I have come to think of people as books. We as a people have this idea of being able to read people. When we sign up for a job we display a resume that describes our motivations for job placement based on past behaviors and future desires. That piece of paper, that file becomes our spoken word and from this word it is determined what can and can not be expected from us.

When we grow up in an environment where our character is disciplined, then it can be expected that we will reflect a good character and be of moral courage. Words will become our bond and from these words, all those around us will seek wisdom from us. That is if we present ourselves to be faultless, that is if we present our character to be of a higher standard.

Then there are those that tell us our character can be flawed and love is still granted to us. That if we present our character to be amoral but are decent in our outward expression, that our actions should be an ends to means. There are those that present there characters of there story to only, on the surface level, to be helpful while at the same time filling there hands, mouths, ears, eyes and overall essence with unsightly things. There are those that will smile in your face, while there hearts show contempt and spite. I always find these people the be very disturbing. Many will say, “I am here to help you,” while at the same time, stealing all you own.

There are a lot of business’s that are like that. They will brand there company with the slogan of, “Money back guaranteed!”

 Then when you ask for your 3 month trial refund and explain why you are dissatisfied with there product, will stamp on to you a non-refundable amendment that was signed by you because you did not read the fine print. At the end of this experiment you are dollars short of your goal and you made to ask, “Was that money really worth it to lie to me, had you been honest in the first place, I would spend more money with you, I would  have told all my friends about you, developed more referrals for you, and your business would have blossomed.”

Instead that business owner continues to play the numbers, scams a few more hundred and you never hear about them in next three years because too many found out there word was not there bond.

In this life, there are many that will state we only have one life and so we must live it to the utmost, and at the expense of others right now. I find those that live this way to be very sad. I weep for these men and women because they are forever piled upon by the lies and deceits it takes to develop a character they can not personally condone but must stomach to pay bills that are just as futile and fleeting as there lives. They are purposeless, hustling and bustling people whom believe there story will end when they are no longer living.

I am of the brand of people that believe the story does not end in this life alone. That indeed we are to be the very best we can be, none of us were made to be or to feel less than anyone, but we do not have soil our character in this life to be someone. There is a hope of everlasting and it is due to this hope that I seek to be a book worth reading. My story is that of trials and victories and a need to be morally relative in all things. At times I feel people take advantage of a character like that. In hopes of doing good, they will come and ask for something and when it can not be had, will determine you to be worthless because you could not deliver. I have an urge to be all things to all people, to reflect goodness. I just don’t like being taken advantage of.

Your brother, comes to you and says, “You broke my machine, you have to pay for it.” You go look at his machine because you are worried that you might have really broken it. You tell him, you willing to repay him for the damage, and come to find out he is using it. All seems to be well, according to him, it is not working as well as it used to. This is with no account that it is a used machine. Nothing works as well as used to, if it is being used. Certainly he does not expect you buy a brand new machine. His countenance tells you otherwise. You put the money aside in case it seems that you really have to replace the tool, cause you were the last one to use it. Only he is still using it, days go by and it is still cleaning as it was when you had it. You begin to feel lied to, to feel extorted and are made to ask, “Why?”

Why is his word so fowl in your mouth, why does it bother you that your brother, who is an open book would lie to you, or about you? Could be that we only want the best for those around us and are shamed when we see less. We are made to ask, “Will any of this matter, when we are on our way home to heaven?”

We go out of our way to make excuses for the behaviors of those around us, that this world will always be filled with the selfish and we just need to get over it. I don’t want to believe that. I don’t want to believe that people are just prone to use one another and that the things we say mean nothing.

I want the meditations of my heart to reflect the verbiage of my mouth and I want my story told even in the hear after.

So I have been having moments, in my hunt of buyers and sellers of art; of explaining the value of art and what is real art.

We are in an amazing time of statements and factions and ideals. A time when beliefs drive us to do anything and everything. A time when cinematography can help influence to minds of people. A time when we can say a thousand things in one image.

