3. There Are Bears And There Are

We Have Advantages. We Have A Cushion To Fall Back On. This Is Abundance. A Luxury Of Place And Time. Something Rare And Wonderful. It's Almost Historically Unprecedented. We Must Do Extraordinary Things. We Have To. It Would Be Absurd Not To.

Every Time A Crime Was Committed By A Muslim, That Person's Faith Was Mentioned, Regardless Of Its Relevance. When A Crime Is Committed By A Christian, Do They Mention His Religion? ... When A Crime Is Committed By A Black Man, It's Mentioned In The First Breath: 'an African American Man Was Arrested Today...' But What About German Americans? Anglo Americans? A White Man Robs A Convenience Store And Do We Hear He's Of Scottish Descent? In No Other Instance Is The Ancestry Mentioned.

God: I Own You Like I Own The Caves. The Ocean: Not A Chance. No Comparison. God: I Made You. I Could Tame You. The Ocean: At One Time, Maybe. But Not Now. God: I Will Come To You, Freeze You, Break You. The Ocean: I Will Spread Myself Like Wings. I Am A Billion Tiny Feathers. You Have No Idea What's Happened To Me.

If You Want To Write About People, You Can Make It Up. But If You Spend Time Talking To Someone And Examining What It Is You Want To Write About, You Discover A Level Of Detail That You Wouldn't Have Noticed Otherwise.

There's Nothing To Be Gained From Passive Observance, The Simple Documenting Of Conditions, Because, At Its Core, It Sets A Bad Example. Every Time Something Is Observed And Not Fixed, Or When One Has A Chance To Give In Some Way And Does Not, There Is A Lie Being Told, The Same Lie We All Know By Heart But Which Needn't Be Reiterated.