For our first program today, I'm super excited to have Dr. Claudia Garcia-Lewis coming to us all the way from San Antonio, Texas, y'all. So big up to Claudia. We'll be doing a talk on rupturing the black and white, the binary Afro-Latina, Afro-Latino Latinx, or Afro-Latinx, bridging the black and brown divide. This is my sister, love her to death. We went to grad school together and she's gonna drop some knowledge. So show her some high-line love, y'all. Buenos dias. Love it. Well, it's a pleasure to be here. Lody's and I go way back. I actually grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in Hood River, Oregon. How many of you have heard of Hood River? Woo! Yeah! It's a small, small farm-working community, but I wasn't aware that there was going to be middle schoolers here and let me tell you I am so excited to have you all here and so I'm gonna try to tailor my presentation to you all if that's okay with everybody else because I think the importance of education is also empowering our youth to believe in themselves and to understand who they are and how they can be a change. And so I will read some things but then I will, I will read, re-tell them in a different way so that it's so our younger audiences can understand. So I have a presentation set up and as a Latina what ends up happening is that I have a presentation set up and sometimes I go off cue and so I ask for you all to just bear with me. This is a process that has taken me years to arrive at. So I want to start off with my positionality and so what positionality means is who I am, how I stand in the world and how I see the world. And so I want to start off by the first the first bullet point which is my birth name. I was born in Mexico and I was born close to Guadalajara and one of the most important things about ourselves is our name. However when we immigrate or when we go to communities that don't speak our language they often take away our name. So my name, my birth name is Claudia García Medina. That honors García, my dad's family. Medina is my mother's family. And so in the Chicana feminist tradition we like to honor the legacy of our family and so I'm going to honor my parents. I am the daughter of Maria del Consuelo, Medina Jimenez and Jose Ascension García Gomez. When I went to school I went so I immigrated as a farm worker, grew up in Hood River and so in school they couldn't say Claudia García Medina so guess what? It's too long right? So they said let's take away the Medina so I became Claudia García but it was really hard for some people to say Claudia so they would call me claw. I became a claw right? And so when they did that what ended up happening was that it took away my identity and so I used that now as an educator I have the tools I have the knowledge I have the strength to be able to push against that and so you saw in my name it's García with an accent and I always tell my students I'm not García, I'm García. If you don't know how to use that accent make sure that you figure it out. And so for my young students if your if your name is a name that isn't in English honor that because there's so much attached to that name right? And so my presentation today is honoring that I'm a Mexican immigrant. It took me a really long time to acknowledge and celebrate that I'm Mexicana. I used to lie and say I was born in LA because everybody wants to be born in LA especially if you're growing up in Hood River Oregon so I'd say yeah I was born in LA now to make up these lies and lies that I wanted to so deeply believe because I was told by society that because I was Mexican and I was a foreigner there's no way that I would be successful and that I was completely opposite of what success meant. Right? And so I want now I feel pride in being a Mexican immigrant I am the third oldest in my family but I'm the first to graduate from high school. My two older siblings were pushed out because their education did not make them feel welcome. They didn't feel welcome in classrooms they weren't taught to be proud of who they are and so I am not lucky to be a first-gen student I fought for it and so for those younger ones for those that view who are on who are on campus here at Highland I want you to also understand that this has been a process of generations and so me being a doctora a profe is a is a dream come true not only of me but also my family right so it's carrying through the legacy of my brothers and sisters who have been pushed out of the system and so I come to you my positionality is embedded in that it's embedded in struggle it's embedded in being a mother so you'll see my my two little munchkins right here my daughter Victoria my husband is Haitian he's first first generation born in the US from Haitian family so we're a family of immigrants like we really are immigrants right and so we are the dreams and the hopes of our parents and so my daughter is dressed as Frida right here for for influential women's day because she understands that she is a synthesis of both right and so my research and the way I come to this research is not because I said wait a minute Latinos aren't just people who look like me there's black Latinos there's Asian Latinos it was because it was born out of me being forced to see that my children would someday have to fight for their right and their identity right and so I come to you in this way and I want to start off with my positionality because as a mestiza woman as a Latina who presents as a Latina doing research on Afro-Latinidad is something that I'm always conscious about I'm here rather than an Afro-Latina being here or an Afro-Latin next individual talking about Afro-Latin next issue so I want to make sure I start off with that positionality and to make sure that I I'm honoring the the gifts and the experiences and the stories of my participants and so my research my dissertation was inspired by my children my children who are Haitian I came up with that term it just fits you know they're they're Haitian and they're Mexican so they're Haitians right and so what I uncovered was that within higher education research there was no scholarship on the experiences of Afro-Latinos and so I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and when I watched the univision all I saw was blonde hair blue-eyed people people who were lighter than me and so I thought that that was the representation of Latinidad I thought those were Latinos when I went to college I got on an airplane and went to Venezuela and when I got off in Venezuela I was in Caracas I looked around and it was the sea of Afro descendents like I was so confused I thought I had gone to the wrong place because I had never been made aware of the fact that there are Afro descendents Afro-Latinos in Latino America and so but I was able to get on a plane come back