Brighton (Denver: to live, beach, classes)

[McGowdog]

Now that we've brought the US Constitution and our civil/human rights into the mix, I'd like to add an excerpt from one of my current mystics/spiritual teachers; namely David R. Hawkins from his book I;

"The paradox is that the Luciferic distortion of truth protests the public use of the term "God" by resorting to the courts to exercise the God-given rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States in order to secularize society and thereby, paradoxically, remove its very source of authority for the right to freedom (The Constitution calibrates at over 700 [towards enlightenment and pretty GD bitcheon]; the politically correct' position calibrates at 180 [rather sucky].) Understandably, therefore, the elitist feel "uncomfortable" with and reference to God (Lucifer refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of God through pride and greed for power.)

"This positionality is unable to tell truth from falsehood and, due to the distortion that is really an extremely grave failure of discernment, it results in the inability to correctly identify the perpetrator and the victim. This leads to a paradoxical switch of such roles in which the alleged victim becomes and is revealed to be the real perpetrator; The whole "victimology" movement (and its associated pop psychology) is innately injurious in that it pathologizes the vicissitudes of life that every mature adult has to learn to handle."

So ... the way I see it... it's one thing to say that 10 million Jews were killed. It could also be said that 70 million of us died and Europe was destroyed. The really bizzare thing about it was that Hitler hated Germans and Winston Churchill was seen as a warmonger who could have prevented the thing because he was not fooled by the subterfuges of naive diplomatic negotiations.

A mere idea can lead to the death of 10s of millions of people; "The collectivist-farm idealism of Chairman Mao resulted in one of the greatest famines in history, and 30 million people died."

If we remove God from our Constitution or the Pledge of Allegiance, they go from 705 and 520 respectively to 485 and 295... respectively. So that brings us down to the realm of the human intellect limited by our own egos... so this gives much more credence to this whole black/white dualistic and linear thinking.

Kind of boring to me.

[suzco]

As a follow-up, in today's (1/28/10) Denver Post, there's another article about further developments:

Neo-Nazis' road cleanup moves away from church

Gary Randall wasn't happy when he heard that a white supremacist group would be cleaning a stretch of U.S. 85 running past Elmwood Baptist Church, where he is pastor.

For one thing, the church has a contract with the Colorado Department of Transportation to clean the road as part of the Adopt-a-Highway program. But even more important, "I just didn't want them by our church because it is multiracial and our members are uncomfortable with anything like that," he said.

Randall complained to CDOT and on Wednesday the agency announced that the National Socialist Movement would adopt a different part of U.S. 85, from Bridge Street to just south of 168th Avenue. . .

[DenverLawGal]

David: Yeah, I thought it was amusing too (my friend in L.A.'s comment). Good news though, it seems to have faded away as quickly as it popped up!

Dam, I should have read to the end of this thread. I missed McGow and Suzco's posts. I'll post back.

[DenverLawGal]

McGow: That was quite the interesting post. Thank you. One thing I'd like to add, while it might be boring to you, it's not boring to others (like me) who've spent a lifetime being humiliated, made fun of, teased, belittled, and made to feel ugly --- simply because I'm brown.

[DenverLawGal]

Suzco: Thanks for posting that.

From the article:

"If we get inquiries off it, sure, that is great, but that is not the outright purpose of this," Land said of the group's cleanup effort."

I call B.S.

Also in the article:

"Last year, Missouri state lawmakers passed a transportation bill that contained a provision renaming a road adopted by the neo-Nazi group the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway," after a prominent Jewish theologian and civil rights advocate."

RFLMAO!!!!!!!!

[Count David]

Originally Posted by wanttomoveeast

and made to feel ugly --- simply because I'm brown.

Isn't there a phrase that goes something like..."brown is beautiful,"

If I were you, I would have used that as a comeback.

[DenverLawGal]

David: Thanks. You know, when you are a kid, and a girl, you often tend to just crawl inside yourself. I know other (guys) who went thru it and they just beat people up or constantly got in fights. I didn't have that in me. I had a semi-buddhist mom who taught me to educate myself and use words not force, and I really didn't understand why all of these people didn't like me. I felt like I must be ugly, I must be weird looking. Why else would they hate me? It took me years to de-bug all that and honestly I still struggle with those issues.

