Activities of Ian (John) McCleary (Son of the Cleric)

A structural racism exists and is showing itself in it's reaction to the 1619 Project. We see this in the Supreme Court's decision to rule Affirmative action as unconstitutional. We see this in the laws which are being passed to limit discussion on race in school classrooms. Relying on a form of historical revisionism tailored to white grievances.
Voter ID Laws which will require proof of residence when voting, which could be a way for profiling non white voters.
Almost an entire political party that has stoked racial tension in this country and continues to do it without any qualm.
The list goes on of how structural racism or institutionalized racism has if not been a part of our history continues to rear it's ugly head.
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When people talk about there being a God, or there being a devil, or there being a higher consciousness, I think these best would be described as humans quickly grasping onto anything they can find to understand reality as it is presented to them.
There is nothing wrong with doing this, but it cannot be confused for a fact.
In my experience I find the belief in God to be theoretical, more than anything else that it could be, something that only lives as long as it holds power over the person's mind. It is like when you were a child and believing that there was a ghost in your closet, you will believe it until the day you realize there was no ghost worth you staying up for.
Reason is not an antidote to superstitious beliefs, but it often has a way of coming on it's own without any effort of reaching for it. Take the example of the boy in his bedroom, he will look behind the door and see that there wasn't the ghost he was convinced was behind the closet door. Now as he looks behind the closet door, inspecting what's behind it, he now knows that this ghost was the product of his imagination.
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In the 2024 US Presidential Election and all future federal and state elections I will not base my vote on economic issues as much as on trying to end the Culture War that the Right in America is waging currently. I don't want to live in a socially conservative society. I don't want to live in a society that holds such negative views about people and the choices they make. That is how I am basing my vote. The state of the economy is a secondary issue right now to what is happening to Transgender people, LGBTQ people, and women, around the country.
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Politics as another form of entertainment creates an issue when it comes to discussing future policy in the United States.
Having any real dialogue with other members in government, between parties, is obstructed by this attitude toward governing.
A lot of this was created by Donald Trump, who should never have run for President. He was an entertainer alright and should have stayed as one. His whole campaign was just an extension of himself and the reality TV star he became known for. His entire campaign and presidency was all about shocking people, he wanted people to keep wondering what he would say next about his opponents, what derogatory remarks he would make about other candidates and politicians, even non politicians. This only isolating himself and the party he ran for from any constructive dialogue with Democrats over the national agenda.
This problem has not only been noticeable and a signature feature of Donald Trump but also others in the new republican movement. They don't want to listen to what Democrats or Independents have to say, they rather just demonize them and the things they stand for.
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Words like Youth and Mental Abuse carved into the door to the classroom, pencil doodles trying to grow into that long awaited flower called intellectual stimulation. Desks graffitied with pen after a lecture, food, and nail clippings on the carpets, giving the impression it were in the state penitentiary and not in a school.
Years of compulsory education has done this. It has made learning about as dull as it is can get.
An attitude of been there done that is acquired instead a love for learning and acquiring knowledge.
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Though I was baptized and made my sacraments in the Roman Catholic church I never truly believed there was a God. I never believed in the Godhead. I never had what the church calls faith. I reject the official teachings of the church. I cannot believe what I haven't experienced for myself. I don't know what form we will take after we die or if there is such a thing as heaven.
I can't somehow pretend that I believe in any of this stuff. I can't.I can't do it
As long as there is no proof or evidence that supports the existence of God, then I will not go through the struggle of forcing myself to believe in any of it. I declare myself officially agnostic in my views on life. This doesn't mean I am living by another doctrine, it just represents the beliefs I have had more accurately.
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Many countries can give the illusion that they are democracies, but if you look at them behind the surface you will discover something different. Take Vladimir Putin of Russia who has been the president of Russia since the beginning of the 2000s. Though he has not changed his official title (though proposals have been made) the amount of state power he has is incredible. Not only that but he has made allusions to Peter The Great to help justify Russias claims to Ukrainian lands. This exposing his imperial motivations.
He also uses state power to push his Russian conservativism on everyone.
Putin wants to bring the tenets of Czarism back to Russia, but without the noticeable flair of an imperial regime.
Of course most people aren't fooled by it, they know the kind of government he wants.
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Yesterday after talking to a coworker, I thought more and more about the idea that maybe it would be best if we let the United States as we know it be destroyed. Maybe then it would be a lesson to those who want to destroy it's system of government of the consequences their actions have in the future. Maybe they have to be shown where their ideas will take them.
Of course this will not be good for any of us
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I find myself feeling rigid, serious, unhappy when I feel I am trying to defend life as I have known it to be. I become speculative, philosophical, trapped in my head looking for an alternative to the world we live in now.
The world is caught up in a phantom of ideas that I have myself also taken part in. But even if I have indulged in speculation, ideas do not always suggest a better form of reality or even that those ideas will come to fruition.
And maybe it would be more important for me to follow instinctively the course of nature instead and to think of all that I have today, a wife who loves me, an apartment with all that we could ever need, a nice lake to look at, a good job, instead of what could be and what was, the problems of tomorrow and yesterday.
I cannot but help feeling tempted to peel through the next section of life, yet we may not be ready for it yet, to see what is written on those pages.
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It would be totally naive to think that by history alone we can learn from our past mistakes. Why this method does not guarantee that history won't repeat itself again? That there will be another Watergate but ten times worse?
Some have chosen to live in defiance to whatever anyone tells them, they willfully choose to be stupid, one below the level of the apes. They rather have pleasure than knowledge.
This is why to make history a top priority in education may do little to change the future of progress.
It may help the generations to come in ways their parents and grandparents were not taught about prejudice and discrimination. But if the reward of physical comfort is given more emphasis than intellectual development being it's own reward than there will be little progress to hope for in the future.
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