and I didn't have to deal with it because that was not an identity that I was forced to live through so we conveniently forget to think about items because if they don't if I am able bodied then it's really easy for me to forget about people who don't who have some type of physical limitations right so it wasn't until I became a mother and started doing research on Afro-Latinidad that I said wait a minute the voices of Afro descendents are missing from higher education research and so what I found was representation right and so when we think about representation within literature when we think about representation and the voices that are included within literature I found that there's this notion of anti-blackness within the US and colorism so colorism is coined by Alice Walker a phenomenal black woman who came up with colorism and so colorism means people being treated differently based on their skin tone so the darker individuals are treated worse even within groups right so within the black community within the Latino community individuals who have lighter skin who have more fair facial features who have lighter hair tend to be treated better because they're they're approximated more we'll have questions at the end and so within my know even within minoritized communities there's also this notion of identity formation so when we think about identity and we think about identity formation we have to consider that there is this rich history of slavery and I say rich because it's so dynamic and complex but its legacy still persists to this day and so we see and even within our own cities we see how gentrification is taking over in communities but communities that were historically redlined so they were redlined into being segregated and people black and brown communities being pushed into these these spaces also this whole notion of the social construction of race like what is race do we know what race is so we see it on federal forms right we see what are the what are the racial categories African-American or black Hispanic ethnicity there's other now right yes Asian yes what else white Native American but these are social constructions because if you go to Brazil they have over 200 categorizations for individuals Hispanic does not exist outside of the United States and so that's a social construction grounded within geographic spaces does that make sense if you go so my husband's Haitian he grew up in New York if I when I would go to New York they would say that I was Spanish right and so geographically in New York Spanish was identified as people who speak Spanish but they were Puerto Ricanos there were Dominicans there were Salvadoran years they were all sorts of different nationalities but that was what being Hispanic is here in the Pacific Northwest we have mostly in when I was growing up in Hood River there were mostly Mexican immigrants and so anyone who spoke Spanish automatically was Mexican so I want us to understand that within the research on Afro-Latinidad and student affairs and higher and higher education these were the two things that I identified was that identity was embedded within the this complicated history of slavery and because Afro Latinos presented black they presented as black they were often assumed to be African-American but my students the people who I was interviewing they understood that the legacy and the history of African-Americans was not theirs and they were very transparent in that process so I will get back to that in a little bit and so what happens with Afro Latinos and Afro Latinidad is that this they identify they develop this gerasinated identity which means basically this identity that is truncated right pieces cut up into small pieces and it's based on the social construction of geography how many of you know that there's a Spanish-speaking country in Africa Spanish speaking country in Africa I want to see your hands up high and so for those if the other people look around very few right but what's the name of the country so for middle schoolers now you know geography right you didn't know you're gonna learn geography but here you go equatorial New Guinea okay are they considered Latinos why not they speak Spanish but Brazilians don't speak Spanish they speak Portuguese and they're considered Latinos that's the messiness with the social construction is what I'm trying to get at is that it's socially constructed and because it's so messy the lines are often blurred this also this notion of literary discursive separation of blackness and brownness within the United States if you are black you cannot possibly be brown we've identified this time and time again so Afro Latinos are positioned in the middle where they can't possibly be Afro Latinos and now it's more accepted with Cardi B being you know being very vociferous about being Afro Latina and what that means but she also talks about being questioned about that identity and then also this racialized subjectivity of misty socket in black America I'm sorry this racialized subjectivity of being misty souls in black Americans so what is a misty soul I like to do I like to do community participation what's a misty soul or misty song okay so mixed other people one more person what about my middle schoolers Mestizaje is the number one term that Latinos living in the United States adopt Mestizaje is a mixture that comes from this historic legacy this is a trans and I'll come back to Mestizaje in a little bit because I define it transatlantic slave trade how many of you are familiar with this map and so for a lot of people when I do presentations even when I uncover this I was shocked but when you look when people were enslaved from Africa and brought to the to the Americas you will see that the grand majority went to South America and Central and the Central America and the Caribbean five percent came to the United States so when we think about Afro descendants and we think about the descendants of Africans we also have to expand our definition of what that means and that it goes beyond the United States oftentimes we are victims of our own education and oftentimes in the United States is very US centric but we also don't talk about these things so we think about Afro descendents and we think about Afro Latinos it's a huge population and it makes up a great part of who we are within Latin America so as a Mexicana who presents Mexicana I wasn't forced to see this but this is also the background of the PowerPoint presentation but the Spaniards they were meticulous record keepers they kept records on everything and so one of the things that they developed were castas and so castas is essentially a ranking of mixtures and so at the top left hand side you will see that it was espanol with amestiza and at the very bottom you can't see it because