In the spirit of “how great things start” keep in mind that the picture you now own started as nothing. It was blurry, underexposed and noisy. By adding some passion, vision and creativity it became something to the world that it wouldn’t have otherwise. This is how all dreams begin and this how all dreams, one day, become reality.
Your Friend,
Jonathan
Why people think cops are assholes…
Posted: Friday, April 24, 2009 at 12:51am
By J. Keys
I don’t deal with the police very often. I’ve found rare occasion for needing their services or protection. That isn’t to say that I don’t respect police or dislike them; I just don’t end up in scenarios with them involved. A cop’s job isn’t easy and I don’t discount the danger they face; I’d rather have police than not have police.
However I hear a lot of stories about how certain cops have really bad attitudes, particularly in situations that don’t really call for an aggressive attitude. I hear this complaint A LOT about Cobb County police officers and up until tonight I didn’t really have an evidence of my own to support a similar claim.
I was having a little trouble with my car tonight and to try and replicate and/or figure out what the problem was I decided to drive it up and down the hill that runs alongside the complex I live in. Upon reaching the crest of that hill I saw lights of all kinds beaming around; fire trucks and police cars. A fire had taken place at the apartment complex next to mine. I turned around, as the road was obviously blocked, and went on my way. Later this evening I came back to the same road to attempt the same test and some emergency vehicles were still there (this is near midnight).
Up ahead was a fire truck on the right side of the road but the left lane appeared clear. A cop stood in the road and flagged me down. I rolled down my window and asked, politely, if I could pass the fire truck ahead. He responded with this:
“No you may not drive over those fire hoses, you need to make a u-turn and turn around”
Oh really, jackass? You mean the fire hoses that I couldn’t see because of the rain, mist and strobing lights? Or the fire hoses I couldn’t see because one of my headlights was out? Prick.
Prick. You’re a prick, sir. That was a prick response and it was COMPLETELY unnecessary. You’re a fucking prick and you don’t deserve to be a cop because of it. You’re JOB is to protect and to serve and all you did was act like a prick when all you had to do was say, “No sir, we’re still in the process of putting out a fire. If you wouldn’t mind, please make a u-turn and find an alternate route.” I wasn’t giving you any attitude or acting like a dumbass. That tells me that you’re probably, by all accounts, a prick right down to your bones.
So, I got news for all the cops out there who act like this and moreover who feel it’s their right to; engage some common sense and some fucking manners and you won’t have so many people remarking you as douchebags or as bullies. If you think it’s cool or effective to make the law abiding citizens fear you then you don’t deserve to dig ditches in the dirt let alone wear a uniform or badge of any kind. On top of that you SHAME every other badge and uniform that elevates the epitome of a police officer when you act in the aforementioned manner –in the military that’s called “conduct unbecoming” and if you’re lucky it will only get you fired.
Mark my words now. I carry a camera, pen and paper just about anywhere I go and I’m gettin your numbers from here on out. This is MY town too and I’m not putting up with pricks masquerading as cops. We elect your bosses and we pay your salaries –we deserve a little class thrown in for good measure. And there ARE good cops out there who AREN’T like this… wherever you are and whomever you are, you’re appreciated (tell your buddies to lighten up when you get the chance).
That is all. -JK
Re: The New President
Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 4:56pm
All,
Ok, it’s WAY past time for a grain a salt on the public Obama-stroking 
I think everybody needs to curb their enthusiasm just a little bit. He won, he’s got his chance to make any number of things happen (or fail to happen). I grant him that opportunity. But I hear a lot of people talking about how much they like this man’s words or what they perceive as his character as if they are some kind of guarantee –they are not. And I would warn them that such things are dangerous without a clear demand and understanding of results and reproach applied to any leader, anywhere.
Greatly charismatic individuals have a tool at their disposal that can just easily become a weapon, granted that they are allowed to wield it in the face of such grandeur and adulation. I don’t believe I need to cite the obvious, historical examples… We, the people, are the keepers of the power and it’s our responsibility to cross-examine and question our leaders as much as it is to support them. I fear that within a certain level of desperation OR enthusiasm this can be easily forgotten. If that occurs we will lose our way and will subsequently allow someone else define it for us.
For anyone to say they are “proud to be American again” should be ashamed (though that phrase seems oddly void of context in its reference). It is America that provides the platform for all of us to live in a democratic republic in which we have the power to choose and vote our leaders into office vs. them taking it as the please. I haven’t liked many of our leaders but I haven’t once been afraid or felt disgraced to be an American.
This country, our freedoms and struggle to make them work, like no other nation in the world, does not belong to the President, the Office of the President or the governments we institutionalize as operating agents –it belongs to us. We must always know this, want this and believe this.
I wish Mr. Obama the best and I look forward to the possibilities that he and his administration bring to our, current, dire situation as well as our bright future. However he is no more perfect than anyone else and he will not always be right. Now that doesn’t propose him as a failure anymore than people’s relief that he’s not “W” or John McCain makes him the answer to every prayer they ever had… but it does give cause for a reality check. Don’t forget to give that a chance, either.
