Be Ready for the "Woke ID" Police – By Rob Simon

If someone judgmentally accuses you of being “woke “...as if that is a negative thing, borrow an expression  from classic Southern Belles and say, “Bless your heart! THANK you!”  And then go on about your business. You don't have to take possession of their disparagement.

You will want to do this because, first of all, you can be sure that the judgment has political roots and is meant to be mocking. Secondly, you have to understand where the term originally comes from. Then you also have to understand that by dictionary definition, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being woke ...also known as awakened, aroused, fully alive and/or aware. In fact, it’s those of us who are essentially asleep that are the problem. Life’s deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few, so of course, many of them don’t want the general populace to recognize this.  The reason is because our wakefulness focuses more light in the shadows where they operate, and calls for change by folks with their eyes open will be too loud for them to ignore.

For the record, the term "woke" originates in African American  culture in the early 20th century and has long been a slang term for being attentive to racial prejudice and systemic discrimination. In particular, the concept of staying awake to social realities has been ascribed to activist Marcus Garvey and can also be found in the music of blues artist Huddie Ledbetter (a.k.a. "Lead Belly"), who advised listeners to "stay woke" in terms of racial injustice in a 1938 song he recorded about the Scottsboro Boys.  But let me not digress.

If your accuser knows this history, that immediately tells you a lot about their motives in terms of the racial component. If they DON’T know this (which is very likely), then they've just borrowed a bastardization of the term from some opinion leader, which is currently taken by certain segments of society to mean the same thing as “liberal,” or “progressive” or any number of other terms that reflect a view that everybody matters and everybody should be included. 

In America, that means living up to our ideals... which you will recall from your civics class (assuming you had one) are something along the lines of the self-evident truths that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights including unencumbered access to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That's putting it simply.

Of course, these ideals are not just for Americans. But in some of our country’s original documentation, we have done a very good job of expressing the ideals that we should be living up to. I also took the liberty of paraphrasing, here, because the original language (though it was never explicitly said) was really for ONLY men ...and only certain (quite privileged) men at that. Everybody else was second class or lower. This includes every woman that may be reading this right now. And believe me, these same men want to take us back there post haste.

The powers-that-be are desperately working on constructing or reconstructing society to expand on the disparity between “haves” and “have nots” and they are succeeding mightily ... because not enough of us are AWAKENED and making collective choices (like voting) to take back the progress we were making for a while in shaping a world that works for everyone.

I always say, “Life is choices.”  And I promise you one of MY primary choices is to not let those determined to pull the wool over our eyes succeed without opposition.

I hope you will join me in being woke enough to do what you can in the same direction.  Oh ... and if you are a member of the formal or informal, conscious or subconscious “Woke ID” Police force, “Bless your heart! THANK you!”

Fear Is the Root – By Rob Simon

June 29, 2026

            It has been said that if you dig deep enough beneath any negative emotion, you will find fear.  Start with anger, hatred, jealousy, embarrassment, envy, bigotry, and more… and then ask the person who feels this emotion what he or she is really afraid of and there will probably be an answer… IF the person is honest.  Fear is OFTEN at the root of other deep feelings that lead to violent and other counter-productive behaviors

            If you check current news reports, you can find examples galore of how this rootedness plays out.  And history produces arguably an infinite number of others.

Once upon a time  in Cincinnati, for example, a black man lost his life at the hands of white police officers.  There was talk of racism and police brutality… and rightly so as the facts of the case were considered.  But I wonder whether or not anyone talked about how both cocaine and PCP – drugs that the dead man had in his system – are capable of turning anyone into a raging, superhuman maniac. 

While not excusing or minimizing their behavior and the resulting consequences, I have no doubt that the six cops who subdued this 300 pound man could have been afraid under the circumstances.  I also have no doubt that fear was at the root of the victim’s behavior relative to his drug use and much more.  The fact that we may never know what he was afraid of doesn’t preclude the fact that fear was most likely there.

            Of course, the current morass in the Middle East is a premier example of the primacy of fear. Go to any place in this hotbed of conflict where war is currently a daily experience, and fear will be there – whether it is among initiating forces or victims of the same.  Palestinians are afraid of Israelis and Israelis are afraid of Palestinians.  People outside of the Middle East are afraid of what’s happening inside, and those inside are afraid of what’s happening outside.

            Then there are countless examples from history.  The people of Illinois were afraid of the Mormons when they ran them out of Nauvoo.  The Nazis were afraid of Jews, gypsies, and other people they persecuted and destroyed.  Early American settlers were afraid of Native Americans.  Early African settlers were afraid of native Africans.  Natives on practically every continent were … and still are… afraid of each other.  There was fear in Kosovo, and Afghanistan, ancient Rome, pre-World War II Japan, and pre-revolution Russia, and on and on.

            There must have been fear in Geuda Springs, too.  There was once a movement afoot in this small Kansas town of about 200 souls to require every homeowner to own a gun.  Both the folks behind the movement and the folks against it were afraid of possible consequences.  But along the way, there was a newspaper reader who was celebrating the effort.  I know because an opinion line quote was brought to my attention reflecting a person who claimed (and I believe I’m quoting here) that “every Christian, Caucasian man should be required by law to own a gun unless he’s gay.”  I wonder what this person was afraid of.  And I wonder why.