of the of the what's this called some close captioning thank you it's two black people africanos Afro descendants right and so they began to create this categorization and ranking of individuals this was in Mexico where I thought that there were no afro mexicanos now Mexico actually counts afro mexicanos and afro descendents and we actually and you know this isn't part of the presentation but I as I was doing research I found out that Guerrero was the first black president in the Americas in Mexico there's a state named after Guerrero yanga was a libertador an enslaved person who ran away from being enslaved and founded the first free pueblo in the Americas in Mexico and we mexicanos and I consider myself mexicana we erase that history and there's so much richness and pride in that are there we have a state named Guerrero so I started off with my positionality and I like to question things so I said but how did we get to the point where we begin to uphold colorism so remember we talked about what colorism was how do we get to a point where minoritized individuals individuals who are people of color buy into the notion of colorism and I started asking questions and the more I looked dun dun dun oh one of the things I wanted to say was also the crown and religion so the crown of Spain actually they funded the exploration into the colonization into the Americas into in Mexico and so that was there was a large religious component associated with it but then I started looking at images of who is a Latino who is a Latina OX and so we have Celia Cruz and we have Cardi B and we have Eleanor Choa and we have Amara la Negra and we have Shusha and we have these are all Latinos and when you look at that and you say wait a minute but that's not a Latino within the social construction of what we have in our head then I began to question well then what is a Latino do you have the same question because look at the diversity here and so my research through my research I came to find and that Afro-Latino OX is our neither biracial nor multiracial as we define them within the United States but rather rich amalgamation of historical mixture between Europeans conquist European conquistadores various indigenous groups and also blacks and so when we think about Afro-Latinidad we have to then rupture away from what we've been taught about the social construction of the rupture from the federal guidelines of black white indigenous does that make sense so the problem ethno-racial categories so ethno-racial means categories that are based on race so ethno-racial one race categories are grounded and constructed within geographic spaces so I talked a little bit about how there's there's there's blacks against in California so the mixture of black and African Americans and then you have then you have people who identify as Afro descendents you have people who identify as Spanish even Latinos in which took me a while to understand identify as Spanish within the within New York area but then you have people in my study I found students who who identified as Garifuna right Garifuna indigenous native peoples from Central America you have people who identify as mestizos we have people who identify as mulatto knowing that mulatto was utilized in a negative term they identify as mulatto and so we begin to find people who are identifying beyond the social construction of categories that the federal government has positioned for us but what we also need to understand is that within the United States we have this black white racial binary and so oftentimes when we talk about race relations it's often positioned from one side is black the other side is white and black right and so what ends up happening is that our conversations tend to stop there when we want representation we want diversity it's always well black people this white people that and what has happened is that it has created a negative experience for everyone because then representation all in a sudden becomes black when black individuals don't even have a voice in a lot of what happens also this racial binary dominates the formation of knowledge so we think about education and when I was doing extensive research I came to find out that in fact we weren't really talking about the black-white racial binary but what ends up getting into textbooks and into research was often falling a line falling along the federal guidelines so Latino who's a Latino I don't know who's white who's Native American who's Asian American and so these they also control the formation of knowledge because in order to receive grants so you all don't know this but as faculty members we have to apply for grants in order to do research and so we have to use those categories if we decide to not use those categories we don't get funding it's very difficult to get funding beyond those categories so it impacts the way research is conducted and the type of research that is produced so it limits our ontological groundings and terminology for assessing at the validity of race and ethnicity that's the conclusion that I came to so going back to how do we how does this racial binary and it all ties into MLK I promise I promise I wanted to understand then how is slave how was slavery justified because as a person I can't imagine inflicting pain on communities entire communities entire villages and so I said how do you convince masses of people to do that and so then I I did research and I identified the and you know there's limited text out there but it's something that I arrived at which was there's this curse of ham and so the curse of ham is that ham walked into his father walked in on his father his father was naked lying drunk and so ham walked out and told his siblings that their father was lying drunk but he saw him naked and so that was a big sin his brothers came and walked backwards and put the blanket on top of their father and that way they didn't see him naked well ham was cursed by his father that was the the curse of ham the curse of cane cane killed his brother and so God placed upon him a marker and so there was this notion of okay well ham and cane they're sinister individuals in history so there was this narrative that was depicted that said black people were the descendants of both bloodlines and because there was a mark placed upon them then it must be black skin and so that justification was utilized to justify the enslavement of individuals because when it was it was in a time when the Bible ruled and when the Bible had high influence and so justification of slavery was passed on in that way mestizaje josebas kinsuelos how many of you have heard of josebas kinsuelos okay so la raza cósmica the fifth race josebas kinsuelos was a Latin American philosopher in 1910 Mexico just like many Latin American countries had just gone