The Sword Of Enlightenment!

MORE THOUGHTS ON THE VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS

2007-04-19T08:17:00.000-04:00

Some students on the campus of the Virginia Tech shootings said that "Things like this don't happen here" and others in small quiet towns where similar shootings have occurred have echoed similar sentiments. It's like they somehow think they're isolated from the real world where things like this do happen.

I think maybe that's why this type of thing sometimes does happen in places where people think that they "can't happen" to give them a wake up call...a reality check...to shatter their illusionary view of themselves and the world.

And the news media...especially the local new media where I live in the Detroit, Michigan metro area...are just beating this dead horse (no pun intended) to death...milking this cow for all it's worth.

Today a local television news station trumpeted that there was a student from Mich who performed heroic feats of daring do while other students were running for cover. It turns out that the student wasn't even in the same building where the shooting was occurring. He just gave a helping hand to those students who were running into his building to get away from the scene of the shooting ...but he was a heroic figure in eyes of the news station.

Now granted it's good he helped the students running into his building ...but there were probably other students and faculty doing the same thing. Now if he'd had been in the building where the shooting was occurring and did what he did...then I would say he was a hero...but the news media seems to be looking for any angle...no matter how trivial...to keep their viewers tuning in.

On the one hand I can sympathize with the news media because they are in a competitive business and have to survive to stay in business...but don't you think there has to be some limit to the lengths they're willing to go to keep their viewers hyped up and tuned in to their broadcasts?

Virginia Tech Shooting Thoughts

2007-04-17T09:18:00.000-04:00

I was just thinking about the shooting at Virginia Tech...the trauma...the terror...and the tragedy of it all...what a senseless occurrence...at least to us...but God knows what was going on the mind of the young man who was the shooter.

The people who do this (and they seem to be increasing over the years) are kind of like our version of the suicide bomber. The go into an area where they can kill as many people as possible and then kill themselves...which to me...increases the impact of the tragedy...because not only do have we deal with the deaths and wounding of lots of people...we don't know why they were attacked...that's a tragedy...because if we knew what thoughts, emotions, beliefs etc that lead the shooters to commit these acts...we might be able do something to prevent them from happening in the future.

So as horrible as any tragedy like this is... if we can't get a handle on what's going on in the minds of people that lead them to use guns, bombs etc to kill themselves and numerous innocent people...the long term recurrence of these tragedies...will be the greatest tragedy of all.

Now I know that some people say that guns don't kill people...people do...an interesting argument.

It's like saying bombs don't blow up people...people do.

It's like saying that guns aren't harmful in themselves that people make them harmful...well guns are harmful in themselves and so are bombs but if handled with extreme care they're harmfulness can be buffered.

People create bombs to kill people, they create guns to kill people...the history of war will confirm that.

I can understand why gun supporters and those who profit from gun sales like the phrase " guns don't kill people people do" it's clever, catchy and sounds intelligent...but it's really just self-serving rhetoric to make a point and to silence the opposition.

I'm not against guns but let's be real...the Virginia Tech shooter used two (at least that's what I heard) nine millimeter pistols for a reason...sure he could have used a knife but I don't think he would have done as much damage do you? He used guns because he obviously wanted to personally create as much massive destruction as possible...he knew guns are used everyday and have been used throughout their history to kill people individually and in massive numbers in wars.

I think people who use guns to kill want to be personally involved, up close and personal, when they're killing, so they can see the terror on faces of those they're shooting.

So not only do guns kill ...people use guns to kill...if guns didn't kill, people wouldn't use them for that purpose. And when guns fall into the hands of disturbed, hateful, individuals ...we're all in trouble.

VC Lamont Veasey

The Metamorphosis of a Weed-Head!

2006-02-08T09:18:00.000-05:00

Copyright 2006 El-Veasey Publishing Inc.

I was seventeen when I first started drinking. I had an older friend, Richard, who wanted to "show me the ropes" of how to be a man including knowing how to "hold your liquor". It was summer and almost every day he’d take me best friend, Anthony, down to our favorite waterfront park for lessons in "how to drink like a man!"

