Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. I want to thank you for tuning in. And if you're a new listener, I welcome you. I thank you for taking the time to listen. I know that time is important and it's the one commodity that we all share an equal amount of. Each of us have 24 hours in a day, and we get to decide what it is we're going to do with those 24 hours. And so I appreciate the few minutes that you were spending to listen. I had a difficult time putting together the ideas that I wanted to express in this episode. And I actually had a somewhat lengthy conversation with an individual recently. And this individual is in the teaching profession. We were discussing a requirement that this individual has to participate in a critical race theory exercise. In every episode that I do, I try to be measured in the things that I say because I want to make sure that I come across in a way that's understandable. And in this particular case, I probably will be a little bit more measured. So I asked your indulgence for the way that I may present this because of the fact that I am trying to be as objective as I possibly can regarding something that I have a hard time with, that being critical race theory. My personal opinion of it is that it is divisive. It is something that is destructive, that is not in what I would consider to be progressive. It's not something that is inclusive, it's something that is extremely accusatory and it puts people on the defensive. So I want to make sure that I am doing my due diligence on this particular topic. It seems to me that critical race theory is something that is on the consciousness of a lot of people's minds. Quite frankly, I believe it to be a form of indoctrination. I believe it to be a form of brainwashing, especially when we're talking about young children, getting children to believe that somehow today in 21st century America, that so-called people of color are somehow disadvantaged compared to their more pale-skinned brethren and sisters. Let me say it another way by saying that because of the color of one's skin, that is the determining factor as to how they will progress in 21st century America. It's an insidious thing to fill a young child's mind full of something that only is going to foster hate and division. And let me say that I am a student of history. I love history, I love the fact that we can learn about history, we can familiarize ourselves with those aspects of history that we don't want to repeat again. There's a lot of them. There are some that we could and should repeat, but there are some that we shouldn't. I have a very hard time with people who want to teach our children to automatically the first thing they see is color. You understand, ladies and gentlemen, that when a child is born and a child is one, two, three years old, they couldn't care less about the color of a playmate's skin. They don't care about it. They want to play with someone, and that's the most important thing to them. But unfortunately, what happens is that well-meaning adults, quote unquote, think that they are going to teach them that, hey, you should pay attention to the color of the other person's skin, because that is going to determine number one, if you want to be a friend to that person. Number two, it's going to determine whether or not you are going to succeed, especially if you're a person of color and the other person is not. The sad part about all of this, to me, at least one of the sad pieces, is that in many respects, it seems that people who are living in the 21st century are being judged by the despicable standards that were on full display in the 18th, 19th, or 20th century or any other century before that. And that's just unfair. It's not fair to judge people today using the same standards that were despicable in a prior century. It just makes no sense to me. To be sure, I have never said that we live in a perfect society. We don't. It's far from perfect. But if we want to progress, if we want to grow as a society, if we want to be more harmonious in our relationships with other people, even complete strangers who don't even look like us, because that seems to be so important for some people in our society today that we have to categorize people, we have to put them in a uh in a box where, oh, if you look like this person, then you can be their friend, or you can help them. But if you don't, well then you should probably hate them. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And frankly, if that's what you believe, then you have a problem. You have a real problem. You need to wake up, smell the roses, realize that you're no better than anybody else, no matter what you look like, no matter what they look like. Now, I'm not trying to be naive here, but doesn't it make sense that if we simply look at other people and try to treat them in the best way possible, to be respectful, to be courteous, that there'd be so much more joy and peace in our society than we are now experiencing. It certainly doesn't mean that we have to like everybody. We don't. We don't have to like other people. We make the choices about who we like, who we are going to associate with, but none of those decisions should be as a foundation based upon what that person looks like, what that person's skin color is, or any other human characteristic. Those are just not good ways to judge other people. We should, as Dr. Martin Luther King once said, judge a person by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. That's what he wanted for his children. Wouldn't we want that for not only our children, but other people to do the same thing? In any event, I will be damned if I am going to accept the idea that somehow skin color is the most important factor in human relationships. That's complete and utter bull. I don't care who you are, I don't care what your skin tone is. If someone tries to feed you a line that somehow you are guilty of oppressing someone else, or that because of who you are, you have been oppressed and have no material way to improve the status of your life in any way. It's utter