post revolution and they were finding their independence but the country was divided it was so divided that they needed something to bring people together but they still the Spanish descendants still wanted to maintain control so what they ended up doing was that Latin American philosophers josebas kinsuelos in Mexico in particular developed this notion of la raza cósmica the cosmic race he was a descendant of Spaniards and he was one of the elite classes in Mexico so the cosmic race and his philosophy went like this that the cosmic race would one day rise and be superior than even the white Europeans because they were a race they were a mixture of indigenous black and European and so what would happen was essentially that they would rise to become more dominant and so a lot of people in the in the United States who are descendants of Latin American or have lineage in Latin America because there was no identity formation within the United States they adopted mestizaje as this term right like idealistic term I'm going to become like superior like everybody wants to be superior we're gonna become superior and so mestizaje took on this notion of pride but what we weren't told is that mestizaje is actually Darwinian term and so for my middle schoolers I know that you know what Darwin Darwin who Darwin is right who's Darwin there's a famous saying survival of the fittest right and so what Vasquezuelos believed was that eventually over time the mestizos would continue to rise but you would have to breed out the brute and by hit by that definition he meant black and also the ignorant by that definition he meant indigenous and so eventually what would result was this likeness towards European but that included the European descendants the Spaniard descendants that lived in Mexico and then the Americas and so in that case when we look at the definition of mestizaje when we begin to look at it because more complex right now it's also a Darwinian term and so finally going into the colonies and in the Americas how do we understand racial formation within the United States we started I started looking at colonies and what colonies had established as blood fraction statutes so how many of you know what blood fraction statutes are back there so what is it blood fraction like counting I'm half this ethnicity half this ethnicity or a quarter this a quarter that depending on what your parents were and how they identified or how they were identified by others yeah and we've heard the one drop of black blood renders you all the way black all the way black right and so we've heard these things and so that started in the colonies and they also had anti miscegenation policies which meant that racial mixture was criminal illegal and so in this way just like in mestizaje the notion of mestizaje there was the whole notion of the castas right remember we saw the castas were where European mixtures were at the top and then African black mixtures were at the bottom and essentially this upheld these these beliefs but now through policy so the legacy of colonization is one large theme that I continue to uncut that I that I continue to look at and I look at the invasion of the Americas and this one drop rule is very different within the United States than Latin America in Latin America one drop of Spanish blood got you closer to whiteness whereas in the United States one drop of black or black blood rendered you black right so how do we then tease this out in the context of Afro Latinidad and their experiences as them trying to find identity and belonging within either category so it amounted to this loss of identity and family history so enslaved slavery essentially it ripped apart entire communities right villages were torn apart but that legacy continues just like I started off with my name and I said gotta see I is my dad's lineage Medina is my mother's lineage we are able to trace back who we are by our name but what happens when entire families are ripped apart you can't do that you don't have the ability to trace back who you are and oftentimes that's why ancestry DNA and all these things are so popular because we want to know where we come from and we want to understand who we are but the similar similar situation to what happened in the Americas happened in the United States happened in in Latin America where indigenous communities were also torn apart and you saw the transatlantic slave trade map where massive amounts 95% of individuals who were enslaved in Africa were taken to the Americas that exact same thing happened and so this whole notion of historical mis representation and exploitation has occurred across the Americas but we're often only taught one side which is within the United States so when I started looking at this literature I wanted to see what my role was within this within perpetrating these lies and that's why I started looking more into discriminatory policies and how these discriminatory policies are being played out in the United States today so cities are becoming more diverse but hyper segregated and so even though schools have been desegregated right legally desegregated they're becoming segregated through SES so now through neighborhoods through social economic status so we see hyper segregation and a lot of the communities they're even more segregated than they have been in past years especially in urban epicenters historical redlining we still see the effects of historical redlining to this day where you will cross the street and go to schools that are better funded and have better teachers and have better resources and less student enrollment and so yes children who go to these schools are going to perform because they have the support at their schools but their but children across the way are expected to do the same which much with much less so I wanted to understand and connect the dots between the legacy of colonization policies such as misogynation such as racism within our legal system even though we say that it's supposed to be arbitrary or that it's that it's supposed to be what's the word unbiased right it's it's it's often not so then thinking about schooling and policy deculturalization has happened to every minoritized community and deculturalization spring says is the stripping children of their culture and replacing it with the dominant groups and so I talked a little bit about how my experience was also shaped and formed and the reason why I do this research the reason why I do this research is because I want my children to know that they're Afro-Latinos that they're Haitians and that they should be proud of who they are so understanding who they are and where you come from gives you voice but above all it gives you a strong foundation to be able to stand on and so when someone tells you lies Christopher