Only in America
ONLY IN AMERICA
WARNING-this read will not make a person happy. It is the millionth time told, the millionth line written in the same old tale and this tale still has only the same one ending and that is the ending that ends in the last breath that a person takes-your last breath, my last breath, anyone’s last breath. And how sad is that? But hey, you were warned.
I just wanted to share with you something that might come knocking on your very door one day. It might even be lurking in your child’s bedroom or in their car or in a home where they frequent. And, oh yes, there are many bad things that most parents attempt to keep away from their children for their safety and well-being. But bad things do happen and bad things can come calling upon any one of us at any moment in our lives. But before I begin, let me tell you something a friend once told me-
“You ever been in an actual robbery?”
“No, I have never been in one,” I told him.
“Well, I’ve been in two of them or almost two.”
“Okay, and what were they?” I asked him.
“Once, I went into a Burger Joint around 11pm at night and walked in and then I saw that the place was being robbed at gunpoint and turned and walked back out.”
He Said that the robbery never even saw him.
“Then one time I took my daughter to the grocery store one afternoon and when I walked in, I was met by a man with a gun and he told me-‘Ya’ll just have a sit on that Dog Food and don’t move, we just about thru here.’”
“So, we sat on the 50lb bags of Dog Food piled up near the entrance and we sat there and watched the other gunmen going to each cash register and grabbed all the monies. Then they walked out and then it was over.”
Now, why did I say that? Because I have often pondered exactly why and how could someone get to the point where they committed Armed Robbery? But that was not the only time I heard about an actual robbery. Back in 1990, I used to box and that was a stupid thing because it took me most of the rest of my life to be able to put a whole sentence together without stopping between words or stuttering about it as I tried to get them out of my mouth. I still am a long way away from being able to talk right and I still don’t talk perfect. But for a good while-many years for sure, I could tell folks let be alone in a conversation and really didn’t want to talk to me at all because they thought I was maybe retarded or something. My odd way of talking made them tune me out. You know, folks like to talk to people who seem okay to them and when your words don’t come out right, they walk away or they shun you.
I know, I know, I know. But it’s the way people really are. It’s maybe part of that animal instinct in all of us. You know-to rid out the bad seed. And to show you the truth of that, whenever a chicken in a group of chickens has anything wrong with itself, the other chickens will pluck at that odd chicken until they kill it. And that is about as animalistic as it gets and with man and all of his wannabe goodness, man is still a quite capable animal capable of doing harm to anything or anyone. And that is just one of the sad parts or things in human behavior and it is how people really are.
In other words, you can tell people how to behave and they are still going to behave how they want to behave. And people are meaner today than they have ever been in the history of mankind. They really are. And before you say-no, they are not-please tell all of us all about all the kind texts and kind memos and kind calls and kind words that have been placed in your life in the last 72 hours. Or, were you looking at one Viral Post after another of one Violent Act after another? Even the underground Rappers are stoking out Rap that is so far away from anything kind that it would make Jack the Ripper blush. And I am not picking on Rappers cause they do tend to Tell It Like It Really Is. Am I right or wrong? You might not like all the expletives used along with the imagery of their words, but the message is plain and clear.
But now, I want to tell you about just two incidents that I have personally experienced concerning K-2 or Spice or AK-47, and all of it is the same thing-Synthetic Marijuana.
My wife was in the hospital and I got there around 4-5am in the morning so I could be there each morning before she woke-up. A friendly face is always a welcomed sight to a person ailing in the hospital even when they tell you that it isn’t so or that you aren’t needed. Trust me, if your loved one is in the hospital, go see them. Too many times a loved one is mistreated or given the wrong medication more times than you might ever realize and these mistakes can kill a person. And yes, I have seen the latter take place more than once. To my oldest daughter and to my own wife twice. So, go see them and be there for them.
Anyhow, as I was walking from the parking lot and on the sidewalk, I noticed a man full of anger walking towards me and he was obviously beset on hurting me from the angry look on his face. But from the corner of my eye, I saw a Hospital Security Officer wave me away from the man. And I walked in a direction away from the man. And then I asked the Officer-What was up with him? He looked like he wanted to beat me up and for no reason.
That’s K-2, it makes the ones on it violent like that. And friends and colleagues, K-2 is a Violent Man’s Drug. And it is a Killer as well. But, I continued on into the hospital and I stopped at the Nurses Desk and told one nurse about the man I had just encountered on K-2 and she said-That’s nothing! We had one of those College Scholarship Football Players come in here late one night to see his girlfriend and he was on K-2 and he was the most Violent man I’ve ever seen.
