#seanpratt

SEAN PRATT & The SWEATS @ West Wing. #blessup #seanprattandthesweats #seanpratt #farnamstreet #westwing

Abolish the two party system.

We started talking about religion at work today. I talked about how I got baptized three different times but it didn't take. I also talked about how at 12 I asked questions that no one could answer and I realized it was all bullshit. Even though I told my stories in a lively funny way, it was actually all true. As a youth I was very fundamentalist. When my friends stole a Playboy from their dad and passed it around, I believed my subsequent erection was a sin that jeopardized my soul. When everyone else placed their hand on their heart to pledge allegiance to the flag, I refused because it was idolatry and to perform the pledge of say the words would doom me to Hell. I read the Bible, highlighting passages that had deeper meanings for me. I prayed nightly, not for selfish materialistic bullshit, but for everyone else; including enemies and people I never met. However, the more I read and listened and prayed, the more I started to ask questions. For example, would Gandhi go to heaven or hell? No answer is right if you think about it. If Gandhi will go to heaven even though he is not a Christian, then what is the sense in me going to church, praying, and so on? Can I not also get into heaven by being generous, charitable, compassionate, and loving? If Gandhi would go to hell, what kind of a fucked up deity would allow that? Do I really want to be in "heaven" with something like that? Worship you? Fuck you dude. For that matter, I asked at 12, if babies are not baptized and then die, will they go to heaven? The answer was that they went to purgatory. Why the fuck would a loving God do that to an innocent baby? In fact, why would a loving God allow any children be hurt? I have since realized that God is not some anthropomorphic being acting and speaking like humans. God is consciousness. So I did try three times to get baptized. I felt nothing each time. There was no joyous moment of enlightenment or realization that I was part of some bigger thing. I felt all alone in a room full of people who were, in my opinion then (and now) delusional. I walked away from the church at 12 realizing that it was a bunch of bullshit. As a teenager of the 80s I delved into literature and cinema, specifically Sci-Fi and horror. I read non-fiction books about demons, Angels, Fortean phenomena, and so on. In my later teens I began reading up on other religions. I spent years reading, thinking, meditating, pontificating, and filling my head with various truisms. I realized no religion will make me a good person. I was always a good person. If you need religion to make you good, or more to the point, the threat of eternal damnation, then you really are not a good person. Consider is: your thoughts, words, and actions will matter if there really is a judgement day. Not so much your belief in one deity or another. How you treat others matters.

It is a fact that on a daily basis, our military leaders and intelligence agencies make decisions that kill innocent people. Our drone bombs do not have pinpoint accuracy. Innocent lives are taken whenever a target is struck (some of which are questionable whether they really are terrorist threats). We call it collateral damage so we do not have to think about the ugly truth that it is innocent men, women and children being killed. The majority of Americans go to work to earn enough money to just get by. We are locked into this rat race that makes us politically impotent regarding these decisions. What's worse is that far too many Americans think that our shit does not stink. No one seems to care that our attitude and foreign policy allows the continued deaths of millions of innocent lives. Instead, we fight about whether a woman and her doctor can choose to have a medical procedure; or whether two people who are in love and happen to be of the same sex can get married; or where someone can take a piss, and many other minor issues that should be meaningless (if equality really existed). We have a growing number of homelessness in America. We have a growing population of people going hungry or are malnourished. We have a failing education system that freezes kids out, and self-centered parents think that syphoning publics funds into Charter schools (private organizations) is the solution - even though this will freeze out even more kids. We have a growing segment of society is this frustrated, disenfranchised, angry, and demanding their right to gun ownership without limit to protect good people from bad people (many of whom are bigoted against Muslims, blacks, latinos, homosexuals, and liberals, on top of everything else I mentioned). We have many Americans who are callous about the innocent lives taken by military actions and US Foreign Policies, not to mention blaming the American poor for their own situations. Or they are so focused on their own situations that they cannot even begin to stand up and fight for others. Now take a step back and imagine that you are related to one of those people called collator damage (the ones that no one here will acknowledge). Imagine that you only see what the US media pumps out; a callous nationalist population cheering on these attacks. Would you want justice for your loved ones? Don't lie, you know you would. How easy would it be to radicalize someone like that? Sprinkle on the popularity of Trump's anti-Muslim comments and that would push anyone further into a dark hatred of America. I do not condone terrorism. I do not condone the taking of innocent lives. But you can at the very least, understand why someone can be drawn into that web. This is not a post sympathizing with terrorists. Far from it, I implore anyone considering a terrorist attack to look into their own hearts, and realize that taking innocent lives only perpetuates the cycle of violence that always takes only innocent lives with it. There are better ways to overcome hatred and callous military aggression. They are not solutions that happen overnight, unfortunately. But it will take all of us working together.