Columbus my daughter is in first grade and so I taught her I told her I taught her about Christopher Columbus and she created a booklet and she took it to her teacher and she said this is the real story of Christopher Columbus and what is her teacher going to say no that's not true so her teacher sent me a message and she said thank you for empowering your daughter to do that and so now we have to be able to understand that the history and what's happening today matters right and so for our younger kids and for all of us to be able for as educators to be able to understand that history continues to impact how we see ourselves how I see myself within a group full of people versus how my students see themselves so in my classroom what I do I speak Spanish I teach in Texas I decided to teach in Texas because I love speaking Spanish and that was denied from me my name Claudia Garcia Lewis I introduced myself like that all the time and at first I was really shy right deculturalization happened to me they took my name they made me feel ashamed of being bilingual right and I didn't have anything proud to stand on because I felt that I was inferior because my educational system taught me that I was inferior and so part of my process and going through this research is also trying to understand where I lie so now as a professor I have the opportunity to force because students are in there and they have to take the class right force conversations about the history when we have these conversations there's resistance but resistance also means that there is some sort of insecurity talking about it when we talk about race and racism and colorism and prejudice these are heavy topics when we talk about historical discrimination that's painful for both people who are benefiting from it but then also for people whose families have endured it and so coming to this notion of perpetual foreigners it doesn't matter who you are if you even Native Americans feel this notion of being perpetual foreigners indigenous peoples to this land feel like they're foreigners like they don't belong like they're on someone else's land because when we feel powerless we feel like guests who don't have rights and so I wanted to understand how our schooling reinforces this notion of being perpetual foreigners and you know being raised as a in a traditional Mexicana household my parents always said you don't question the teacher the teacher knows best and so when my teachers would send notes to my parents Claudia is doing this or is not doing this my parents would and I would say like no puppy I did everything I was an ESL till I was in fifth grade but I learned how to speak English in the United States I immigrated when I was four but I was an ESL 10 I was in fifth grade and so when I would tell my parents I don't want to go to that class like I don't learn anything I know how to open the door close the door that's the window like I knew all that stuff and the teacher would say no we still need a keeper here and my parents would say Claudia you don't question the teachers they know best for you researchers took those experiences and they said Latino parents are disengaged they're not involved in their children's education they don't want to be involved in what's going on in the classroom and you see how these cultural translations right where parents are respecting the teacher gets interpreted through someone's perspective as not wanting to be involved in your children's education so I do this with my students I encourage them and push them to have these difficult conversations and I bring in scholarship that rejects this notion of deculturalization and we know that diversity benefits whom mostly white middle-class individuals because they come from more homogeneous communities than people of color do and so we know that affirmative action has benefited mostly white women but then we're told when we're a person of color and we're walking through campus that we are the affirmative action case and so I push my students to think about what that means for them but then also what it means for the students that they will be teaching because I teach in a program for an higher education program and every single interaction that you have with students and every single interaction that you have with parents and community members will forever inform how they see themselves in relation to education this is a matter of life or death and I'm not just saying it because it sounds good it really is it's people's livelihoods when someone is discouraged from coming back to the classroom you're not only impacting them you're impacting their future families and their grandchildren because they will be able to see the possibilities and so when we're forced to believe that we're foreigners perpetual foreigners right in every single space we inhabit if we're perpetual foreigners and we never feel like we belong or that we're good enough that impacts how we are how we feel and how we speak I used to be petrified petrified I used to my heart would like pound out of my chest every time I had to talk in class I hated to talk in class even as a doctoral student I hated to talk in class I was scared because my first language was Spanish I was scared to read out loud because I didn't want to mess up but most of all I was scared of what others would think of me I didn't want to speak in a way that made my voice be scared right so like that you know where you can't breathe it's scary and even now I get questioned when I when I talk in class students push back people push back oh one of us and so that's called the imposter then position of identity but the imposter syndrome we have been imposed on to us this notion of being imposters and not being able to be in spaces that were designed to keep us out so the boy one of the most important thought scholars in our in our history said the problem of the 20 20th century is a problem of the color line the question as to how far differences of race which show themselves chiefly in the color of the skin and the texture of the hair will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing the utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization and so many philosophers can have continued to quote this but out golf who's a who's a brilliant scholar said if Dubois were alive today he'd probably tell us that the problem of the 21st century will prove to be the lines between communities of color or the question to cross ethnic relations and so what I'm here to do today and to challenge and you know in the spirit of MLK MLK not only brought together communities from across the board but he walked across and joined brown communities so the March on Washington has been in history it's a it was an important March but what we don't hear about was how he reached over