He would usually bring a fifth of whiskey and we’d sit around drinking, laughing, talking and watching the ships sail by until we killed the fifth!

I wasn’t used to drinking so of course, I didn’t have much of a tolerance for alcohol and I’d get intoxicated very quickly but pretended that I didn’t, so I wouldn’t be made fun of by Richard! But he could always seem to tell when I was faking it anyway!

I was a budding guitarist and I started playing in bars at that time. I was a terribly shy teen and had intense stage fright, so I drank to help ease my stage fright and shyness about mingling with people and talking to girls.

I did a stint in the army when I was 19. The army was another place where excessive drinking was enjoyed as part of being a man. Whenever I went out with my army buddies, I always did my share of heavy drinking like a real macho man should. I felt I had to prove that I could drink anyone of them "under the table" at anytime.

After getting out of the army at around age 21, I started playing in bands again. I got some gigs backing up some of the hot Motown acts of that era like Edwin Starr and the Spinners. Some musician friends introduced me to marijuana, under the guise of an experiment, pretending that had never used it before. Actually, they had some older guys in the band (they were only 28) to ask me if I wanted to "try a joint".

Marijuana was "dope" and dope had a bad name so they didn’t tell me it was marijuana. They told me to try it and see what I thought of it. I didn’t want to seem like a "square" so after asking a few questions about it I said; "OK I’ll try it." And I did. With sly smiles on their faces, they’d periodically ask me how I was feeling. I’d say, "I don’t feel anything. I don’t know what the big deal is! "

But, when we went on stage to backup Edwin Starr. All of a sudden the sound from my amp sounded like it was bouncing of the walls! Sometimes it sounded like it was coming from the dance floor where people were frantically dancing! My head would whip around to whatever direction the sound was bouncing from next!

I started shouting to the guys in the band, trying to be heard above the music, "Did you hear that? Did you hear that?" Each one of them would look at me in turn and say, "Hear what?" I’d say, "That sound!" Then with a delayed reaction, they almost simultaneously realized I was high and just burst-out laughing so hard that they almost couldn’t continue to play! I was the butt of "did you hear that!" jokes for weeks!

After that I got used to smoking marijuana or weed as we called it. I had so much fun when I was high! Everything seemed funny! My friends and I would just laugh and have a great time! I thought weed was the greatest thing I’d ever come across! Now I was drinking and smoking! Mainly, I smoked weed, but when we played bars I’d drink heavily also.
Then I started getting into psychedelics (mescaline, LSD) and cocaine.

Sometimes when I was playing I would be high on weed, alcohol, mescaline and coke at the same time!

I did this in some from or another for about 15 years straight! During that time there was probably only about 5 to 6 hours out of a day when I wasn’t high and that’s when I was asleep! And I was probably high even then!

When I woke-up in the mornings I would light up a joint! I’d eat breakfast and hit a joint! If I went to the store I’d fire-up a joint! During just about any activity I’d light up a joint! The attitude toward drugs then was "say yes to drugs!" If you didn’t get high we thought something was wrong with you! The prevailing slogan was "reality is for those who can’t do drugs!"

After 15 years of drugging and drinking almost, continuously, I tapered of a little and stopped doing psychedelics. I still did coke sporadically and mainly drank at night when I played bars. I didn’t smoke weed as much as I used to but I still smoked it every day!

Then I became severely depressed for about 2 years. All I wanted to do was stay high on weed, lie on my Living room floor, listen to psychedelic music and wallow in self-pity all day! I ate, used the bathroom and occasionally went to the store to buy munchies! Other than that, I stayed in the house with the shades down and the lights dimmed!

I could do this for 2 years because my girlfriend, whom I was living with at the time, who had 4 kids (not mine), and was on public assistance, supported me the whole time. I had no money. I had stopped doing gigs. I was totally financially dependent on her most of the time!

During my depressed states of mind when I was high, I was totally in another world! All I wanted to do was listen to Music, be high and be out of it! I was in this state most of the time I was awake. I would go through all kinds of hellish experiences and fantastic mental adventures! During one of these experiences I descended to the bottom of some deep, dimly lit ocean pit. I was down there just floating, doing nothing, wallowing in my self-pity and feeling kind of good about it! (Sometimes it feels good to feel bad! You know what I’m talking about!)

