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