by Crystal Clear

People are meaning seekers and meaning givers-

For the life of me I have now for the second time in two days chosen to use a quote by an author I can not remember . My best guess is an existentialist such as Sartre. An ancillary one by Shakespeare,

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

How do these relate to my somewhat provocative title, Something the Peace-Loving-at-Any-Cost & Anti-War Crowd Can Learn from Gangstas?

Initally, I entered the field of psychotherapy quite vocal and convinced peace on earth was completely possible. Over the past twelve years I have learned from working with gangstas and youth from the hood this is a grand fantasy of well-meaning clueless groups and highly improbable. In my experience, these youths give example and are very clear on their allegiance and the shared meaning they give to the various gang symbols such as Red-Norteno, Blue-Sureno, and Lightning bolt-White Pride. Gang members and those who affiliate with these crowds might acknowledge the absurdity and the never-ending cycle of violence and death but many also acknowledge they get off on it and it is their chosen way of life no matter the opportunities offered them or the consequences they face. Often their families are even deeply entrenched in several generations of violence and are career criminals having been in and out of the penal system. Loss of the status of gang member is loss of self and identity. For those who even consider leaving the gang, the opportunities offered by the military are an excellent and honorable way if not the only way to give new meaning to old habits and yes, values!

In California, funding for higher education for foster youths is pretty much a blank check. The money is definitely there, but the majority of these youths do not have the interest or educational skills necessary to pursue further education at this time in their youth. Wishing something isn’t so does not help anyone and endangers many. When engaged in respectful and genuine dialogue, these young men and women have helped make it Crystal Clear to me that there are people in our world who will hate America just to hate America and will hate America no matter what America says or does. There are people who will, no matter your views and values concerning the meaning you give history or a situation, give a very different meaning to it and act according to their beliefs and values. Seems to me the well-meaning peace-loving-at-any-cost and anti-war crowd might want to address letting go of the fantasy of World Peace and realize there are always going to be terrorist promoting and war with America at any cost folk. We here in America still have choices…

Said Crystal Clear @ 3:25 pm | Permalink   

1. Wow that was pretty deep, Crystal. I never thought of it that way, but your comparisons are appropos and accurate. My fear is that the anti-war anti-American crowd will get some traction and we will end up with a civil war here. Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep that kind of action in check. Hopefully.

   Comment by Cao — 1/24/2005 @ 6:01 pm

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2. Excellent post!

   The nihilism of gangs is a good metaphor for the terrorists. I like the line from Russell Crowe in Gladiator talking about “Rome is the light…the rest of the world is dark and brutal…”

   America is “the light”…the last best hope as Lincoln said of mankind. We’ve simply got to ignore the rest of the world (including the moonbats in this country), put our head down, and wade into the darkness.

   Comment by superhawk — 1/24/2005 @ 10:10 pm

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3. Cao-Your opinion and thoughts mean a great deal to me. Care to share more of your thoughts about how you see traction could lead to civil war?

   Comment by Crystal Clear — 1/24/2005 @ 11:34 pm

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4. Sure, Crystal, I hope I can put it into words. Consider in your mind, the forces that are gathering together. We have domestic terrorism not only in the shape and form of gangs and the gang mentality, criminals who are virtually members of a criminal world and don’t care about right or wrong–they do it because it’s always been done and breaking through that heritage with common sense, reasoning and even morality will be almost impossible.

   Consider the mentality of such groups as the Ruckus Society, Earth First!, Green Peace, etc. Those groups are actually trained in domestic terrorist activities–Ruckus has a training camp where they teach how to set fire to cars, break windows, and so on.

   The Green Menace

   Ruckus at the Republican Convention

   And these people are not open to debate on issues; they feel what they’re doing is what is right for the rest of us, they’re not willing to hear another point of view.

   Add these things together. Add up the fact that opposing philosophies don’t discuss disagreeing points of view in a reasonable manner, but the differences have become more stark and the way they disagree is to throw a pie in someone’s face or worse–breaking laws or finding a way around breaking laws in order to force the opposition into submission.

   While all of this is building, you have domestic organizations such as CAIR, which has made no bones about wanting Islam to become dominant here in the US.

   Jackie Mason calls Islam a Murderous Religion

   Pipes Appointment, CAIR and the Future of America

   Some of these organizations are working together because they believe American is an imperialist leviathin that must be destroyed. I’m talking about an aerial view of this–big picture. And the story that is unfolding is a frightening one to me.

   We are seeing the same type of strangulation of freedom of speech in the Middle East as we saw in Germany in the ‘3o’s. The terrorists have control there, and they are working here as well–using the leftist “PC Police” to force us to accept more of their Islamist tripe. Most Americans are not even willing to look at some of this (what I consider to be the whole story); and what’s more frightening is that these forces are here in the United States working to take us down.

   The difference between the Islamists and the Nazis is most people realize what the nazis stood for was a danger to the world. The Islamists are getting a different response than the Nazis did, but their ideology is virtually the same. Heck, the Nazis have joined with Al Qaeda on the discussion forums at Pravda.ru –

   Freshman Attack at Ball State

   Restoration Weekend: Unholy Alliance

   Unholy Alliance Part I

   Take a look at the Bush Inauguration Protest photos here–it’s a frightening picture pulling into view–

   I hope that was coherent–I’m in a hurry this morning.

   Comment by Cao — 1/25/2005 @ 4:51 am

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5. […] regarding the danger his officers and all Americans are facing with regards to ignoring the nihilism of gangs an […]

   Pingback by The Wide Awakes » Opportunity for Meaning both Taken and Missed in Raya Tragedy and Murder of Officer Stevenson — 1/29/2005 @ 7:12 pm

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