I was thinking about how bad my life had been up until then and how disappointed I was! How let down I was! When all of a sudden! I saw a soft light glowing in the distant darkness and heard a voice saying to me, "You have three choices. You can go insane, you can die, or you can go back and try to get your act together!"

I seriously thought about these options for a while, not knowing what I really wanted to do! The idea of death had a kind of a soothing appeal about it, so did insanity! But as I was contemplating this a beam of light struck me from the darkness like a thunder-flash! Something inside me said, "Go back and try to make a new start!" And that’s what I slowly did, very slowly!

My band Black Merda had gotten a record deal with a major record label (a dream come true for me at time, 1969. The label recorded us and made all these plans to make us a "Super Group". I was so happy! I was so hyped up I was jumping for joy! I just knew I was going to be a big recording star! Rich and famous! I was telling all my friends, all my relatives about it!----When----Out of the blue!---Like a lightning-bolt!

Marshall Chess the president of Chess Records sold the company and moved to England to head the Rolling Stones record company! I couldn’t believe it! Just like that! All my dreams were shattered! The new owners, GRT, didn’t follow through on Chess’ plans for us and did almost nothing for us. This was the precipitating event that was mainly responsible for my 2-year bout with depression!

Background Note

I had an aunt (Bertha) who was an alcoholic wine-head! She got to the point where she would drink and not eat! She died in her late thirties from internal hemorrhaging! My uncle, Percy, was an avid gin drinker. He drank so much and for so many years he started having kidney problems! He would pee blood! But he wouldn’t go near a doctor or quit drinking! One day he took his girlfriend to see her doctor. While she was in the examining room, she heard over the intercom that someone had collapsed in the waiting room! It was my uncle! He died from a heart attack right there on the waiting room floor! He was in his mid fifties!

I had a younger brother who graduated from years of being crossed addicted to heroin, marijuana, and alcohol to just being an alcoholic. He started drinking more and eating less! The last six months of his life was spent with him being rushed back and forth to the emergency room because he was hemorrhaging internally! The doctors told him to stop drinking! He wouldn’t! His last visit to the emergency room was his last time alive! He was in his early thirties!

My mother and another brother died from alcohol related health problems also. She was in her early fifties. He was in his forties. By all accounts the deck was severely stacked against my being able to recover from my addictive behavior!. (End of background note.)

Because of feelings of low self-worth (caused by childhood emotional traumas) I began to read hundreds of books on psychology, religion, philosophy, new thought, spirituality, self-help, etc, (you name it) to try to find a way of overcoming my emotional problems!

I also read books on health, nutrition, and herbal therapy. I became a vegetarian for 4 years. I was a budding spiritual person, and started thinking more and more about if smoking weed and drinking were really healthy or spiritual or not!

I thought that I was in control of my drug use. I smoked weed because I wanted to! It wasn’t addicting. I could stop anytime I wanted to! So I one day I decided to test myself to see if this was true (having no doubts that it was)!

I was in the worst situation I could’ve been in to start testing myself. I was playing in a band, in bars, four to five nights a week; with band members who were also weed heads and heavy drinkers! We’d take three or four breaks a night and usually went outside to share a joint or two. During one of these breaks I decided not to smoke. The comments I got were, "You’re not smoking! Yeah right! Come on hit it! You know you really want to!"

Each night, on each break, I would be pressured to smoke weed against my will. And although I’d decided not to smoke weed for a week to test myself, I’d find myself with a joint in my hand, raising it up to my lips, before I’d suddenly realize what I was doing! I’d pass the joint back and say, "I don’t want this!" The responses were, "Just checking!" "Just trying to see if you’re really serious or not!"

I had many relapses tying to quit smoking weed. Whenever I’d relapse, I’d feel guilty and disappointed, because I thought I had control of my weed use and found that I didn’t! The more guilt I felt the more I’d smoke! The more I’d smoke the more guilt I felt! And round and round I’d go! Until finally I decided that, if I relapsed, I wasn’t going to feel guilty. I would just say, " Ok! You slipped-up! Now get back on track!" That helped me to stop feeling guilty about relapsing and having to get high to stop feeling guilty about getting high!

