Tania and I just watched ‘The Blacklist’. James Spader is genius. One of my all time favorite bad guys. There is no one that can play that role like him. I have loved him since two days in the valley. He and Shatner were brilliant in ‘Boston Legal’. Brilliant again in this series.
I am trying to "escape" from time to time from all that is happening by watching movies and TV.
Yet, the insanity is dragged in to our escape.
Why can't we make TV this compelling without the real dark streak? What is it about us that is attracted to this? Are we? Or is this just where the best talent is? If so, why?
I want to share something's with you over the next few months. Some struggles and better yet: some ideas. Maybe you will agree and want to join me, maybe not. Sometimes I really don't know anymore.
The more I learn, the more I realize how ignorant I am and how much of it has been self-imposed over my whole life.
I don't know if we are on the same page. Are you overwhelmed? With everything. There is no escape.
I read the news. Heck, I saw most of what is here coming. I did my best to warn. To point to exits, but too many were asleep. They still are. So now what?
Wait for the beheadings? The riots all over the world, the pictures of our troops trying their best to help the poor Ebola victims, the cost of food or gas, the homework from our kids or the trash on air?
I can't fix this stuff. Neither can you. Hopeless?
No. We are just talking about the wrong stuff. We are talking about the problems. We need to talk about the solutions. That is where our frustration is coming from. We all are ready to get back to work and fix things.
People want me to still talk about the news and what is coming. I have already told you and you certainly don't need me to tell you. First off, I may be wrong.
But, you feel it in your gut.
Something is coming. The whole world is about to change. But it doesn't have to be bad! The world needs to change. What we are all doing now doesn't work.
It is time to prepare in a new way. Prepare to be the tip of the spear of light and honor, courage, healing and decency.
Isn't this something we can all get behind? It doesn't matter how you vote, what color your skin is or how big or small your bank account is. We are all human. We all have a stake in the future and we all want to be a part of something good.
Reading posts from some of "my fans" you are left with the impression that I am a sell out, or a traitor or maybe even just a "Mormon hypnotist". I love that last one, I read it tonight. It made me laugh out loud.
First off: These posts do not come from my fans. My fans are good, decent people. We may not agree on everything but I know them, they treat people right and stand up against bullies.
America needs to understand one thing if we are going to have a dialogue. Trolls live on left, right and middle. As Frank Sinatra said "some people get their kicks stomping on a dream". But those people are a very small minority. But vocal. Studies show only .5% of any audience actually posts comments. Most of us read them on all news, information even entertainment sights and think "who are all these people?"
The goal whether they even know it or not, is to get us to stop talking, stop sharing and stop believing in one another.
It is a lie, we read them and we begin to believe that they are the majority and we are the loners. Good and decent people are in the majority. Those who hate are in the minority. Those who want violence and revolution are in the vast, vast minority weather they be from Occupy Wall Street, jihadists or "patriots."
I don't ask you to trust me. You don't have to believe in me. Just believe in yourself and believe in your neighbors.
I ask you to do your own homework and think. You don't like me, don't agree with me, or think that I am on the wrong side of the issues that is fine with me. It is what has always made our country great. Everyone had an opinion and no one was forced to step in line.
I believe my calling now is to repair any damage that I may have done unintentionally. To work toward reconciliation. Many don't agree with me and that is okay. Please work on what you believe in. We need to all be working on a million different solutions. If I don't like yours -- cool. But unless it involves violence go for it. Maybe I fail but you don't. Celebrate, we all win!
It is why I built TheBlaze. They will report on the news. They will help other news agencies if called upon and we will do our best to tell the stories that America needs to hear for the record. I will also continue to piece things together when I can help explain WHY something is happening. (See the show I did on Sykes - Picot and ISIL last week).
But there is something else I must do as well. I feel a strong pull toward standing firm in what I believe. But making sure that what I believe and what I share is rooted in the highest possible principles. It is too late to solve many of our issues. The system is going to reset because it must. So what is the use arguing about policies when it is our principles that will actually be our life boat and our second chance?
Sometimes it is all so overwhelming. I am not the man He needs me to be. None of us are. Yet, here we are.
I think we all want to go back. Not to the "good old days" but to the days where we were a bit more innocent or naive.
I really just want to go back to a time where we all believed that generally we all wanted the same things. Peace, decency, fairness, honesty and a chance to forgive others and ourselves. To start again and chart our own course using common sense and self-responsibility.
The "good old days" weren't that good. In fact many of them really sucked.
But we were different.
WE BELIEVED.
We believed we could change the world, we believed things would be better for our kids, that God lives, he cares and we should serve him by serving others and we really did believe that the good guys win.
Everything about today screams at us that we should abandon those beliefs. It is why we tune out.
Think. Those who told us to tune out and turn on in the 1960s, are those now running the world. They no longer tell us that. They just shape policies, business, news and entertainment to get us to do so. And even when we do, our "escape" is often to dark places written by those who also no longer believe.
The blind leading the blind.
I just want to go back to something normal. I just want all this hate and fear to stop. We all do. Right? So why don't we? Who really is in control?
Cheyenne (my 8 year old) asked me what unalienable meant this morning on the way to church. I explained, "that there are some things that were given to us by God and no one can ever, ever take them away. They are unchangeable." (Rights)
Why are we allowing our right to believe in a better tomorrow be taken from us? More precisely, Is it taken or are we all just giving it away? Unalienable. We are the one doing the damage. We are letting our belief slip away while we blame it on someone or something else.
I am sorry, I am thinking out loud. I have a tough week ahead as do you I am sure.
If you have lost hope tonight, borrow some of mine for a while. Take care of it, nurture it and grow it because there may come a time when I will need it returned. But tonight, I am strong enough to shout from my rood top: "I still know that the good guys win. I believe things can and will get better. I believe in God and I believe the best way to serve Him is to serve our fellow man."
Tomorrow, let's have fun. Let's find something worth living for. Let's find something we are excited to tell our spouse and children about. Let's do something worthy of remembering.
Goodnight America. See you in the morning. In the meantime: Dream big.