Oil and Water Don't Mix

     Lately, I've seen a lot of posts on social media sites, where people are complaining about their family members or friends being laid off in the oil industry because gas prices have dropped so low. They scold other people for rejoicing over the extra savings in their pockets by saying that they aren't thinking about the "bigger picture": unemployment. So, let's talk about this for a minute. On one hand, I understand the argument, and on the other hand, I simply don't.
     I understand it because it is absolutely logical to argue that unemployment is not a good thing for the economy. This cannot be disputed. We need people working to contribute to overall production and to provide for their families. People should not lose their jobs because gas prices drop to an affordable price for the general public. From personal experience, during the 2008 recession, I was extremely upset that my father was laid off from his job that he had worked his ass off at for over 20 years, simply because the company could hire three young people straight out of college for the same salary that he was making at the time. He was then forced to start over from the ground floor at a completely different job in his 40's, after he started working at the age of 12. So, I understand the anger. I understand wanting things to change for everyday citizens and so our loved ones aren't dispensable and suddenly struggling when they have worked hard their whole lives.
     But here's the part I don't understand. We must ask ourselves: why are low-level employees dispensable to begin with? Is it only because production suddenly drops? Or because the market takes a hit? Or because the company just isn't bringing in enough profit to be able to afford to pay all of its employees anymore? Or is there another, more prominent explanation for it? Why yes, yes there is.
     If any market takes a hit, or production drops on any good/service, then company profit will decline. This seems fairly logical. But why is it that the very first thing that happens is low-level employees lose their jobs? Especially when the CEOs of these companies are making the money that they do? I'm not saying that being the CEO, President, or Vice President of a company is easy or doesn't require a lot of hard work to get the job. I know it generally does. But is it so difficult that it deserves an average of 331 times the salary of the average $35,000/yr worker and 774 times the salary of the minimum wage worker? Just take a look at the reported executive salaries of Exxon (http://www1.salary.com/EXXON-MOBIL-CORP-Executive-Salaries.html):

• Chairman & CEO - $28,138,329
• Senior Vice President - $11,618,518 to $13,520,676 
• Vice President - $10,030,031

     The salaries at other oil corporations are fairly similar. I mean...seriously?!?!?! You're telling me that the oil industry took a hit so badly, gas prices declined so much, and company profits have dropped so low that you immediately have to start laying every day workers off...but the executives are still making the same amount of money they were before declining profits? This is where the problem lies with all of this. Put simply, it's called priorities, people. Every day workers aren't dispensable because of a "bad" economy. Every day workers are dispensable because corporate executives choose their own personal wealth over the betterment of society as a whole and the lives of their workers. Their companies make the profits they do because of every day workers working their asses off for them, but when profits drop, they keep their money and throw the peasants at the bottom out. 

     Yet, again and again and again, the citizens of this country choose to give the government and corporations the power that they have, or at least to turn a blind eye to it as if they don't know it's there to begin with. We fight among ourselves, blame each other for not doing enough or not voting for a particular political party, being a particular race that is just "lazy", etc., opposed to turning our anger towards those that deserve it. These big wigs that are laughing their asses off at you right now.

    So, to all of those that keep posting angry posts about how we all need to stop being so joyful over these low gas prices because it's bad for your family or those you know, you're absolutely wrong. Your argument is watered down, and oil and water don't mix, my friends. Because the real reason that things are bad for your family right now is because of your ignorant thought process and support of a political party that you are absolutely convinced looks out for your best interests, while they are really only concerned about their own personal wealth. Let the rest of us enjoy the low prices since we know that we have to take what measly scraps we can get because people like you with your watered down, illogical arguments exist. Maybe one day, everyone in this country will wake up, realize that this is the real problem, and face these assholes together. But right now, yay for low gas prices!!!! Carry on. 

The Secret American Holocaust History

     I considered writing this post last week, but every time I attempted to, I became sick to my stomach. But scrolling through Facebook today, I came across a post from ABC 13 News with a recent video from BBC News of very recent footage of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Amazing. Enlightening. And very chilling. You can see it yourself below.

     After watching this viral video, my mind is stuck on this subject once again, so, I'm going to suck it up and write about it because someone out there might gain a new, much-needed perspective of this dark part of human history.

     It is very hard for me to think about the Holocaust, but not for the typical reasons that most have for not wanting to talk about it simply because it's sad or a buzz kill. For me, it's because out of all the "ugly" truths I have been exposed to in my studies and research, the real history behind the Holocaust is by far the ugliest, most sickening one to date. Some of this secret history I have known for quite some time because I'm a nerd that reads nerdy stuff - in this case, Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation (2001). But some of it I was not aware of until very recently.