I found that the more emotionally healthy I became, the more of a negative effect getting high had on me! It made me paranoid, more depressed and less motivated to do things that I usually felt like doing! I didn’t like that! The more emotionally healthy I became, the less getting high appealed to me!

So with much struggle and determination I gradually started getting high less and less everyday until one day I finally quit! I followed this same process when I decided to stop drinking! Just insert getting intoxicated where I say getting high in the text.

Essentially what happened was that I had outgrown the need to medicate my emotional and spiritual problems by getting high or intoxicated! The more I experienced real fulfillment of my needs, the less I sought substitute fulfillment of those needs through weed and alcohol abuse!

I gradually became more emotionally and spiritually mature, more emotionally and spiritually an adult! I developed beyond the needs that fueled my addictive behavior and gradually beyond relapsing!

It took me a year of struggle, determination, and emotional and spiritual growth to finally slay this dragon, but I did it! Understanding what my real needs were and how to fulfill them, was the key to recovering from my addictive behavior for me!

This understanding and fulfillment came to me by opening up to a part of me that was outside of my personal, historical sense of self. You can call it my potential self, my ideal self, my God self, whatever! I call it the self that didn’t go through the meat grinder of my personal traumas! This self seemed to predate and postdate my personal history. It transcended and contained my personal history! It was wiser, more confident, more loving and more fulfilled than I was as I was then!

It was an innate experience that had only been partially allowed into my experience up until then but, never to its optimum capacity (Like some vast mostly untapped reservoir of potential). It was something I’d never experienced before and if I had I hadn’t been aware of it!

My goal was to reduce the gap between my historical and trans-historical sense of self until they intermingled like the Taoist Yin/Yang symbol!

The more I approximate this state, the wiser and more perfect my choices have become and all things in my life seems to fall more and more into place without me forcing them! (Like hitting the bull’s eye without trying to!) I'm feeling pretty good! The traumas and dark days seem like distant memories! That person I was then seems like someone else now! Like someone I had a dream about a long time ago!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! What’s your story? Maybe you can do what I did, maybe you can’t! But, no one knows what you can do until you do it, not even you!

May the light never cease to lighten your mind!

The Mirror Of Self-Reflection

2005-11-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

The Mirror of Self-Reflection!

By El-Veasey

Copyright 2005 El-Veasey Publishing Inc

If you find yourself waiting around during the day or at night for a chance to flash your genitalia at someone, you may want to ask yourself why you want to do that.

What do you hope to gain by flashing your genitalia at someone? Not only is it illegal, you're imposing your private reality on some innocent person's private space. Would you like if someone imposed a private reality on your personal space that you found disgusting?

You might want to ask yourself why you're so insensitive or hostile (whichever fits) toward the reality and personal space of others.

If you're out mugging people, breaking in houses, car jacking, robbing stores etc. you might want to look deeply into your heart ask yourself why you have the need to take away what belongs to others. Why you don't want to acquire your own valuables. Why you don't want to work for what you get or give things of equal value in exchange for what you get.

You might want to ask yourself what makes you so greedy for things belonging to others rather than going out and proudly acquiring your own things of value!

If you're an officer of the law and find yourself abusing, misusing or otherwise trashing the laws that you've vowed to uphold. You might want to ask yourself what the hell's going on with you!

Are you racial profiling? Are you on the take? Are you beating up suspects just because you can? Do you feel that you're above the laws and moral codes that apply to everyone else?

If you do you might want to do some deep soul searching to find out why you've allowed your vows and honor codes to become turned inside out!

If you're a parent who sexually, physically or verbally abuses your kids, or physically or emotionally neglects your kids. You might want to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself why you call yourself a parent! What the hell's wrong with you? What's the problem? What's going wrong in your head?

You might want to think about getting some deep professional help quick!

