Time To Be Intentional

thank you for this opportunity to just

speak

and talk to you just for a little while

you know when i think about the overall

theme of healing i think about

intentional and being intentional what

does it mean and i’m reminded that to be

intentional

it means that you must recognize that

there is an ailment there is an issue

that comes with healing and so when i

think about that

i think about something that has to be

done on purpose

and deliberate so for healing

there has to be a deliberate

effort of change in other words

change done on purpose

i’m not sure who anonymous is

but i love anonymous because anonymous

says that

nothing changes unless folks feel

uncomfortable

the other thing about anonymously says

we cannot forever

hide the truth about ourselves from

ourselves

and so let me apologize to you up front

because i have an intention today to

make you feel just a little bit

uncomfortable i mean really

because i want to talk about the

experiences that we all have in this

life

i want to know from you

do you believe in facts why why don’t we

believe in facts i mean

anymore someone says something and we

just

push it away sometimes you know someone

tells you something that’s an expert

and we question it why why why do we

question

everything i mean if you think about it

if someone

that’s considered an expert says that

this is what it is

and yet we question it and then we start

an argument about it

also why why do we believe

and and i want you to think about this

yourself why do you believe that your

beliefs are better than someone else’s

i mean it is what we do right we believe

that what we know and what we believe in

is better than the next man someone says

that i believe this

and then we turn around and says well no

that’s not right because it’s this

why why do we we have those arguments

why are we fighting about those things

also what do you want

that i don’t want i mean really ask

yourself that question

what is it that you want that i don’t

want or even your fellow man what is it

that you want that they don’t want

i mean if we stop and think about it i

want

a great place to live i want affordable

health care

i want a good place to send my kids to

go to school

i want all those things so do you not

want those things

i mean really we have to ask ourselves

that

do we not want the same things i mean

it’s exactly what i want

so it leads me to when we think about

you know our experiences and chuck

colson said and chuck holston was

one of nixon’s guys and he says that

we’re all fooled by our own limited

perceptions

our perceptions are based on our

experiences right

so if i’ve experienced something then i

understand what that

experience is if you’ve never

experienced it you don’t understand what

that experience is

i mean think about if you’ve never been

to jail if you’ve never been to jail

only experience that you have is what

someone else says said

jail is bad i mean we all kind of

believe that jail is bad right

but if you’ve never experienced it you

don’t know that

and so but we then we question and so

then we don’t trust

other people to have their own

experience we

question their experience i mean

something as simple as

if i say that i believe that there is

one true living god then someone says

well nope that’s that’s not right

well why can’t that be right for me i

mean you don’t have to agree with me but

at least respect that that’s what i feel

or maybe you say

that mcdonald’s has the best fries well

i have to accept that and i’m not going

to argue with you on that i mean

you know granted i believe that they do

but

i mean quickly if someone says

mcdonald’s has the best no wendy’s has

the best fries or

someone else has the best for us why why

are we fighting

we fight over masks think about that

right now we’re fighting and right now

there’s a vaccination and

it’s probably elevated to the point that

we’re fighting over the vaccination

i mean if you don’t want to get it don’t

get it if you want to get it get it but

why are we fighting over it

i mean folks we have to be intentional

about everything we do and if we think

about the fact of what’s going on

covet 19 has affected everybody

in this world not just in this country

but in this world think about that so if

it has affected us

that much why are we fighting because it

is effective

maybe you haven’t had anyone to lose

their life but i guarantee you

that your job was affected somehow i

guarantee you

i guarantee your livelihood was affected

because you didn’t get to go to your

favorite restaurant during those

those months you didn’t get to go to

your favorite store

doing those much i mean maybe you even

had to fight over toilet paper

i mean so we were all affected in some

fashion but yet we

fight over it and it’s time we stop

fighting so we have to be intentional

about what we’re doing and who we are

and what we want to do

and so my desire today is to

really challenge you i want to challenge

you

on being intentional for healing our

country because we are right now in a

divisive time

and what can we do to do that well if we

want to do that

you know and i know that we don’t want

to talk about politics i know that’s

always the deadly

subject but a politics affects our lives

so much and when you think about this

you know we had an elected official who

says that diversity is not an american

strength

mixing cultures leads to lower quality

of life

i’m going to tell you something that if

someone was elected and they believe

that they should not be representing

anyone because you’ll have to realize

that guess what diversity affects

us all and this country was built on

diversity diversity is what makes us go

it’s our differences it’s how we all

come together so if we have an elected

official

who believes that then why are they

representing anyone

i mean think about this for a minute if

you’re living in an area and there is

about us let’s say we can throw any

number up there 30

20 40 that that population

is diverse then how

can that representative how can that

person who is elected

truly represent that area

i i don’t think that that’s possible i

don’t think that they can and i don’t

think that they can justly and fairly

do that and so it brings me to

the thought of when we think about

things that

affect us and things that hurt us you

know i ask you why do you think your

beliefs are better than

you know my beliefs are or even vice

versa my belief’s better than your

beliefs

but then and if i tell you that i’m

hurting

if i tell you that something offends me

i mean i’m not looking for a fight

i’m just telling you how i feel now

again we have

an elected person who says that

diversity is not our strength we

live in america diversity is our

strength

and i’m gonna tell you something that

mixing of cultures because guess what i

don’t care where someone’s from if they

are from

mexico japan if they’re from europe

whatever if they come to this country

and they get a job

and they pay taxes guess what that job

pays for them a place to live

