had a discussion with my wife about kh/assembly hall builds and i told her i don't believe the watchtower society follow osha standards on there build sites.
she trumpted it up that the borg follows stringent pratices and there standards would be more strict.
i laughed and said....ya i don't think so.
My father and two other men did most of the construction at the KH. Guess who assisted? My mom stopped by and was livid. We were playing on the site. OSHA probably did not exist then. NJ codes existed. How about a reasonbly prudent parent standard? These sites are so dangerous. I spent hours sanding. Some sisters came by with food.
When I was a teen, it was expected that constructing bldgs over a certain size would result in workmen deaaths.
well, i have finally got rid of my baptism cards.
the congratulations cards....the wt ones, the ones with sheep on etc.... all gone.
they dated back to 23/09/2000.. has anyone else "purged" their witness past this way?.
I was so angry about the Witnesses that I put the NWT in a metal trash can that imitated Andy Warhol's soup cans. It seemed to take forever to get flames on the fraud Bible. It was stupid of me. The fire started to get out of control. It spread so quickly once it started. I had a permanent reminder on my floor. Thank God my mom was there and assumed control. I took thick black magic markers and wrote "F....Jehovah's Witnesses."on the wall. New paint job needed. My brother and sister felt sorry for me.
i think everyone here can agree that walking down the street, even in the middle of the street, is not cause for having a clip emptied in your ass......... i can understand how the black community would be outraged by the injustice of seeing another black man dead in the street at the hands of the police under mysterious circumstances....... i hope that i'm not succumbing to the attempts to assinate the already well impuned character of the dead man...... however.
i can't help but think that this could all have been avoided by exercising the proper discretion with fore-knowledge of the disadvantages people of color have when they are dealing with law enforcement in the united states.
it is not as if this disadvantage has only since recently came to light.
No one has heard eye witnesses who take an oath to tell the truth. Cross-examination often elicits facts that may not appear on direct examination. The looting bothers me b/c it happened in my town. First, local merchants work so hard. They are not investment bankers. What company wants to invest in a town where residents loot. My friend's family owned a Chinese restaurant. Normal people were on the street until two or three am. Looting destroyed it. There were no customers after the riots. The business district contracted. Altho it happened many decades ago, the negative consequences continue. Every decent teacher transferred out of the district. We became the loser city.
It is an objective fact that nonviolent protests accomplished a lot. Sometimes I feel people here don't ever read a newspaper or stick their heads out the door. Obama is proof of the success. It was nonviolent protest that led multinational corporations to sponsor events and hire people of color in management. There are so many people of color teaching in academia. Jobs are available in the trades. The list is almost endless.
It isn't only showing up for a nonviolent demonstration. I learned how to lobby politicians through the movement. If some politician gets out of line, they are told that votes will be withheld. The Black Congressional Caucus. Black Wall St. lawyers. African-American investment bankers.
Looting destroys long term. I benefited from the movement in so many ways and I am not black. When I came out of the Witnesses, I had no self-esteem. Education was so important to me but it was very scary. Because of nonviolent protests, students at the local college conducted a class on black literature. I tagged alone. It was my first opportunity to interact with college students. We were most welcome. It was so different from high school. I am white and yet I learned so much. They encouraged us to express ourselves. I never encountered that type of book before in my life.
have you guys asked yourself that question?
what if the gb decided that "new light" revealed to them that disfellowshipping was wrong and they would do away with it for current dfd members as well...... .......16 years of my life.
would i welcome my family back?
Celebrate. The WT would collapse within a year.
i am currently an skeptic, but i have to admit that i can't assure that all the stuff of early christianity was false.. for instance, we know that the genuine letters of paul were written before the destruction of jerusalem.
so, paul affirmed that jesus resurrected, though he was not there when it supposedly happened.
but, if jesus did not resurrect, why didn't the jews expose this falsehood?.
Where would Jesus get the idea of hell as torment? He can't believe things unknown to his generation and locale. Jews have a much different take on Satan. He is not a bad figure. In fact, Satan is an advocate for humans. I would ask Jewish friends about a subject. They freed me from much JW tyranny. We do have genuine letters from Paul. Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians. The ones that annoyed me the most Paul never wrote. It also taught me about cult think. All the time I attended KH, I never noticed a difference in writing style. I can tell the difference by myself now. It is rather obvious.