If you find yourself in a gang, living a brutal lifestyle, doing drive bys, doing hits, selling drugs, worried about getting busted. Worried about if you may get hit yourself, having to appear cold and unfeeling in the horror of all the violence and brutality you're involved in, so those you hang with won't take advantage of you and try to punk you out. You might want to sit down and rethink your position!

Do you really enjoy all of that turmoil and violence? Is it really worth your life? Do you really enjoy that lifestyle?

You might want to ask yourself what makes you so insensitive and callous about the violence you perpetrate on others!

If you find yourself dragging a black man behind your truck until he's decapitated. Shooting at minorities as they're leaving church services. Shooting up a Jewish daycare center, killing and tying a gay youth to a gate, blowing up men, women and children in a federal building, hanging a black youth etc.,

You might want to take a hard long look in the mirror of darkness and ask yourself if you really like what you see!

What motivates you to commit these horrendous acts? Why do they appeal to you? Were you born that way or did you learn to be that way? What makes you so eager to engage in acts of hatred, anger and bloodshed? Would you enjoy it if these acts were done to you, your family or your friends?

Your might want to ask yourself to let the true light shine into the true source of your dark motivations and hatreds!

The mirror of self-reflection doesn't play favorites. It reflects all sides of your personality equally.

Do you like what you see?

I Hope not!

Activist dredged up ‘family secret’ of plantation myth

2005-11-15T10:53:00.000-05:00

Activist dredged up ‘family secret’ of plantation myth

By Heather Bolejack

October 29, 2002

Actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte dredged up a centuries-old “family secret” for the world to hear when he likened Secretary of State Colin Powell to a plantation “house slave” who curries the favor of his master.

He made the comment during an Oct. 9 talk show interview with KFMB in San Diego.

In a follow-up interview with Larry King, Belafonte clarified that he was not intending to label Powell as an “Uncle Tom” with the comparisons to slavery. Belafonte, however, reiterated that there are “those who sit in the service of the house and those who sit in the service of those who languish on the plantation.”

Belafonte noted several times in his interview with King that he has dedicated himself to the service of the disenfranchised and impoverished peoples and has traveled the world to personally witness their suffering.

In order to truly serve those who “languish on the plantation,” must one stoop to pick the cotton and bloody his hands alongside those in the field every day, or can one be of equal service to his people “in the house”?

While shocking to the nation, Belafonte’s comments unearth the longstanding debate in the African-American community rooted in the plantation myth that the field slave was the rebel and the house slave the collaborator with the evil master. Like many arguments perpetuated over time, we often forget how the infighting began.

First of all, many house slaves were selected simply because they were the lighter-skinned blacks on the plantation, usually the result of the master’s “relationships” with slave women. The master’s system was calculated and mentally cruel. By separating light-skinned and darker-skinned blacks on the plantation and bestowing different privileges based on status, the master could divide and conquer and perpetuate racial self-hatred and division. With division, the slaves would never rally as one cohesive group to usurp the tyranny of the master.

Let’s wake up! The plantation divide among African Americans is alive and well. We perpetuate it today without the powerful persuasion of the master’s whip on our backs.

Belafonte has exhibited the very plantation mentality he decries by perpetuating this age-old, divisive stereotype with the eyes of the world watching. He continues to belittle Powell simply because he does not subscribe to the view that all African Americans should share one voice, one view, one spokesperson and one political party.

Is Belafonte mad because Powell is “selling out” and “stepping and fetching,” or just mad that Powell isn’t stepping and fetching for Belafonte’s party of choice?

It is disheartening when I hear African Americans attack others of their race who have achieved the highest distinctions in their fields with such vitriol as “sell-out,” “Uncle Tom,” “house slave” and “wannabe.” On the shoulders of those who fought for civil rights, we are able to go forward serving others in the boardroom and elected office, on the stage, in the studio, on the factory line, in our homes, churches and schools. Why then do some blacks cry out that you are not “keepin’ it real” if you do not continue to somehow toil in the field?

The man or woman who wears the business suit is no less socially conscious than the brotha’ or sista’ wearing the dashiki. Harry Belafonte is a man of wealth, privilege and power. When he returns from trips to impoverished nations of the world, he does not return to a home located in what he referred to as “America’s plantations” in South-Central Los Angeles or Watts.