which helps the economy it pays gas in a

car vehicle

which helps the economy it pays for food

which helps the economy so how can we

ever say that the mixing of cultures

leads to a lower quality of life and so

we think about diversity and we think

about the fact

that we fight all the time and so

my message today is that i want you to

be intentional about

who you are voting for who you’re

electing because

i mean and i realize that sometimes you

know our politics or

what they are and and it’s nothing

personal against anyone but we got to

think about those things because

things hurt people things affect people

i mean i tell you that the confederate

flag

the confederate flag is a sign of

rebellion a sign of hate

and don’t get me wrong i mean again i’m

not trying to make this political but

if i tell you that that reminds me

of slavery because we all know that the

confederacy

was rebellion it was a group of states

who said

we do not want to adhere to what the

united states is doing because we

believe

that they’re going to abolish slavery so

we’re going to

separate from you so that’s what it is

and then when i see it and i say man

that’s hate i i don’t want to be

reminded so when i see that flag

i’m reminded and you can truly

understand

how disappointed i was to see my

congressman

who was elected who lived in iowa

flying a confederate flag on his desk i

mean

i’m originally from the south and

you know i understand when people talk

about

you know it’s music it’s the bad boys

it’s it’s always

hey i grew up with dukes of hazard you

see the confederate flag on the car but

you know what we know what it means

and when people fly it and they riot

and they uh you know pillage and do all

those things

because guess what we saw that happen

now people say all the time that you

know i believe in

protest and i believe in peaceful

protesting but there’s always a butt

but i don’t like the rioting i don’t

like the looting

i don’t either so therefore guess what

we we agree on that

but what i don’t understand is when you

tell me

that you do not like someone kneeling

for the flag

but yet you support the confederate flag

because remember

the confederate flag was against the

american flag there was a war

think about that for a minute the

confederate flag

was flown for their side of the war and

the american flag was swung so if you

respect the american flag you should

never

want to see the confederate flag flown

we are in america

do you agree with this i mean seriously

we talk about we don’t like the the the

looting and the rioting

but yet we support police and yet we saw

one day

that police were being battered being

bruised

all because someone said well it’s my

right

to protest it’s my right to protest the

election

but yet and still when someone else

protests

it’s not good you decide

what’s peaceful and what’s not peaceful

now when i tell you again that i need

you to be intentional it’s time that we

be intentional in everything that we do

when i tell you that black lives matter

i don’t want you to fight me

i don’t want you to tell me no that’s no

all lives matter

i want you to hurt me now here’s a

picture

of my little sister and and there’s a

picture of her

and i when we were in high school yeah i

had a little bit of hair back then

you know trying to look good but there’s

also a picture of her and i

on her wedding day and my little sister

she is a i mean she was a fire cracker

she always

wanted to be around me when we’re in

high school she totally was

attached to me i want you to i want to

help you understand this black lives

matter thing

see my little sister

contracted brain cancer now let me

explain some to you i have always been a

supporter

of breast cancer every october i wear

my pink i have my my pink shirt my pink

band i i mean i do it up i wear pink

every week so people like hey you

got the pink i’ve always given money to

breast cancer awareness

i tell you what when my sister got brain

cancer

you best believe that breast cancer did

not matter to me at that time or at that

moment

brain cancer mattered to me so

and it’s not that breast cancer doesn’t

matter

because i still support breast cancer

but i can tell you that

brain cancer was important to my family

at that time so when i tell you

or you heard someone says that black

lives matter guess what

it’s my brain cancer it’s not saying

that

other lives don’t matter that white

lives don’t matter or or the the great

when blue lives don’t matter

because all lives do matter and just as

all cancer matter it doesn’t matter if

it’s

lung cancer skin cancer pancreatic

cancer

testicular cancer it doesn’t matter all

cancer doesn’t matter

but when something is affecting you and

your family

it’s whatever that may be and it may be

diabetes for you it may be cholesterol

it may be whatever it may be but that is

what matters to you

so we have to be intentional about

what’s affecting us because when we say

black lives matter

it means that there is an epidemic on

black people dying and that’s what we’re

talking about and it doesn’t matter if

it’s black on black crime

because that affects us and we want a

solution for that

when we say black lives matter it

doesn’t matter if it’s police brutality

we want a solution for that so we’re not

asking you

not to think about other you know it it

amazes me that when i say black lives

matter people say blue lives matter as

is blue lies it

is a life it’s a job

i never ever want to see a police

officer lose their life

ever they have a very safe job and you

know what

i hope that they come home every day but

i hope that my sons

my friends my fellow

african-american males come home every

day as well

so when someone says black lives matter

i want you to think about whatever

element you’re dealing with and i want

you to say you know what

it it i can understand i can relate to

that it does man

i get it so i’m going to help you with a

solution whatever it may be

my little sister she lost her battle

with cancer

so i can tell you that no matter what

every day

of my life i am looking at how we can

help

people with brain cancer and again not

that breast cancer doesn’t matter in the

other things that matter

but that matters to me at this moment

and at this time in my life

jane elliott said that prejudice is an

emotional commitment to

ignorance folks we have to be

intentional

we have to be intentional if we expect

and want to heal

our country and heal this land we have

to

not be ignorant we have to not be

ignorant on purpose because we all know

what is happening in this world and we

know that if i ask

each and every one of you if you wanted

to switch places with a person of color

neither one of you would because you

know

and that means that you know that it’s

wrong and so

i beg and i challenge you to be

intentional

in everything that you do going forward

i beg and ask that you be intentional

about things that you hear

jokes that you make and the people that

you see

because that’s the only way we will heal

this country

thank you