When you know the context of Paul's letters, they also improve. I despised Paul. My plan was to spit on Paul on behalf of all Christians, esp. women. Now it would be cool to discuss certain matters with him.
The NT has its share of what I call isolated wacky stories. I laugh so hard at them. There is no reason for the material. It may very well have happened.
i think everyone here can agree that walking down the street, even in the middle of the street, is not cause for having a clip emptied in your ass......... i can understand how the black community would be outraged by the injustice of seeing another black man dead in the street at the hands of the police under mysterious circumstances....... i hope that i'm not succumbing to the attempts to assinate the already well impuned character of the dead man...... however.
i can't help but think that this could all have been avoided by exercising the proper discretion with fore-knowledge of the disadvantages people of color have when they are dealing with law enforcement in the united states.
it is not as if this disadvantage has only since recently came to light.
When it comes to dressing in suits vs. hip-hop. My mom wanted to be a fashion designer. I started reading teen fashion mags and learned to sew. My sewing was sloppy. My neighborhood was Sopranoland. Once the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, I tried to copy female versions of how they dressed in their films and video clips. When I ran away to NYC, I saw all the girls my age, wearing the latest garments. The Four Seasons look was my neighbord's uniform. I was always the first to start a new look. My jeans were the envy of boys and girls. Mary Quant patterns were sold. If I grew up in the affluent suburbs, I would fit right in. I did not fit in in Sopranoland. I did not deserve to die b/c I had a different fashion aesthetic.
Hip-hop drives white fashion today. It is the norm. My college profs. wore jeans. They had sideburns and beards. The clothing showed an interest in freedom and creative self-expression not a desire for criminal activities. Now the cops wear jeans. Jeans have nothing to do with music or politics. When I was a teen, I bonded with fellow jeans wearers. You knew their stance on civil rights and Viet Nam. They would be huge Beatles and Dylan fans.
The police are supposed to behave. We don't have to dress for their approval. It is too soon to know what happened.
while i was in florida during the spring visiting my oldest sister.
i had the time of my life with my brother in law.. you see my sister married a non-believer and my parents viewed him as the scum of the earth, so i was terrified to ever talk to him.
turns out he's one of the coolest people i have ever met.
One of my first worldly experiences was following the tons of tourists into NY's St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. I wanted to be respectful. Braced against the lighning bollt from Jehovah, I entered the back of the church. I pretended I was Jackie Kennedy. My eye saw something from a corner. I did not know what is was so I screeched and screeched my head off. When I turned to face the object, I discovered a wax figure of the WWII pope in white liturgical garb. It was a bust only. I was so embarassed and apologized profusely. I am still alive.
well, i have finally got rid of my baptism cards.
the congratulations cards....the wt ones, the ones with sheep on etc.... all gone.
they dated back to 23/09/2000.. has anyone else "purged" their witness past this way?.
As soon as my father died, we gave all the Witness lit to the KH. We were sorry we just didn't place them in the trash. The house felt so much safer.
they simply refuse to think, to reason, to ponder.
they are lazy!.
even if they might feel that something isn't right, they won't research an issue or a question.
Before college, I had no idea of how to examine the doctrines. I had a sense of unfairness, that a loving, decent God would not act in that manner. I feared Jehovah and the brothers who could mess up our lives.
i think everyone here can agree that walking down the street, even in the middle of the street, is not cause for having a clip emptied in your ass......... i can understand how the black community would be outraged by the injustice of seeing another black man dead in the street at the hands of the police under mysterious circumstances....... i hope that i'm not succumbing to the attempts to assinate the already well impuned character of the dead man...... however.
i can't help but think that this could all have been avoided by exercising the proper discretion with fore-knowledge of the disadvantages people of color have when they are dealing with law enforcement in the united states.
it is not as if this disadvantage has only since recently came to light.
I call small town cops "faux cops." Due process requires a trial. The police should be held to the highest standard. Based on the set of facts we now know, the police force was excessive. I had no idea how huge Brown was.
