conversation We, the people need to engage in.