            Well … I feel like I’m doing nothing if I’m not regularly inviting us to think.  And at the moment, I’m asking us to think about what it is we are afraid of and whether or not our fears are grounded… or unfounded.  Sometimes fear is a sign of prudence; but as often as not, it lies at the root of a growing malaise that takes us down roads of violence and destruction; and as Albert Einstein is quoted as having said, “Violence may clear away obstructions quickly, but it has never proven itself creative.”

 I’ll tell you what would be creative:  feeling our fears and having the courage to do what’s right anyway.  Doing that would cause a revolution like the world has never seen.

Are you feeling revolutionary? I hope so... because as Franklin Roosevelt asserted, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”  We will never be able to build the best of relationships and community if we insist on being fearful of one another.

Don’t Be Afraid To Do Hard Things – by Rob Simon

January 3, 2026

In the fall of 2025, I had the privilege of delivering a convocation address at my college alma mater. And directing some comments to undergraduates who were present, I said, “My hope is that most of you have discovered as I did that when you embrace [the college] environment, it WILL  inspire intellectual, spiritual, ethical, moral and social development and you will definitely be stronger in a very holistic way, but you need to ACT like it.

“Part of what that means,” I said, “is you must be willing to do hard things!  Easy things are comfortable, but they don’t make you grow. When I say it’s all about relationship,, that includes and emphasizes your relationship to your opportunities and challenges.  It also includes your relationship to yourself, AND your relationship to your Higher Power – whatever that means to you. And we could spend ALL DAY just talking about these last two. Don’t be afraid to do hard things!”

There is a wisdom that says, “Life begins right outside your comfort zone.” There is another that says, “ Your attitude determines your altitude.”  And still another – an African proverb – that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”

When I spoke, I wanted to make a case for getting uncomfortable more often, to keep refining attitudes at all times, and to focus on building good relationships – even with people who don’t make that easy.

I told the audience that the next time they would face a problem that seems unbelievably complex, and difficult to handle, they should ask themselves the question, “How can I see this difficulty more simply?” Why?  Because given the right perspective, we can find a way to view the most complex entities in a simple way just as we can view the simplest things in a very complex way. It is a matter of choice, of choosing a viewpoint that gives you a place to start ...and then starting.

I told them a story about my having been  invited to be the commencement speaker on the campus as an undergraduate ...for a class graduating ahead of me!  TRUE STORY! Talk about a HARD THING! I don’t know that I have EVER been more overwhelmed by a difficult challenge; but I sallied forth in spite of my fear and gave the best I had ... and the result was a standing ovation.  But more importantly, I learned something about myself in meeting that challenge, which changed the course of my entire life.  I think every audience I have spoken to since then has presented a challenge that pales by comparison to that one.

If you have ever heard somebody say, “It IS  what it IS,” that’s not necessarily a cop out. 

It could be an acknowledgment or an admonition to avoid judging anything ... especially when you have too little information or insight. Have you ever had experiences you first thought were great, but they turned out not-so-great? Or the other way around?

What we are too quick to do – at least sometimes – is to judge the elements of our experience, put labels on them, and get much  too invested in our judgments and labels. But as Byron Katie teaches, life should be more about LOVING what IS. She reminds us that, “The unexamined belief is a dangerous thing.” It’s better that we should subscribe to the Zen teaching allegory that promotes the value of saying or praying, “Thank you for everything.  I have no complaints whatsoever.” That would certainly satisfy Doris Day, a classic film and music star who believed, “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” When we complain, it often makes it seem like we either want people to feel sorry for us or we want someone to rescue us. Neither is empowering.

So, at the risk of sounding too impertinent, suck it up, buttercup! And don’t be afraid to do hard things!

In the fall of 2025, I had the privilege of delivering a convocation address at my college alma mater. And directing some comments to undergraduates who were present, I said, “My hope is that most of you have discovered as I did that when you embrace [the college] environment, it WILL  inspire intellectual, spiritual, ethical, moral and social development and you will definitely be stronger in a very holistic way, but you need to ACT like it.

“Part of what that means,” I said, “is you must be willing to do hard things!  Easy things are comfortable, but they don’t make you grow. When I say it’s all about relationship,, that includes and emphasizes your relationship to your opportunities and challenges.  It also includes your relationship to yourself, AND your relationship to your Higher Power – whatever that means to you. And we could spend ALL DAY just talking about these last two. Don’t be afraid to do hard things!”

There is a wisdom that says, “Life begins right outside your comfort zone.” There is another that says, “ Your attitude determines your altitude.”  And still another – an African proverb – that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.” 

When I spoke, I wanted to make a case for getting uncomfortable more often, to keep refining attitudes at all times, and to focus on building good relationships – even with people who don’t make that easy.

I told the audience that the next time they would face a problem that seems unbelievably complex, and difficult to handle, they should ask themselves the question, “How can I see this difficulty more simply?” Why?  Because given the right perspective, we can find a way to view the most complex entities in a simple way just as we can view the simplest things in a very complex way. It is a matter of choice, of choosing a viewpoint that gives you a place to start ...and then starting.

I told them a story about my having been  invited to be the commencement speaker on the campus as an undergraduate ...for a class graduating ahead of me!  TRUE STORY! Talk about a HARD THING! I don’t know that I have EVER been more overwhelmed by a difficult challenge; but I sallied forth in spite of my fear and gave the best I had ... and the result was a standing ovation.  But more importantly, I learned something about myself in meeting that challenge, which changed the course of my entire life.  I think every audience I have spoken to since then has presented a challenge that pales by comparison to that one.

If you have ever heard somebody say, “It IS  what it IS,” that’s not necessarily a cop out.