to Gilberto Gerna Valentin and gave him 15 minutes to speak to the Latino community but he asked him to speak in Spanish these are examples of black and brown bridging one another Cesar Chavez is a historical figure for the Latino community and MLK sent him numerous telegraphs when when Cesar Chavez was on hunger strikes and leading efforts in California for farm workers and one of the one of the quotes that I love said our separate struggles are really one a struggle for freedom for dignity and for humanity so when we think about MLK bringing people together and celebrating MLK I know many of us marched but then we forget once we leave that March that the real work is bridging together minoritized marginalized communities so that we see each other through our unit through our through our mutual experiences of rejection and hardships finally People's March he was assassinated prior to before the People's March but he called upon Chicano movement organizers and he said we need to build we need to bridge our communities please organize and let's get us all out there and so Bert Corona Corgi Gonzales and Ray Stegerina were were the prominent figures of the Chicano movement and MLK reached out to them so you know as it's MLK week social media feeds are filled with MLK and and all of the things that he has done he visited Puerto Rico and and was also an ally to Puerto Rican cause and we know Puerto Rico has been on the news lately for for many things but what MLK did is what Alcoff said we needed to do we need to bridge the black and brown communities marginalized communities and so I want to end with this quote because I know my time is up in the spirit of MLK when we look at modern man we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast with a scientific and technological abundance we've learned to fly the air as birds we've learned to swim the seas as fish yet we haven't learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters and so this notion of unity we can't have unity without understanding history and we can't understand history without having difficult conversations about who we are and what we represent in the now and so I did not ask to be born who I am but I do have the obligation to make space for individuals who don't get into spaces that I am in and so that I think is the legacy of MLK is making sure that we create spaces for people who do not have access to those spaces it's not about talking for them it's about making sure that every single thing we do we're bridging gaps and we're making sure we build bridges rather than building walls thank you so much


Buses have a really bad rap in North America, less so in Canada, but it's still a thing and I don't like it. Now of course there are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the biggest reasons, and one that I think gets discussed far too little, is that the buses here in Canada and the United States are just worse than our international counterparts. But why? And how? And could we do something to fix this? If you like videos about how soft the seats on buses are, you should subscribe and hit the bell icon. So you don't miss any future videos like my upcoming series on places that should have rapid transit, but don't. When a friend from Europe came to visit Toronto recently, we took a ride, naturally, on one of Toronto's newest and nicest buses. It was a hybrid delivered just a few years ago, and to be honest, they were amazed. Why is the ride so rough? The bus is rattling so much, is it going to fall apart? Why did the way-finding screens look like they were designed in the 1970s? Oh my goodness, the seats are so hard! I must say the comments startled me a little, but it did remind me of one I first moved to Toronto, where the buses felt notably less nice and rougher than those I was used to in Vancouver. But Vancouver isn't bus heaven. If you want to truly see what buses can do, a trip to Europe, Latin America, or Asia makes a ton of sense. Oh, and I should probably also say I'm likely going to say North America in this video at some point, but in this case, sorry Mexico, you don't count, your buses are too good. Now a big part of why I think transit buses are probably so much better in much of the rest of the world is that there are just so many more brands competing. For example, MAN, VDL, Volvo, Hess, Gania, and indeed even Mercedes. Yes, all of these years you could have been riding on a Mercedes-Benz Zittoro bus. Now you know. From these many brands, you'll see a ton of cool features. But what I'd actually argue you see the most of is a diversity of different buses. Currently in North America, bus manufacturers seem to be trying to pare down their offering. In fact, Vancouver recently ordered Nova bus suburban models, which are just city buses with one less door and bad seats, meant to be used on routes where coach buses are the correct answer. By comparison, in the rest of the world, you've got everything under the sun. You have the usual two-axle city buses and articulated buses, which also have longer 14 and 15 meter buses with three axles.  There are also four-axle articulated bus variants. Oh, and you can also see bi-articulated buses in Europe and Latin America, with not just one, but two bendy bits. In fact, some models even look like trams, which is all the more reason the autonomous, bus rapid transit gadget bond from China is not a big deal. Meanwhile, despite the US and Canada having more road space than almost any other countries in the world, there is not a single double bendy boy to be found here. It's also common in the rest of the world to see buses with more doors. I talk a lot about this with trains, but it still holds true with buses. More doors mean people can get on and off of a vehicle more quickly, which makes your route faster and more pleasant. But in the US and Canada, 99.9% of regular city buses have two doors and 99.9% of articulated buses have three. But, surprising as it might be, that's not the case everywhere. In the rest of the world, 12-meter city buses with a third door behind the rear wheel are actually really common, and the same is true of articulated buses with four doors, again with one behind the rear wheel. As it turns out, there are even some articulated bus variants with two middle doors, meaning they have five doors in total, which is just crazy. At the same time, while transit planners and enthusiasts in North America gush over the idea of 100% low-floor trams, or light rail vehicles, we still order 70% low-floor buses, even though 100% low-floor buses are common in other parts of the world. If you're wondering how that works, this picture should help. Electric buses are of course also much more common. While you can count the number of major trolley bus systems in North America on one