What I don’t want to be lost in this time of confused sentiments and reality is Art.

The stroke of my pencil and pen are just as touching as my words, just not as fast.

Art is not to be a confusing garble of lines to no purpose.

   <<<<<<<<<<<BAD ART>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Much like any writer, if one is to string a list of verbs together and say that is action, no one would listen to your cacophony of sound. They would consider you a loud boisterous village idiot. I have been privy to a lot of village idiots in the art world and I strive everyday to ensure that is not what I am presenting. I suppose that is why I take so much time to hear the opinions of those viewing my work. I really want to get a grasp of what they think art is. If someone tells me there is no such thing as bad art. I stop listening.

<<<<<<<<<<GREAT ART>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

When we present the world from our eyes, there is a certain level of truth that must be adhered to or there was no point in speaking or illustrating.

<<<<<<<<<<GOOD ART>>>>>>>>>>>> can be bought at a negotiated price.

I want people to be inspired by story, by the imagery. I want to be able to ask people what do you see in the above piece and they walk away with something to talk about for years to come.

I don’t want people to walk away and fear that the world has forgotten them or they are not important. That music does not matter. That this life we live has to be dreamless and pointless.

The murals on the walls of so many cities where the out cries of men and women and little boys and girls that wanted to be noticed and appreciated.

If they were never aware, I appreciated them and wanted to sit with them all and teach them the structure behind art and what one can really do with it.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<AMAZING ART>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We should seek to make every piece something we would want to hang on our walls and to discuss with our children. To help express the story of our lives. Those that do not have a story, those that feel they do not have purpose.

At least you have art!

I send special prayers for the children of this world that become the adults we leave in charge of our public policies.

Can you imagine, the local police officer in your community that is caught doing anything beneath his character or abusing the authority his badge represents. That police officer that does not take the time to assist the helpless in there peculiar problem, i.e. Not assisting the man that asks for help because the help he seeks can be misconstrued as solicitation. I speak from experience. There have been plenty of times I needed assistance from those around me and it just so happens that I flag down an officer to help me get along and this officer of the law, whom I could presume was given the same formal education I was, will ignore my words and see me as a man soliciting because I don’t have enough money to handle my own problems. Very interesting development and I always look at this man with a badge and ask myself, “where is your since of public service?”

Why do I find myself, even against my own better judgement, caring for the minute details of peoples lives above our public servants?  A lot of the time, I reflect and find I care too much for those that will take my assistance and without so much as a thank you, be better for it and feel entitled to it. A lot of the time I leave when I begin to feel I am being used, but that takes a level of decrement that one does not readily wish to admit. especially when we are looking for the best out of people.

Our lawyers, judges, public defenders, social workers, all would have had the same public education, or private education there parents could afford and would have been considered decent people, yet we will find something missing in there overall education. We will find the same sins categorized in the bible as being the reasons why we as humans fail, are the same reasons a public servant fails his or her public office. Then the outside observer will make excuses for these very real people, will determine that they are just not smart enough to be held responsible for there mistakes or feel there public position is far more important than the apology.

All of these public problems are stemmed from our public education system. We all were told to work hard for that privilege and asked to apply that which we knew. Now there are claims that when we they took the bible out of schools then problems arose. They took the bible out of schools, did they take them out of the home too? Why was it when I was traveling, did I find so many people that needed to know, what I professed to be common sense? Common sense is not that common had become the excuse of this contemporized man. A man that has begun to believe that passing our children’s minds along on the conveyor-belt of minimal training is far better than asking for everyone to be the picture of excellence that God wants us to be.

I walk into the Super stores and ask for hardware or the location of food or just wish for hands on Customer service and it is as if I asked someone to pick up a snake. I ask questions of those around me and the idea of conversation in a public place about our general public is a foreign language and very few can say they know anything past what they are told. That scares me. Certainly as the city map changes so does our public or civic duties change. I am not adverse to asking for directions when I am lost, I do not enjoy having to spend hours of my time going over things that should be common sense, but I will study a matter until I am certain I understand the concept and can use this ideal until the wheels fall off.