     When my partner and I, along with some friends, recently visited the Houston Holocaust Museum, we walked through a large sector with an abundance of information about societal conditions in Germany before and during WWII, Hitler, conditions in concentration camps, etc. There were also books, clothing items, and a train car that served to make something in distant history and foreign lands tangible to Americans visiting the museum. There was also a video that visitors could watch, in which many survivors from the concentration camps spoke about their experiences. It was beautiful in a tragic way. In a way where you are experiencing the pain of others and sharing in human experience.

     However, I knew, even then, that there was a secret American history that visitors were not being exposed to and would likely never know about, strictly based on my reading of the aforementioned IBM and the Holocaust. One that maybe even the survivors and workers that are involved with running the museum aren't even aware of. But that, in my opinion, is absolutely necessary for mankind to fully understand this tragedy and for Americans to understand the truth about their government. To add to that already existing knowledge, I did some more research after our visit, and I learned even more that I honestly wish I could give back. But now that I know about it, I think everyone else should, too.

The History Americans Know

Thanks to our media, history books, and today's Holocaust museums, we are taught that America stood against the Nazis and supported the Jews. Our country was a Jewish WWII ally and condemned Nazi behavior. Our country:

• Stood against the tyranny of Hitler 
• Supported the Jewish, who are considered Christianity's most protected and honored followers
• Assisted in militaristically defeating the Nazis in WWII
• Rescued German POW's after the war was over
• Served as a safe haven for the Jewish - 45% of all immigrants to America during this time were Jewish and received assistance once they were here

The History Americans Don't Know (Some of it...)

America did not become involved as an ally to the Jewish until 1941. Prior to that, we voiced support to Hitler, assisted the Nazis in developing the systematic means to run their concentration camps and hunt down the Jewish,  attempted to keep the Jewish out of our country, and exploited Jewish slave labor from the camps.

• Prior to our entrance into WWII, the murder of Jews was largely ignored in the U.S. media, and when violence in Germany was covered, the idea of a "race" war was ignored. 
• Political and social forces kept us from entering the war until 1941, while violence in Germany against the Jews had already been occurring for many years prior. 
• We attempted to limit Jewish immigration through the 1924 Immigration Law that made it much more restrictive for them to enter legally. 
• American corporations provided the Nazis with the means to exterminate the Jews and profited off of it, prior to entering the war.

IBM 

By 1933, this American corporation had provided Hitler with the data processing technology that allowed them to identify and locate the Jewish. They also provided the punch card technology used by the camp to identify prisoners according to their skills. These prisoners were then used by U.S. companies that literally had subsidiaries located on the outskirts of the concentration camps (Ford Motor German affiliate Fuhrer, General Motors German affiliate Opel, Coca-Cola, etc.). And the blue, numeric tattoos on all the prisoners? Yep, that was IBM's technology. 

Ford Motors

The prison labor that their Fuhrer affiliate used from the camps was used to produce 1/3 of the military trucks for the German army. Jewish slave labor was used to provide the army with more arsenal to use against themselves, all thanks to this American company. But the support for the Nazis wasn't just shown at the business level with this corporation, but it was also shown between the founder, Henry Ford, and Hitler himself. 

• Ford published a journal called "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem," in which he discusses numerous topics that all tie into the idea that the power the Jewish held at the time was undue and unsafe in the world arena,  as well as the need to do something about it. 
• Hitler once said the he hoped Ford would run for President of the United States, and he could help in his campaign.
• Hitler also praised Ford in Mein Kampf, where he said, "It is Jews who govern the stock exchange forces in the American Union...only a single, great man, Ford, to their fury, maintains full independence." 
• The Nazi regime provided Ford with the Grand Cross of German Eagle, their highest honor to foreigners, in 1938. 
• To this very day, Ford has not paid anything to or provided support for victims of the Holocaust, despite his role in building support for Hitler and Ford Motors' use of Jewish slave labor. 

General Motors

Their Opel affiliate also used slave labor to build trucks for the German army, as well as the world's first jet fighter for Hitler. And even better??? They were responsible for building Auschwitz. So, that video above that you watched above showing you what Auschwitz looks like today that ripped your heart out....yeah G.M. built that. 