hand, they're all over the place in Europe. And even in cities that don't currently have trolleys, new systems are being set up, and in the meantime, battery electric buses are being ordered. In fact, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has over 200 electric buses, just for the airport, more than most major transit systems in North America, just for the airport. In fact, in most of the world, buses have been getting electrified for a lot longer than here in North America, and by all kinds of different means. And of course, many of these cool features get combined to create incredible high-capacity buses that could serve all kinds of purposes that we couldn't even imagine in North America. By articulated electric trolley bus? Yes, oh, Switzerland. And for what it's worth, the experience onboard buses in Europe and, frankly, most of the world is also just better. Seats with more padding, better layouts, and higher quality materials are all common. The way-finding tends to be better, and the ride quality also tends to be a lot better. The first pretty average-looking London bus, which I took on my trip to London last year, on the last day of my trip to London, actually put me to sleep almost immediately. It was glorious. So why is it like this? Well, everyone's favorite thing, policies and regulation. In the US, there are by-America and similar rules, which means that federal dollars are not going to any European buses. And unfortunately, in this case, similar rules actually also do exist in Canada. At the same time, super-dated safety regulations also pretty obviously have an impact. I actually think it's worth addressing the idea that North American regulations are somehow safer, because this frequently comes up in transit enthusiast communities, but it's just not the case. Usually, the definition of safety used in North America is highly specific and highly pedantic. And while we might score very well for our definition of safety, when you actually look at safety from a perspective the average person would agree makes sense, it's kind of a wash as far as I can tell. At the same time, for a long time, there appeared to be little questioning as to whether regulations in North America that did things like horse trains to be twice as heavy as in Europe and the rest of the world were having a positive or negative impact on the transit experience. A nice parallel to kind of get what I'm talking about are automobile regulations. Part of the reason that trucks and SUVs are so much more common in North America is that our safer regulations don't take into account the safety of people outside of the car. So as long as everything inside your enormous truck mostly stays in one piece, no matter what you slam into, you're good.  And so I think we can accept that maybe the rest of the world knows how to keep people safe. Now at the same time, the archaic rules and regulations of the North American bus market mean that we have only really two major players, Nova Bus and New Flyer. These two companies do admittedly produce better buses than most of the other remaining manufacturers in North America, but that isn't saying a ton. And both of these companies are actually based in Canada where, shocker, there's a lot less negative stereotyping around bus use. Now as I mentioned, there are smaller players in the North American bus market, like Pro Terra and BYD who produce electric buses, but their buses seem to be of sort of questionable quality, at least based on results in Toronto. There is also Gillig who only sells buses into the US market, but they also still sell buses that look like this. Now to be completely fair, most manufacturers do have models which look better. And Nova Bus in particular does produce some pretty decent looking models. Probably influenced by their parent company, Volvo. But even our best buses here in North America would probably look pretty meh on average in Europe. It just seems to be the case that in the rest of the world there are more buses to pick from. And so Europe and Asia and Latin America and Australia and other places around the world see more competition and better buses. Australia in particular is a pretty great example. They tend to buy their buses from overseas companies, and their buses are a lot nicer than the average one seen in North America. In fact, Brisbane is actually even getting beautiful new electric bi-articulated buses for its Metro project. To give some credit to North American transit agencies, some of them have actually tried to import European buses. Viva in York Region, for example, has ordered Van Hool buses straight from Belgium, and they're great, they're nicer than the buses that aren't from Belgium. And as it turns out, AC Transit in the Bay Area ordered a ton of Van Hool buses throughout the 2000s. But in recent years they've fallen in line, and now they purchase standard North American buses. Now you might wonder about prices. I certainly did, and I sort of expected that buses that were nicer would cost at least a little bit more. But it doesn't even seem conclusive that that's the case. I'm guessing that because in the rest of the world there are just so many companies competing for bus orders, prices are still similar, if not lower, because again, more competition drives down prices, and probably gives you better buses too. An interesting situation happened with Alexander Dennis, for example. Famous for their double-decker buses in the UK, years ago they started selling the Enviro 500 model in North America, and they've been wildly successful, so they actually ended up starting up a local production facility to produce buses and sell them directly into the North American market. And now they've actually been bought out by Canadian manufacturer New Flyer, which I can only hope will lead to New Flyer getting some influences from Alexander Dennis. Now what's so frustrating about all of this is that the actual drivetrains used on most North American buses are the exact same as the ones that would be used in other parts of the world, typically built by third-party companies. So the buses actually operate much as they would in other parts of the world, simply with a less nice, rattly bus shell around them. The idea that a bus will be adequate as long as it has the required number of seats, fuel economy, and keeps running for the required number of years is exactly why we have so many problems with public transit in North America. To say that user experience has taken the backseat would be an understatement. This approach gives transit agencies less flexibility, costs them more, and creates a worse experience for passengers as well as probably operators. So maybe the answer to better buses in North America is to just do what the rest of the world does. Thanks for watching.