The fact that he returns to a life of status in no way undermines his activism. We should set high expectations for ourselves as African Americans and challenge each other in a healthy way to be better, for being average will never be enough as we compete for the same opportunities as whites.

I say “thank God” we have African Americans serving in the house, and in the field if that is what we still wish to call it.

If everyone would stop the infighting the master devised centuries ago, we would notice that if we are working in the field and in the house, we run the plantation.

Bolejack is an Indianapolis attorney.

ROSA PARKS DIES!

2005-10-25T17:21:00.000-04:00

Rosa Parks Dies!
By El-Veasey
Copyright 2005 El-Veasey Publishing Inc

Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks died, Monday 10-24-2005, leaving behind a legacy that will probably never die. Fifty years ago Parks made history when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in the black section of the bus she was riding on. I don’t know if she was aware that she was making history at that moment, but that’s how watershed moments are made: in a decisive moment that changing one’s life forever and in this case American civil rights history forever as well.

That one simple act that any black person could have done but didn’t do, was the spark that the budding civil rights movement needed to shift it into full gear, and to be a rallying point, for activists like Martin Luther King and others to focus there energies on and use as a spearhead against that barrier of American apartheid: Jim Crow laws and enforced racial segregation.

Parks said in 1992 that contrary to popular belief the real reason she refused to give up her seat was because she felt she had the right to be treated with the same respect as white passengers and that black people had endured mistreatment to long. That act triggered a 381 day bus boycott by black citizens, organized by the then little know Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, thrusting him into the national media spotlight, and eventually leading to the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination in all public accommodations.

Parks said she had no idea at the time that what did would lead to all the changes that would come later, saying it was just another day like any other day, but what made it special was all the people jumping on board the protest.

She was rewarded for her stand against injustice with threats, harassment, and the inability to find work in Alabama. Subsequently she and her husband relocated to Detroit, MI in 1957, where she worked for Congressman John Conyers from 1965 until retiring in 1988, her husband, Raymond, died in 1977. She retired so she could devote more time to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, established in 1987, to develop leadership among Detroit's young people and to initiate them into the civil rights movement.

Parks had two books published: "Rosa Parks: My Story," in February 1992. And "Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation," In 1994. A collection of letters "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth." were published in 1996.
The world will never be the same, in a good way, because of the decision of one woman. It’s nice to know that one person can still make a world changing difference.

Thank You Rosa Parks!
Rest In Peace!

The September 11th Disaster!

2005-10-07T11:50:00.000-04:00

By El-Veasey

(This was written in the aftermath of 9/11)

One good thing that seems to be coming out of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is a greater sense of national unity between the various ethnic groups that make up the citizenry of the US. Now everyone is an American! (But that was true even before this tragedy made us so vividly aware of the national unity that holds together our national diversity)

It's too bad (but better than not) that people usually only feel compelled to unite across racial and ethnic lines when everyone feels threatened! Too bad that they can't feel that way when they aren't feeling threatened. The same type of unity would probably occur worldwide if the Earth were suddenly attacked by Extraterrestrial terrorists.

People are realizing that these international terrorists aren't making any racial, ethnic or religious distinctions about who they kill in America. If you're a Black Muslim and you're American you die! If you're a white Supremacist and you're American you die! If you're a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, part of a cult and you're American you die! If you're a Black separatist and don't consider yourself an American, you still die! Whatever you are if you're an American you die!

The more this reality dawns on people, hopefully the more the racial pettiness and hatreds that people were usually taking so seriously before these attacks occurred will start to dissipate! Of course there'll always be those knuckleheads who will resist this, but hopefully they're numbers will greatly decrease!

I hope that after the shock and novelty of the recent attacks has worn off, that people don't slowly go back to their old modes of operating, returning to the false sense of security, confidence and divisiveness that they had before these attacks occurred. (But unfortunately that's what usually happens when people are compelled to unite around a negative motive instead of a positive one, as the threat diminishes, so does the unity!)