So if education has always been important; a need for the social animal to excel in the vast space we call earth, why would our public servants be excused from teaching achievement. Why would there be so many men and women testifying the same out cry since 2008, why has the number of those on government assistance not decreased. Is not the issue, lack of education? A man or woman is out of labor or not in the work force, because they don’t want to work? Really? I can not believe it, I see so many working but they are pulling the jobs we did as children. “Landscaping?” That is a profession now? I can actually go to the bank and ask for a small business loan to cut and mow grass for a living. Me and the guys can do the things we did for civil service points and good Samaritan tokens and ask for minimum wage.  I always become irate when I think of the things I had to do to pay the bills. I think to myself, this is what my education has amounted to?  So I do the best I can with the minimum and pray with a little more education I can make where I live, speak volumes of the places that I have been.

I was in New Orleans, enjoying the parades, and I laugh at this memory. I was standing there with a sack, ready to catch cabbage, and I noticed a little girl with her family. They lived in a flat in the perfect spot for the parade. As soon as you open the front door, there is the street and you can just set up your lawn chair and watch the show. Convenience is nice.  As I watch this family, a little picture of Mamma duck, Daddy duck and children enjoying time off from there busy lives. The father expresses his happiness by asking me to help him load the coolers. I must have been standing too close and seeming useless he set make me useful. Any who, as I am helping I notice the  little girl was smoking a cigarette.   Red lights went all over the place in my head and I asked, myself, “Does she not know that she is ending whatever brain cells she has left. Does her family not care?” I took the cigarette from her. Stomped on it and sat with her family and her to explain that it is not only not healthy to smoke but as young as you are, you should read the box and labels of everything, Surgeon general is very explicit in explaining the danger and I would be remiss if I did not at least try to get you to think of other things.

Now I am no, Mary Poppins, but of all the people that pass this child by and I think of my own children and how I only want the best for them, the best education, the best neighborhood, the best books, things as simple as that but safe even for us as adults. Not because I am afraid that the person is going to be so damaged by the experiences in life that they, God forbid, end up with lung cancer. Or a liver disease from over drinking etc. It is as simple as wanting more from people than governmental work programs. Money does not denote our success in life, if that was the case, then every celebrity would be a role model and every athlete would be someone worth speaking about. Nope, it is the character of the man and woman that matters and we learn to appreciate this sentiment from our youth.

Sometimes when I am at work I almost believe that it is over. I almost believe that I can walk away from it all and not think about it.

I can clean myself up, I can clean my house, the front yard and all is well. There are times in the middle of this cleaning, this purging of past feelings, I escape to my childhood and remember what it was like to be care free.

Just to work because your parents thought it would build good character.

Then there are days when I realize that, “good character,” was not enough. For if it was enough, if that was all it took to be a good father, a good friend, a good man. Then places like:

https://www.geogroup.com/GEO_World (WOULD NOT EXIST).

I would not have to stomach articles written by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mississippi_Hustle.

There are certain groups that seek to repay tax paying revenue for, “certain losses.”

On February 8, 2017, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood announced he had filed civil cases against 15 corporations and numerous individuals who had engaged in contracts with the MDOC and Epps, seeking damages and punitive damages. Hood said,

“The state of Mississippi has been defrauded through a pattern of bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentations, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct.” He continued, “These individuals and corporations that benefited by stealing from taxpayers must not only pay the state’s losses, but state law requires that they must also forfeit and return the entire amount of the contracts paid by the state. We are also seeking punitive damages to punish these conspirators and to deter those who might consider giving or receiving kickbacks in the future.” Besides Teresa Malone and Carl Reddix, the defendants included Michael Reddix; Andrew Jenkins; Management & Training Corporation; The GEO Group, Inc.; Cornell Companies, Inc.; Wexford Health Sources, Inc.; The Bantry Group Corporation; AdminPros, L.L.C.; CGL Facility Management, LLC; Mississippi Correctional Management, Inc.; Branan Medical Corporation; Drug Testing Corporation; Global Tel*Link Corporation; Health Assurance, LLC; Keefe Commissary Network, LLC of St. Louis; Sentinel Offender Services, L.L.C. and AJA Management & Technical Services, Inc.^[1]