V/R
J. Keys
“Forgetting” With the best intentions we treat this word and its concept like an eraser. I wonder if we ever do, forget that is, but either way the underlying truth is that a mark made is like a thing known –the impression shapes not only us but our world as well. In this regard, all actions and their outcomes are unavoidably indelible.
Regret is a silly thing but it does mitigate both our ridiculous pursuit of perfection as much our altruistic pursuit of spiritual harmony. Curious, but mysteriously appropriate, how this blade in our canon of life-weapons seems to cut so much deeper than the others –as it serves our doubts and provides swath against them too.
Though I believe in second chances there are no do-overs; “next time” is referred to as such for a reason. Additionally, “next time” is never plays out the same as the first time. As for control? You have control over your choices about in as much as making them (though not much more). But as the Sunscreen song says they’re also “half-chance, so are everybody else’s.”
Re: Allowing technology end-users to remain ignorant…
Posted: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 12:37pm
I just think this kind of mentality is tantamount to endorsing personal irresponsibility.
I really don’t get it… I mean, we are expected to show up to work, do work, fill out forms, pay our bills, taxes, put oil and gas in our cars, buy food, do laundry, etc… but when it comes to computers, suddenly, the rules no longer apply. It blows my mind. I don’t expect anyone to be as smart or savvy as me in the technology field but I don’t think I ask any more due diligence from an end-user then they already employ in their own, daily lives.
It’s the year 2009 and people still walk around joking about how they’re “computer illiterate” –they might as well have the same attitude about being truly illiterate. These are modern-day survival skills but few people and, more importantly, leaders make any kind of discipline out of them (as they should). Yup, computer-stupid people do secure our jobs but it’s not as if they could survive, much less thrive, without us if they were even just a little bit more intelligent (or even just better trained).
And that is a critically missed point in the argument that smarter, more accountable users make for a much more efficient process and competitive edge –the more aware and involved a user is with any process, the more rapidly your specialized forces can move to make thing happen and make things better. The alternative is that all support mechanisms of the organization spend more time wiping behinds rather than innovating new methods to stay ahead and grow.
“If I were king…” -JK
I know, I know… to write something title of this nature and feel, as it were, “blessed”? Clarity is a peculiar thing; so often wanted but equally often uninvited… and then so welcomed when it arrives. We are strange creatures.
For anyone reading I would say either don’t worry and/or don’t take too much credit. This isn’t just about shitty people that are obvious scumbags. They are easy to dispatch and keep at bay. No, when I herald the phrase, “people are trash”, I speak of those very special ones that make fools of us… those that bring out our hopes, dreams and trust and then… well… obviously.
I didn’t come up with the phrase or the inherent truth that it exposes. It was another; one of my two best friends in this world. Ironically this is not the only truth he helped me discover as I found my true reason for believing in God because of him as well though this particular truth I write about? I didn’t quite get it until getting kicked in the teeth three times (almost in a row) by three people that pretty much got the best of me and took a big, steaming dump all over my heart and soul so that they could, more or less, save themselves… of, I don’t know, the trouble, the angst or maybe just the fact that fighting for anything that matters that much was just too damn hard for them.
But perhaps I digress slightly as my plight is my own whereas this larger mechanism is far more dangerous than anything insidious because it really isn’t about bad people doing bad things… it’s about good people doing bad things. This failure secedes negotiation, forethought and the atlas hold required to bear the weight of heavy things like love, anger and passion… this very failure is the reason why people become this way, act this way and come to honestly believe that what they are doing is “for the best” when it is really, simply “in their best interest”.
The struggle, survival and our power to choose is not the test of life itself; it is the gift. It is not the hope in each other or our ability in faith that fails; it is we who fail because we choose poorly… or worse we simply choose selfishly.
I imagine this is not over and though what I say is not untrue… it is also not definite. Nevertheless I’m certain this is not the last time we’ll meet but I do hope and hope that I will be blessed to know better the difference, glance and smile perhaps, and let you (all of you) be on your way…
That is all.
Why I Write
By J. Keys
A friend one day asked me why I write some of things I do. In some dire times I can write fairly archaic poetry or prose pieces. I wasn’t sure how to answer him until I had a conversation with a girl living in my dorm who also wrote. She said that when she got to write things out it all seemed so much smaller when it was on paper. I agreed and added that in doing such a thing gave some of the most abstract, perplexing emotions and reactions a certain kind of structure outside of floating in your mind randomly; that those words written down may not always have an end solution but they have a set beginning and at least a general direction.
