'm not sure if I've ever told you the story about the Two Bibles. I'm unsure because like many salty sailors I tend to tell and re-tell stories and of course there is always the occasional sea story that I tell. For those of you who don't know the difference between a sea stories and fairy tales is that fairy tales start with 'Once upon a time...' and sea stories begin with 'This is no shit'. Well here's a 'no shitter' for you. When I was stationed onboard USS Harry S Truman CVN-75, I frequented the smoke pit. The smoke pit isn't an actual pit, it's just a section of the ship that is designated for smoking and all the sailors that smoke go there to puff a cigarette and engage in daily conversation. Where the smoke pit was located was right next to the Chaplain's office. Outside the Chaplain's office is a book shelf where free spiritual literature is posted so sailors walking by can pick their own copy of the "Daily Bread" or grab a condensed military bible to bring to their rack (bed in the Navy) or work space. I usually grab the occasional literature that catches my eye just to see what other ministers are preaching about, kind of a professional courtesy. I walked out to the smoke pit like I usually do and lit my cigarette and started a conversation with the shipmate or marine standing next to me. Sometimes with 1000 or more sailors coming out to smoke throughout the day there are a lot of lit cigarette butts and some of those don't make it in the butt can where they are supposed to go. Whenever the butt cans get full and people start throwing things into them that aren't supposed to go in them like paper and empty cigarette packs and a small fire can occur. This usually starts with a whole lot of acrid smoke billowing out of the butt can and usually a concerned sailor like myself puts his boot in the can to smother the fire before it can start. After all if the smoking can is left unattended then a small fire starts, the wrong people see the fire and the smoke pit gets closed which means a lot of nicotine crazed sailors that are unhappy for the rest of the day. That particular day the butt can started to smoke and I looked inside it to see what was burning expecting to see paper or an empty cigarette pack. What I saw was a military bible starting to smolder. Needless to say I was upset. Everyone has the right to believe or not to believe in the Bible, but to grab a free bible from the Chaplain's office and then throw it in the butt can is just down right disrespectful and unnecessary. If you don't want to read it, put it back where you found it or give it to someone else. So I snatched the bible out of the fire and its impending doom and brushed it off. It was hot and had a cigarette burn on it. It looked like if I had waited another minute it would have ignited and there would have been no saving it. Knowing that no one is going to want this little charred book, I stuffed it into my right inner pocket of my utility jacket. A week later, I walked out to the smoke pit like I always do and it had been raining. Low and behold there was another little bible floating in a puddle of water while everyone walked around it like it wasn't there. I scooped the soaked bible from the water and rang it out as best I could. Knowing that no one is ever going to want a sopping bible I stuffed it into my left pocket of my utility jacket. I kept these little bibles in my left and right pocket of the utility jacket for the longest time, they are still there to this day. When asked why I have two bibles in my jacket, I tell people that it is my holy armor, one saved from fire and the other from water.
It seems like this day and age the common mentality of people is I don't care. Just like those that were around me in the smoke pit who didn't care enough to take a bible out of a burning butt can or bend over and pick a bible up out of a salty puddle of water, folks didn't seem to care. Our lack of caring has extended to the point that we stopped caring so much that we are now complacent. Oblivious to the world around us and now we are stuck in our own little mundane box. Maybe it's a generational problem, where each coming generation just stopped caring about everything. Perhaps it is a taste of things to come. Maybe we have just become so desensitized to the wicked world around us that we just don't have the heart to do anything about it. It seems that folks have not only stopped caring about the world and what's going on, but they stopped caring about themselves and the paths in which they are on. We are entering into a world that it about to change. What we knew in the past as reality will not serve us in the coming years. Nor will the complacency that appears to have consumed us. It is time for the world to take a step back and say, 'how do we fix this'. The Presidential Inauguration of the First Black President of the United States marks the age of a new era. Not just for the United States but for the world. I remember during the Presidential Campaign the signs that were the voice of the people. "Change", "We Can Do It", and "Si, Se Puede" or "Yes, We Can" seem to become a calling for people.
The Juggalo Nation appears to be going through the same Change. Complacency has damaged our youth and our Family. Not only have we stopped caring about others, but we have stopped caring about our Family, we have stopped caring about ourselves. Change and the direction in which we take our Family and take ourselves is dependent totally upon the Individual. If the Individual doesn't care about his/her own life how can one expect them to care about others. And if the Individual doesn't care about others than how can we expect them to care about the Juggalo Family. How long will it take us to wake up from this complacency. Will we sit behind our keyboards or hidden in our own houses with only to wake up from the covers being pulled over heads and realize that the dream of a multicultural, all accepting Family full of love and joy is gone from us. That we let it slip away. We will have no one to blame but ourselves. We must break away from the thought process of self, break out from the selfish and run towards the ideals of selflessness. We must Change and we can change if each one of us wishes to do their part and give a little more to something that they believe is greater than the one and requires the many to succeed. Everyone needs someone to look after them. Everyone needs that holy armor or the sense of security that someone or something is watching out for them. Just like those little bibles, everyone needs someone to help them out of the fire and to lift their heads above the water. The great ship of our lives is setting sail and all are welcome aboard.