nonsense. And fine, if there are those out there who say, well, no, skin tone's not the most important factor. No, that's silly. Try to rationalize their position. I don't care. To me, it's not a factor at all in 21st century America. It's just not. I'm passionate about this topic, not because I feel guilty, but because I feel as though it needs to be addressed in our society across the board, in every facet of our society. People need to be talking about the nonsense of critical race theory and how destructive it is in human relationships. To be quite frank, it really is despicable in my mind that people who know what they are doing, they're using their so-called intellect, they're using their craftiness to sow seeds of discord among the races. The main reason that many of these people want to do it is because they want to sow seeds of discord. They want to interweave their seeds of discord between the races so that improvements are not made. If you can continually throw out the victim card and say that there's a class of people who are perpetually victims no matter what, then you're always going to be in business. In other words, you're going to profit, maybe not monetarily, but you are going to profit in some way, maybe multiple ways, on division amongst the races. It's pure and simple, people. Well, I don't know how pure it is, but it is simple. Well, let me get into what I really wanted to talk about today in terms of what I wanted to be the focal point of what I'm talking about in this episode, and that's to be forward thinking. There are various schools of thought when it comes to thinking and critical thinking, and some of those things are in the academic realm, and others are just common sense using your head to think of things critically, to look at both sides of an issue, to weigh and balance those issues, and then make a determination as to what you truly believe, and basing that decision off of knowledge. So the quest for knowledge in this or any other endeavor is critical to any sort of sound thinking. So I'm not gonna necessarily go into the definition of critical thinking or critical theory. Look, you know where the internet is, you know how to navigate the internet. Go and look for yourself. I'm sure many of you have already. In fact, we should never think that our quest for knowledge or understanding is ever over. It's really not. None of us knows all that there is to know about every subject that one could think of. As a matter of fact, over the last couple of months, I've learned more about a particular investment asset class than I knew my whole life prior to. And it's because, in large part because of the internet, but because of other people that are in my life that I have had the pleasure of interacting with on various occasions. I actually love the term forward thinking. It's often most applied in the financial world, in the investment world. The words are used in a prospectus oftentimes, where they indicate that the statements are forward-looking, they're forward thinking, and they're not guarantees of any future performance and shouldn't be relied on for that purpose. However, in human relations, I think being someone who is a forward thinker is a positive thing. It's not that they're saying, oh, you know what? I have blinders on, and I'm not going to look back at past history because I just don't want to see it. I can't look at it. I can't be reminded of it. No, no, no. Being a forward thinker means that you're looking forward to the future and how things can be better. And in fact, it's looking at the here and now, learning from past history, and how we can become better today and plan for greater success tomorrow. Another aspect of forward thinking with respect to investing is the notion that you may be on a path that is unknown, that has risks and uncertainties involved in it. That's part of investing, especially if you're investing in something that is not very well known or not very accepted or widely accepted by the mainstream. Well, guess what? In human-to-human interaction, there's often unknown risks and uncertainties when it comes to communicating. There may be, and there are, differences that exist among us, but the investment of time and effort to get to know someone is important. We don't know the outcome down the road, what's going to happen in six months or a year, or 10 years, or 20 years. But that does not mean we forego the effort simply because we don't know what the outcome is going to be. Again, people who are forward thinking are not people who wear blinders, they're not people who stick their heads in the sand. They're just the opposite. They're people who see the potential, what can happen in a week, a month, six months, or a year, or even further. That's the beauty of being a forward thinker. Forward thinkers don't dwell on the past. They see, they try to see a bigger picture. They try to see what the eventual outcome could be. And because they are visionaries and they have that outlook on life, their perspective is oftentimes much wider and deeper and meaningful than people who just want to dwell on the past, not persevere, not do what it takes to increase their potential or to increase their position in life. Forward thinking is it's all about taking responsibility for yourself, accepting that responsibility, being accountable to yourself, and holding yourself accountable. Those intangible aspects of life are so important, vitally important to the success that we have. Well, I got a little fired up today, and I may even said a curse word. I don't even know now. But the positive thought that I want to leave with you today is from T. D. Jakes, who said this quote: Big ideas come from forward-thinking people who challenge the norm, think outside the box, and invent the world they see inside rather than submitting to the limitations of current dilemmas. Close quote. Or are we going to be forward thinking and be a positive role model and a positive force for good and constructive change going forward? I hope so. I hope we will. With that, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.