As of February 2015, Epps was still eligible to receive benefits from the Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System.^[54]

They would seek to blame congressmen for stealing money and bribes, while glossing over the real crimes. Incarcerating men and women and getting them, “Stuck in the System.”

That was the adage when I was a kid. We were always told not to commit crimes or walk down the street with false intentions lest the police notice you and you end up, “Lost in the System.”

When I was doing my time, I would ask myself how anyone can be lost anywhere. I did something wrong, I do whatever they ask and when I get out, I get back on my way to the top. Whatever the top happens to be.

I love to believe that the top is a state of mind. I have been called, MEDIOCURE MAN, cause I am the kind of guy that will work any job and be satisfied with the pay scale until there is just something more I have to have. Until that day, in all things am I content. Knowing how money is the root of all evil, I just never allowed it to be my motivation in life. So I was not in prison for robbery or bribing anyone. So what is warranting a prison sentence? Why is GEO so bad, when the idea is to help people. THEY DID NOT HELP ANYONE. THEY STILL HAVE NOT HELPED ANYONE. AND REFUSE TO DO SO. They continue to demoralize and degrade a mass of people, laughing at how easy it is to abuse those that need assistance in life. 

and so many like them have been taking advantage of people.

When it is over, it is really over? 

Moving on with our lives is supposed to correlate with, Casting our cares onto the Lord.

I am told so often that this is it: I tell myself this is it, This is all I need, while at the same time I am asked, “If I am going to get a job or try to get a trade, become certified in something, go back to school?” Did they not here me when I said, “At 30 years old those don’t seem like options anymore? Did they not hear me when I said I don’t like depending on the kindness of others in order to, “Hold down a job?” I’ve been on this job now a year and for a year, I’ve had to take everything in quietly. Casting a lot of cares on the Lord.

It is a shocking feeling when you express what you’ve seen in your life only to have the concern cast aside as troubles that have not directly effected them, thus it can wait for another time. I can show slides, I can create diagrams, I can paint pictures of that depression, of that lack of change but unless that person is willing to walk in those shoes-they will forever be a shadow to me. I made my trek.

Laws be damned and in my travels all I saw was the need for more outreach. I remember watching the food pantries and the lines would never stop. Day after day people would go to church, pray for better days; eat, go home or work, just to do it again another day.

I remember as a kid, all of the black programming set to help others become aware of these pitfalls in life, and how hard I worked never to have need of a soup kitchen. I remember all the friends I had that worked soup kitchens-in hopes of, “doing their part in changing the world.”

Then certain truths became apparent and I tried so hard to shut my eyes to them. We are all part and parcel.

I went to college to become a lawyer. To defend the defenseless or naïve and found I was very naïve to believe people would hear. I travel and find that there are people who want these programs, want someone to tell them how much they can eat-what they can eat, where to work, to settle for this much pay, to go to a public park only on these days-file in a nice pretty line in your nice concrete jungle of a life. To get a little money on the side through crafts and design or garage sales-has become a profession, opposed to a choice of charity because one has acquired too much free time in life. Through this free time one acquired too much stuff.

I was asked once if I believed after my travels it was ok to just cut grass, come home and cut grass, like Forest Gump.

I was horrified at the question.

Is this what my life has become; a mock humor of a problem that has been catalogued and ignored, or glorified. Am I the man on the bus bench thinking life is like a box of chocolates. Cause I used to believe you know very well what your going to get cause when your a man of purpose you get what you work for.