“A leader is one who must command a certain number of people and take them to a certain goal. A writer is like a commander of his existence. He not only feels, sees, hears, and acts, but he knows how to color those things with words. He not only can analyze and realize his emotions but he can tell others about it using a language they can digest one way or another. This is where writing can come to the fruition of changing the world. Because by delineating such things through writing others can have their own discoveries… and right there the world has become a new and different place forever.” -J. Keys / 1999
Politics : A Scary Opinion
By J. Keys
Opinions are often scary regardless of their factual nature or not. With all the lack of objectivity in people’s ability to even just perceive it’s a wonder that anyone decides anything actually based on a fact or something that they know. I think this idea of the democratic process is somewhat of a far cry in reality as it relates to what really makes a country operate, move, shift and command some kind existence. There is, in my opinion, a lot presumed in the power of one man or woman much less any amorphous group (like a political party or ideology) generating the momentum to make the gears of war or commerce make even one, complete revolution. Just review what happens in other countries of any similar attempt at a similar process and what occurs when something is changed or implemented in a way that those with their wallets and means take full exception to; riots, civil war, coups…
That, I believe, is really the scary part of all of this. There is a disparity that has been brooding within the continuity of the American populace for a very long time between the citizens of this country and their political “leaders” who have pretty much all but failed them. For now the lights are still on, water flows, garbage is picked up and taken away… but given the condition of this disparity and the fact that servants of the state have almost single-handedly reversed their roles to act as kings and lords and given that we’re probably overdue for a revolution anyway? …I fear, despite who takes office, that the shedding of our adolescents will be upon us sooner rather than later…
The Core (Epiphany Continued)
By J. Keys
I believe your question misses the point (or remains unfinished enough to do so); to face, ask and answer the question “why not?” is the only way to even begin to undo so many things and, more so, realize what may have been unrealized before. It begs of redemption and of possibilities left unconsidered; it begs of what could be, might be and more (or clearly should be). It is a process indicative of critical self-analysis in which we put ourselves outside of the framework of our own lives and world and can, without limits, rearrange the pieces to see what we could not otherwise.
There is only one thing, comprised of two letters, that separate so many from so much; the content from the joyful being of no small or insignificant exception –”if”. So seemingly small and passing it forms the basis of a greater length of separation from all things that should be, regardless of success, in their intended life –”what if”, “if we only”, “i would if this”…and more words and supposed reasons surround that core waiting on a variable or solution to make it all easy and simple or obvious that does not exist.
“If you could?” then “why don’t you?” and “if you believe?” then “why don’t you know?” or, most simply, “what if?” then “why not?” One go-around, one life. There’s no way to know all the answers; but there is a way to leave no question unanswered. This is that way.
A Memory of Epiphany
By J. Keys
You know there’s something almost divine when you share with someone a revelation or truth that was revealed to you along your path of life. I remember when I told her about “looking up”; it was as if all other processes, thought and concern stopped in that instant -dropping everything to experience the gravity of its profound nature as I correlated it to Davinci’s remarks on flight.
I find even the whole idea of the situation tragic. How many chances and how many times is the genuine connection made. Not just someone reading your words, being impressed and wishing they could do that too… but someone who was just changed, before your eyes, by something that changed you and inspired you to write it down.
I fearfully suppose that I am being taught a hard but needed lesson; that what I suppose is a large part of my problem in finding earthly equilibrium and thriving on heavenly faith. That what I, think I want, and should have or think I see… is in actuality beside the point and might potentially be irrelevant.
My only question, then, is this –is circumstance a detail or a dictator? Maybe that depends on what you’re willing to give up… you might just be exchanging one predicament for another. Then again you might just be missing out on the chance you were supposed to take…
If, if, if, if, if, if, if…. if…. if what allows? Are we puppets? Defined by that which defines in a word decided beyond our gift to choose otherwise? Then what of attitude or belief… against that word of not who we are at the core but what we might have become…. decided by a word and not a choice or a choice undone for the right reasons… and not a word. Realization and letting go share the same… coin… as recently put to me in one example regarding another. Neither is easy… both are choices… neither are controlled by chance… or a word.
I don’t think anyone claims “easy” as a right (at least they shouldn’t); but nor is it a necessity. Sure, “easy” is nice because it requires little to no risk or often even effort –thus the nature of descriptor to wit. “Easy” is convenient and appears to parallel a clear perspective… easy money, easy life, easy job… with the return on “easy” not always being what it seemed to start. So “easy” can be dangerous too… but just because something isn’t “easy” doesn’t mean that something contrary to “easy” is wrong, unattainable or not worth it…
And there it is again “if {blank} allows” which really equates to a logic statement; if {this condition is met} then {this outcome or variable is subject}. Though logical in nature it only qualifies an outcome based on the availability of influence as the environment exists. It’s an argument lacking because it dictates that nothing can change unless that environment is different but doesn’t explain what defines the environment (how it came to be) in the first place or what has the ability to change it… which is choice.
But if a choice made has such power over what any set of circumstances become or are… then a choice has the power… to change them no matter what. And there’s the rub. Life out of the order we’d prefer with a question mark at the end. So many things to consider and to realize. Easy, difficult… eh…. some understanding hides in the reverse of a known hypothetical “If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?” and that being obvious; why don’t we?