But the political reality will still be the same! That to these terrorists and other countries, (including African countries) no matter what our racial, ethnic or religious backgrounds, to them, we're all Americans. Because although we might of all came to America, at different times, on different ships, we're all in the same boat now Baby! And if it that boat sinks! We're all going down! And the sooner we wake up to that fact the better it'll be for all of us!

Maybe this new sense of national unity will have a chance to become stabilized as we process and assimilate the aftermath of the September 11 attacks over a long period of time. Maybe this time after the feeling of being threaten diminishes we can find something positive to remain united around!

There were a lot of people pissed off because the terrorists killed so many innocent people. But these same people were willing to kill thousands of other innocent people in the Middle East, if they could have just "nuked them"! They hated the terrorists for killing innocent people, but they were just as willing to kill innocent people, as the terrorists did, because of they're anger! So what separates them from the terrorists? They're both willing to kill innocent people!

But I remind them that the practice of Justice requires them not to punish the innocent, but the guilty; not to act like a lynch mob, killing people, on the flimsiest evidence just to satisfy their lust for revenge! Or to act like witch hunters trying to stamp out the evil in everyone but themselves!

The Open Window Receives The Air

Peace

Did Roy Jones Con The Boxing Public?

2005-10-05T19:19:00.000-04:00

Did Roy Jones Con The Boxing Public?

By El-Veasey

Roy Jones was probably one of most skilled boxers of his era but he’s not in the class of the great fighters, like Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler etc, because he appeared to be afraid to challenge himself by facing fighters who were tough and could punch, like Gerald McClellan [before he got hurt], Nigel Binn, Chris Eubanks, Stevie Collins or Julian Jackson. He was never willing to give Hopkins or Tony rematches or Eric Harding who was giving him a challenge until he hurt his shoulder late in their fight. He seemed content to just maintain his sweetheart deal with HBO, where he could make millions fighting weak competition and meaningless, non-challenging mandatories.

After Gerald McClellan got seriously hurt in the ring, I think that made Jones even more afraid of getting hurt and ending up in McClellan’s condition; and in a sense I can't blame him; but if he was afraid of getting hurt he should've gotten out of the game, but, on the other hand why should he, when he could look brilliant and make millions fighting weak opposition?

One rationalization used by Jones fans to account for his choosing to face weak opposition, is that it's not Jones’ fault that he was boxing in an era with weak opposition; that may be partly true, but as alluded to earlier, he was never willing to call out the more dangerous opponents in his division or the ones above it to test himself against. Jones was probably one of the most skilled boxers of his era but didn't he make himself look even more spectacular by choosing to fight low risk opponents he knew he could beat and look spectacular against?

Jones' fans try to excuse Roy's knockout lost to Tarver by saying he had to lose too much weight when he went back to light heavyweight. Buddy Mcgirt, Tarver's trainer, said that Tarver come to training camp for that fight weighing around 212 pounds, Jones only weighed 190 something. So Tarver had to lose more weight than Jones did (but his defenders aren’t concerned about how much weight Tarver had to lose, only with defending their hero).

Another excuse his fans use is that Jones has been fighting so long he got old overnight, that Tarver hasn't been fighting as long as Jones so he's fresher than Jones; More bull and denial. One of the reasons Jones’ defenders say he's so great is that he's never taken punishment in his fights, so how can he be worn out? Jones should be just a fresh as Tarver. The " he's got old overnight" excuse is just that, an excuse, because he and Tarver are the same age. So Rather than seeing that when Jones finally faced real competition, Jones struggled and then got knocked out twice (by Tarver and Glen Johnson) or giving Tarver or Johnson credit for their wins; they keep making excuses for Jones poor showing against Tarver in their first fight, knockout loss in their second and devastating knockout lost in the Johnson fight.

A big deal was deal was make about Jones being the second former middleweight champion to win the heavyweight title: but Jones winning the "heavyweight" title can't compare with Bob Fitzsimmons winning the heavyweight title. Fitzsimmons didn't have the option to "pick" which heavyweight champion he would face. There was only one heavyweight champion and that's whom he had to face. Jones on the other hand, picked the "champion" he wanted to face and the one he knew would be easiest for him to defeat, John Ruiz, whom most boxing analysts and fans viewed as a "paper" champion, the worst and least skilled of all the champions. So Jones’ title win can't be placed in the same category as Fitzsimmons' title win.