We told him it was after visiting hours and he blew-up. He exploded into a rage of anger. And this guy was big. He was a huge Lineman and he was on K-2 and it took 8 of us to get him down and to then strap him to a hospital bed. It took Nurses, a Doctor, three Policemen, Hospital Security, and others to get him under control. But we hadn’t done none of that to him until he ripped the Hospital Room Door where his girlfriend was off its hinges and tossed the door down the hallway. It was like he had Super-Human Strength and like he was three or four men wrapped-up into one body and that man was on K-2.
And I want to tell you this-those hospital doors aren’t no baby doors. They are huge and very heavy room doors and these doors have large hinges holding them onto the wall. And it is a metal frame that they are well attached to the metal door frame. I even looked at the hinges and saw how it was attached when I got to my wife’s room. I just couldn’t believe that a man could tear one of these doors off its hinges, but he had or at least that is what she said. But I asked another Nurse and she told me that it was a real deal story. Ouch!
Okay, now that brings me back to the most important thing I wanted to share with you and I’m sorry I took the around-about way to get to it. Friends and Colleagues, we got a mess on our hands with all the illegal drugs that folks are taking all across America. And the monies spent to stop it are in the billions. And the manpower, the manhours, and the tolls they are taking on all of America is just absolutely way out of control. Men, women, and kids are being killed by them. Lives and marriages are being destroyed every minute of every day.
ILLEGAL DRUG USAGE IN AMERICA IS NOW AN AMERICAN EMERGENCY OF THE HIGHEST PRIORITY. And who would have ever thought from the film days of the film showing the Horrors of smoking Marijuana to what drugs have become today is just a crying shame. It really is. And we have lost. We have absolutely lost the very foundation of our own Moral Fiber and replaced it with Drugs that make a person get high or forget this or that and for those moments of forgetfulness, these drugs will kill you, me, or anyone. And even if none of us reading this use illegal drugs, we all experience the consequences of their being used.
It is draining every resource America has. But most importantly, it is Killing Americans. It is killing our loved ones. It is maiming them. It is destroying their minds and their bodies. It is turning Winners into Losers.
And any of us can close our minds out and say that I am talking about this drug, but that I am not talking about that drug-Folks, I am talking about all Drugs now. Not just the illegal drugs. When a legal drug is resold or given to another for misuse, it then becomes an illegal drug. I am talking about any drug and also alcohol when it too is misused and allows a person to become someone that cannot respond normally to a normal situation like driving a car. And how many times can anyone say-Hey, please reel your drug use back in. To Quit it? And how many are now part of the Walking Dead living here in America still going to work without any real life left in them other than the constant yearning for the next time that they can get back to their drugs. To kill a marriage and not care about it. To let a child lay in their own diaper for days at a time?
And friends, it has gone beyond anything repairable. I see no fixing any of it. It’s only growing and growing and growing and the money that should be staying here in America is leaving America. And where is that money going? To hell where it is going. If Americans are there, then they know Americans will buy it. They know Americans love to Party and they are beating Americans by knowing the very weaknesses of so many of us. Where is that money going? That is not the correct question. The correct question is-WHERE THE HELL ISN’T IT GOING?
If a Country has a Port and America is doing business with that Country, then Drug Money is going to that Country because there is not a single Country in the World doing business Port Business with America that is not selling Drugs to America. Even legal drugs to be abused, and illegal drugs to be bought here.
I bet right now that if a National Urine Test was done in America on any Monday, 75% will bust the test. And bust for every single Drug bought and sold in America. And the test will bust for 98% of some form of Drug in everyone’s urine. Every single American in America. And with 98% using some form of drug or another, then hasn’t Americans been laced-up with a “Can Do Drugs Attitude” for Drugs even if only subconsciously? IDK. You got to tell me.
But enough said, my words will fall to the ground like all the rest. It doesn’t matter which drug it is anymore because all of them are being abused and misused. I guess that’s the way it is today and I don’t see anything changing it at all. All Drugs can kill. All of them. And that is because Americans must like it that way. Right or wrong, it’s still all the same game. And this is the millionth time told and I did warn you at the very beginning. And sadly, now let me ask you this? How many names can you now write down knowing that someone died due to Drug Abuse, Drug Misuse, or Drug Use? And I didn’t say a thing about who was at fault, now did I? And I didn’t even go into the millions who have already died or will die now did I? But, I want to say this one last thing-Please, please, please, don’t give-up on someone that you know needs help with their drug problem. Keep them in your prayers and keep on their butts and just maybe, you might get thru to one person and by doing so, you just might save your own daughter’s or son’s or loved one’s life. God Bless. (smh)
-the living breathing James Brown, US Army Veteran, author.