This American corporate involvement is only the surface of it all. In a nutshell, America contributed to Hilter's rise to power and profited greatly off of the Holocaust, prior to entering WWII against the Germans. I don't know about you, but I struggle a lot with determining which is worse: the Germans for persecuting the Jews, or America for contributing to it, profiting off of it, turning on the Germans, and then trying their best to hide this massive part of history from not only the rest of the world, but from their own people. That is called being in bed with the devil. People and countries alike will pay a huge cost for behavior such as this one day. 

Go back...watch the video again....and this time, think about how if it wasn't for our American corporations, none of the Holocaust would have been possible. Hatred for the Jewish and small-scale violence would have occurred, but the systematic persecution of an entire race would have been impossible. And we wonder why other countries hate us...

   

Dear The World's Two Dominant Religions, You are doing it wrong.

     In modern-day times, when there is some sort of war or terrorist activity occurring, it is most commonly a conflict between followers of Islam and followers of Christianity - the two largest, most dominant religions in the world. This phenomenon is now not only occurring between the U.S. and Middle Eastern countries, but it has now expanded into other countries as well. The situation in France being the most recent example, as well as the beheadings in Great Britain. The tension between Islam and Christianity further intensifies with every passing day. And the only FACT that can be argued is that people are losing their lives in the name of religion. In the name of God. Completely ironic. Completely immoral. No matter what religion you follow.
     But what is most amazing to me is that we aren't even experiencing a battle between these two religions in their pure, original forms. Instead, it's a battle between two religions that have lost everything that they are supposed to stand for. Two broken systems that fight (literally to the death) to prove that their brokenness is somehow superior to the other's brokenness.
     I know I've said this before about Christianity specifically, but I would like to broaden this now to include both:
     Dear The World's Two Dominant Religions, You are doing it wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. Brokenness vs. brokenness = more brokenness. You cannot "heal" something evil with your own evil. That's not how this works.

Just get over yourselves already. It's time that you each worry about fixing your own problems before you claim your religion to better than another. Much less fight to the death as if your's is perfect as it is in current form.

     This entire situation worldwide that is currently taking place between Islam and Christianity is ignorant and ridiculous. Why? Because we are experiencing two religions that really aren't all that different at their true core beliefs, but that have both become tainted by the values of the societies in which they are most prominent in, fight over issues that aren't even a part of their religion. This isn't an actual religious war. This is a societal war, using religion as a weapon. On both sides.
     What do I mean? Well, what are the actual similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity in terms of their belief systems? Both Islam and Christianity believe in one god, one higher power. The same higher power in fact. Both Islam and Christianity believe in Heaven and Hell in the afterlife. Both Islam and Christianity believe that Jesus Christ was born to Mary through immaculate conception. But Christianity believes Jesus was the actual Son of God, while Islam believes Jesus was just the "Prophet of God" that "surpassed greatness" here on Earth. Christianity also believes that Jesus died by crucifixion, while Islam believes that a follower of Christ took His place on the cross and He died later on. So, the difference between Islam and Christianity surrounds the "genetics" and death of Christ, and the similarities between them are that both believe that Jesus Christ was truly a model of morality and positive human life provided to us by God. The model of life that we should all be following.
      In today's "religious" war, are we experiencing tension over the "genetics" or death of Christ? No. Are we experiencing tension over the morality of Christ's life? No. Because neither Christianity or Islam as a whole follow the life of Christ any longer. Both have lost Christ in different ways, but nonetheless, both no longer model their way of living after his greatness. So, we aren't actually experiencing a war of religious beliefs. We are instead experiencing a war over the loss of Christ in both religious systems and a war over societal values. And the reason both have lost Christ is because of their individual societal problems. The economy. Civil rights. Etc. And they have lost Christ in different ways because of their differing societies and differing societal values. This is a societal war. Not a religious war.
     How do we fix it? Well, the relationship between religion and society is a dependent one. Society is affected by religion and religion is affected by society. Right now, religion is not solving our problems because both dominant religions have become too tainted by society. On both sides. So, it is time to recognize how both have become tainted by our differing values and to fix those problems in hopes that both dominant religions will begin to reflect Christ again. In other words, it's obviously not enough that both religions claim to honor Christ in one way or another, but society must be returned to being modeled after His life. This is going to take changes on both sides. Withdrawal from one another. Admittance of fault from both. Personal reflection. And then positive action. And the life of Christ is the key.
     Until then, we will continue to experience brokenness vs. brokenness = more brokenness, as well as broken religions being used as weapons against one another to the point of a loss of human life, with absolutely no positive progress.