Another factor that may be considered as possible detraction from this win is a report that Jones tested positive for steroids after a fight with Richard Hall, a story which very few in the boxing media focused on. In the Ruiz bout, even though Jones weighed less than Ruiz he looked very muscular, like he had been pumping iron big time. He looked just as big as Ruiz or bigger. He couldn't take steroids and lose weight to fight Tarver and maybe that's part of reason why he didn't look as muscular, fast or strong against Tarver or Johnson. When Jones stated he lost to much muscle trying make the lower weight he may be right for the wrong reason.

If Jones showed by winning a heavyweight title that he was superior to all boxers no matter what weight class he fought in, why didn't he challenge Lennox Lewis, the recognized heavyweight champion for the title rather than the lightly regarded Ruiz? If he'd beaten Lewis, his win would have equaled Fitzsimmons', but he didn't challenge Lewis because he didn't want a real challenge. What he did want was a big money fight with a washed up Mike Tyson because he didn't view Tyson as a serious threat or that competitive anymore. But that fight didn’t happen. So rather than stay in the heavyweight division, defend his title and show his greatness by taking some serious challenges, he opted to go back to light heavyweight to face Tarver, who he didn't want to fight and had avoided fighting for years. But Tarver had publicly called him out and it was the only big money fight available to him (the lesser of two evils) as opposed to defending his title in a high-risk heavyweight fight (I read his mandatory may have been David Tua).

Remember, after Jones defeated the lowly regarded John Ruiz for his portion of the heavyweight title, Jones was considered unstoppable, one of the all time greats, maybe even better than Sugar Ray Robinson; but when he got knocked out twice in a row, he defenders were so shocked, they couldn't see or didn't want to see the message that was being delivered to them: when Jones faced real stiff competion he lost big time.

There is no doubt that Jones had exceptional skills as far hand speed, reflexes etc, but he made his skills appear to be even greater by choosing to fight opponents he knew he could beat because he was faster than they were, including policemen, garbage men, etc and meaningless mandatories when he could have chosen rematches with James Toney, Bernard Hopkins or even Eric Harding. Or he could have challenged the fighters I named earlier, Gerald McClellan, Nigel Binn, Chris Eubanks, Julian Jackson or Steve Collins, or take some serious challenges at heavyweight, but there was definitely more risk involve in fighting these guys or serious heavyweights than any of the fighters his faced in the last ten years, so he avoided those risks.

Did he con the boxing public?

As far as Jones conning the boxing public in his last lost to Tarver; he’s was conning the boxing public a long time before that fight. He’s just finally been found out. There have always been writers and fans that saw Jones as conning the boxing public, the way he conned HBO into paying him millions to fight nobodies and meaningless mandatories.

Yes he conned the fans and himself as well, that’s why he made all those excuses about his knockout loss to Tarver, he couldn’t believe it or didn’t want to believe it. His pride was hurt, he was in shock, traumatized and embarrassed. When HBO cameras went into his dressing room after the fight. Jones and his yes men were making comment about the knockout loss to soothe his ego like, "A scared man is a dangerous man!"(Referring to Tarver) "Yeah a scared man is a dangerous man!" It wasn’t that a better fighter knocked out Jones; he was just beaten by a scared fighter and everybody knows a scared fighter can get lucky and beat a good fighter anytime. This is how people talk when they’re experiencing psychological trauma and denial is use to lessen the shock and make it easier for them to deal with.

Jones is still in denial and conning himself but there are signs that even his defenders are starting to see through the con and their own denial and hero worship (superman myth) because it's so obvious now that even they can’t continue to deny the truth any longer, though they may wish to [some of them still try to give him more credit than he’s due].

Jones was a good fighter made to look even greater because of his speed, flashy style, HBO hype, avoiding tough competition and blinding hero worship by his fans; but he not in the class of the great champions who were willing to test their greatness by taking great challenges in the ring, like Robinson, Louis, Marciano, Duran, Leonard, Hearns, Hagler or a host of others.