I think you are thinking big is beautiful. LOL

[Count David]

Originally Posted by wanttomoveeast

David: Thanks. You know, when you are a kid, and a girl, you often tend to just crawl inside yourself. I know other (guys) who went thru it and they just beat people up or constantly got in fights. I didn't have that in me. I had a semi-buddhist mom who taught me to educate myself and use words not force, and I really didn't understand why all of these people didn't like me. I felt like I must be ugly, I must be weird looking. Why else would they hate me? It took me years to de-bug all that and honestly I still struggle with those issues.

I think you are thinking big is beautiful. LOL

Up until about the past 1/2 year or so, I always assumed people mistreated, judged, or hated me based on the way I look, but something (I don't know what exactly, I think it was my short time in nearly all-white Spokane) made me decide that wasn't it. The old me would have expected somebody that looks more like me to be nicer to me, simply because we're alike. The old me would have expected to make more friends of a similar background. Using that logic, I would have made no friends and would have been mistreated all the time in a place like Spokane, or Ridgecrest, CA (also very white). The old me was wrong. Very wrong. Now, I actually think the pressure is off when I'm around people that aren't like me.

I think if we make ourselves believe that people mistreat us based on our appearances, then people will (in our own heads), when they really aren't mistreating us for any physical reason. They are just jerks, unhappy, preoccupied, or disinterested.

I never had boatloads of friends growing up, but I know it wasn't because of how I looked, because most everyone else looked like me growing up in Southern CA. My lack of tons of friends, and/or occasional ridicule/getting picked on, came from something I was doing, or not doing. Social relations (for better or worse) can be rather petty IMO (across the board).

Everywhere I go, I try to maintain a good, upbeat attitude, and it tends to rub off on people, and now I rarely seem to have these uncomfortable encounters (where you feel like people hate you for unapparent reasons) anywhere I go. If somebody wants to prejudge me, I'll just chock it up as snobbishness, and toss them out of my mind. If people want to be friends/friendly with me, at least I'd want them to like me for me, not because of some preconceived conforming notion. I'll allow myself to stand on my own credibility (or lack thereof).

I'm certain it's "brown is beautiful", I'm even more certain after I googled it:
"Brown is beautiful", 990,000 hits.
"Big is beautiful" (complete with pictures), 525,000 hits.

I swore I didn't make it up.

[DenverLawGal]

haha, nice David.

Yeah, like I said, it started for me when I was very young. I went to an all-white school from 4th-12th and also in a very small town which really didn't help. I think there were maybe 3 blacks in the entire town. A lot of hispanics but they really kept to themselves and I guess it was obvious I wasn't hispanic. So it took me until adulthood to work thru it and realize that I am not in that town any longer or that school and attitude makes all the difference.

I've come to realize Denver really is a decent place. Very, very friendly people. And I make sure to work hard at maintaining that happy, upbeat attitude and yep, you are right, people react to that.

Funny also about looks, because when I travel, I often get mistaken for a Puerto Rican or Dominican. On my last trip to the DR, I realized I look just like them!

"Brown is beautiful" --- thanks.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by wanttomoveeast

huh. Interesting. I don't think I should have allowed people to choose more than one poll option. LOL. I suppose the media attention is what they wanted. But part of me also thinks well, most people I meet act shocked when I tell them that racism is not gone as they so believe it is. They truly are not aware. So part of me feels that it's important for others to be aware - or they could all just walk around in rose tinted glasses with their head in the sand?

I agree on the constitutional part, but I'm still embarrassed. Mainly just that morons like that are in our area and making a scene. Not embarrassed that CDOT allowed them to participate, just that they exist.

I'm sure they do it just for the shock value. I seriously doubt if these people are that concerned about trash along highways. I guess I should just consider myself lucky that I live in a "bubble" where people are accepting, nice, and not overtly racist.