In Search of a Solution, I Found my Soul

Well... It's certainly been a long time since I've left some thoughts here, but it feels good to be back. Brass-Knuckle Love Butter is solely my creation and I've abandoned it for far too long now. It's a good thing I came back because I've been struggling lately. The not so subtle premise of this blog has always been "For those willing to be inspired" and my inspiration has waned since I stopped writing here. My two-plus year hiatus is done. My heart and soul are full of experiences - personal battles won and lost, transcendent moments, mistakes, deliciousness and a love so intense it makes the earth quake.

Well since my heart's so full, I'm just going to pour it all out right now...

I do personally believe it is important to spend your life with like-minded people, but not to a point where it makes you blind from the other things going on in the world, country, community, your relationships, your family or your home. They’ve always said ignorance is bliss, but anytime that I’ve come to realize my own ignorance (which is a lot… trust me) it’s triggered something in me to seek out an understanding about it... Which with all of the misinformation and propaganda going on right now, is really fucking hard to do. So let’s talk about the world today…

We've had a really shitty couple of weeks here in America. I absolutely understand wanting to protect our borders from terrorists and have even been recorded saying it on a podcast a few years ago. However I do not support our new president’s actions because of his haste and whole general explanation of it all or even more so… lack thereof. I truly believe in my heart that a lack of DIPLOMACY puts us at a much larger risk - abroad and even more so, at home.

Last weekend was dark for me. I actually felt scared to be an American. I can explain it a thousand ways, but I know there are a lot of you out there that have already made the choice not to understand it. Now I’m not a religious person, but I do hold my Jewish heritage and their millennia of surviving persecution close to my heart. Watching Christianity slowly squeeze it’s hand around our government and people supporting it for their own reasons from their religious beliefs to their money, just crushes my spirit.

For all of America’s faults, we got one key component right and that was to give people the gift of individuality. We have the choice to really be ourselves in this country without fear of persecution, but as of today that’s been slipping through our grasp. I know I know…. A lot of you Donald Trump supporters out there are like, “It’s alright Scotty, we love you man. We’re not going to let that happen, but we do need to make sure we ____________ .”, well, fuck. That “blank-spot” to me (and a whole lot of other people) represents the poorest excuse of patriotism imaginable.

So what do you mean you’re not going to let that happen??

IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING. You know muslims aren’t the only people out there that can be radicalized, right? Look at all of the unrest around us, people are getting cagier by the second. Also, I’ve got 2 words for everyone…. Steve Bannon. Wait I’ve got 3… DICK. An extremist who thinks so small of the world around him, he could care less if it exists. Go ahead and look up some of his quotes, he’s a lunatic.   

Look I can appreciate, accept and at times even agree with a republican point of view, but not a fascist one. I also will not be lead by the carelessness of narrow-minded individuals who have a higher regard for more corporations than individual Americans themselves. I sum it up like this, Donald Trump is someone who uses the term “drain the swamp” in reference to his presence in Washington and yet he has no fucking clue how important our real wetlands actually are to the vitality of this planet. He’s made it quite clear that he’s alright with the world ending as long it’s by his hands. Now at this point, as the elected leader of this country he’s openly condemning Muslims and championing Christianity. And it really doesn’t matter where these people resided that he’s talking about because his words pose a humongous threat on our own soil.

A lot of you I’m friends with are really smart fucking people. Yes, he prevented travel from a handful of countries, but not just for the sake of national security. If it was, he wouldn’t have needed to even say those other things. This isn’t one of those “oh he’s just shaking things up” moments either, he’s forcing Americans to draw a line between one another. A line that people live and die by in other parts of the world. A line that our own forefathers had enough sense to keep out of governing this great nation. I can’t tell you why, I don’t know the endgame. One thing’s for sure though, he wants it that way.

When he made those remarks he not-so-subtly empowered Christians as the model American. Not to knock some of the good Christian Americans out there, but this puts every other type of American sub-culture at risk. It is the most condescending swipe at the constitution I could ever imagine a president to make. His reckless words are coming at our social expense and for some of you who I love to socialize with, that really sucks. Which brings me back this magical word I used earlier…

DIPLOMACY.

It’s defined as “the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way”. Since the leadership of this country has changed hands, so has our attitudes towards one another. Social media is like the Wild Wild West of communication and The Twitter-Twat-Grabber in command is like the reincarnation of General Custer. There’s little to no repercussions for berating someone online and spreading misinformation. In fact, most of us were already guilty of it well before the election.

Certainly if someone wanted to talk to me in person the way I see people talking online to one another, I’d probably give them one stern warning and if it continued... I’d punch them in their mouth. This just sucks for both of us. I mean, have you ever knocked another man unconscious? Let me tell you from personal experience, there’s about a half-second of awesomeness followed up by a week of nauseating and loathsome depression. It’s unproductive, which is exactly what we can’t afford to be anymore. This form of communication is only working for the people that want to control us.

There's been a lot of political dust-ups in my brief thirty-three years, but the feeling today is unequivocally different. I can feel the negative energy starting to swirl. There's a storm brewing on the horizon and I feel really unprepared for it. Just a couple weeks ago, I wrote to myself - What if it hits? Where are my alliances going to land? Who can I count on for accurate information? And, why can't I shake the notion that "doing what I always do" will only blind me from an imminent threat?

It was that last question that reminded me of how impactful of a person I can really be when I decide to put my effort towards something. I think most people are so stuck on protecting themselves and defending their own words, they do it at the expense of being able to truly help others. I don’t want that and I know there are a lot of you out there that feel the same way.

You know, really I think we turn to social media because it’s an outlet for our feelings and a place where we can quickly gain alliances without having to leave the comfort of our smartphones. Some days it’s like a psychological trap masquerading as a support system though. Fortunately, I am starting to learn from this constant fork-in-socket routine we’re all going through and I’m finding that genuine motivation can overcome fear in damn near an instant, so it’s time to create and mobilize a movement.

However, there isn’t time for the guy on Facebook who pretends to be interested in people’s political views only to bait them into shaming them for having an opinion different than his own. There also isn’t time for the guy who was fortunate to collect unemployment long enough to figure out how to start his own business, but is an outwardly belligerent conservative. I especially can’t bother with the pro-life-science-denier who judges people as if they were God himself and pretends to love them just the same. Plus, I certainly don’t have the patience to sit idly by and wait around to be persecuted... just for being me.

Last weekend my fiance asked me why we don’t start to party with more of a purpose? Maybe it's time we needed to be more diplomatic about how we're contributing to society from day-to-day? It was a brilliant observation considering we love to socialize with our friends and family, which is one of the wonderful things about our freedom we so easily take for granted. Also lately, since our freedom seems a lot more questionable than it ever has before, we thought we should use it to our advantage. Maybe we gather to write letters to our government or other leaders, advocate for educational and environmental programs, brainstorm new ways to contribute to our community, help localize the food supply and just volunteer to do those things we actually want to see change for the better.

So… I hope you stay tuned... but I’m certainly not scared anymore if you don’t because there's too much at stake!!

~Scotty J.~

Please get in touch with me if you’re interested in making something better out of our current situation. I’m open to listening to you if you’re open to sharing with me, so please don’t be bashful!!! We have a lot of work to do, but we’re sure as hell gonna have fun while we’re makin’ it happen!!

Photo by @strickfadenphotography (IG)