for her dedication, her loyalty, her tenacity, and the ability to empower others and promote social justice and fairness on campus. Sid is an amazing woman that I look up to, someone that I admire. She's been a mentor to me. There have been times that I have come to Sid and she's giving me her undivided attention even though she has been extremely busy. She's let me know that she was there for me. So if you have someone like Sid in your corner you should feel very blessed.  You deserve this so much and even more. I just want to thank you for everything you've done for me personally, for the Native American Staff Council, and for all the ethnic staff. So thank you Sid.


In chapter 13, beginning at verse 8, reading to verse 10, Paul writes, Oh, no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.  Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is a fulfillment of the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is a fulfillment of the law. When the Lord Jesus Christ had a young scribe approach him and asked him the question, what is the great commandment in the law? Jesus gave to him in response the most common prayer that the Jewish people of his day would recite. It's called the Shema. It's found out in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Basically says here, oh Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord he is one.   So what he did is he cited two portions of Scripture, neither one of them coming from the law of Moses. Well actually one of them, Leviticus 1918, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, but neither one of them coming out of the Ten Commandments, which is interesting. And what he was basically saying is this, in summarization, if you want to know what is going to make you a person that really, really demonstrates that you have a relationship with God, it's going to be this. It's going to be love. It's going to be loving God and it's going to be loving others. It's going to be loving God and loving man. Because like John would say later on, at first John 4, he would say, who loves not, knows not God for God is love. And so beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves knows God, is known of God. And he says, who loves not, knows not God for God is love. And so the Bible makes it very clear that if you know God, you're going to love. If you love God, you're going to love your neighbor. Because how can I say that I love God whom I have not seen and yet I do not love my neighbor whom I can see. So it really doesn't work. It doesn't work because I can't say that I love that which is invisible if it's not demonstrated by that to my love to that which is visible. And so love is a summation. Listen, if I love God with all of my heart and I love my neighbor as myself, then I'll do no harm to my neighbor. And notice what he says here in verse 9, you shall not commit adultery.  He says, you're not going to murder. I will not take my neighbor's life. You shall not steal. I'm not taking any of his substance. You'll not bear false witness. I won't lie about him. You shall not covet. I'm not going to be desiring the things that he has and wishes that he didn't have them and that I had them. So he says, all of this is summed up in this one scene which is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that's why he says love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So love is going to demonstrate that I have a relationship with God. Now what we have here in this particular portion of scripture is what is called a transition. He is transitioning from verses 1 through 7 and he's moving on to some practical application. In chapter 13 verses 1 through 7, we already saw how that he was speaking concerning Christian's responsibilities to human government. Well, in verse 80, actually he's continuing on. He's actually giving a summarization, if you will, in the first few words when he says, oh, no one anything except the love one another. He's actually summarizing and he's taking and generalizing that which he had already begun to share in verses 1 through 7. So I have responsibilities to government, but I also have responsibilities to those who are not involved in government. And so what we have here is an introduction to my obligation to all men. Now, when he begins by saying, oh, no one anything, he's really speaking concerning our obligations. Oh, no one anything except love one another is literally saying that we are to let no debt remain outstanding. That's a very practical command. He's simply saying be paid up. He's instructing Christians to resist being over our head in debt. Now, when he says, oh, no one anything except the love one another, he's making it very clear that there is an obligation that I have and the obligation I have is to actually care for somebody else. But he is not saying that I am not to ever have any debt.  We have house payments and transportation payments. We have credit card payments like that. We have loans that we have taken out from friends or family. Those things in and of themselves are not strictly forbidden in scripture. There's no Bible verse that says that you shouldn't take out a loan.  The real point is learn to live in moderation. Learn to live within your financial means. And by way of application for us in the 21st century is a good word. Do not give yourself over to habitually living on credit. Now, the application is for the believer to avoid materialism and to live with moderation. Jesus once said this. He said, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. My life is not made up by my possessions. I may own some things, but they're never to own me. I'm to use, but not abuse things. All things that I have perished with the using, we should know that. If we don't know that yet, we'll learn that over time. You watch the ad, you see the nice looking car. And you think that's a great car. I'd like to have that car. It seems to be reasonably priced.  It's a nice car.   Now it's depreciated in value. Just a minute you drive away. And as you use it for five years and use it up for five years, it just tarnishes with age. It gets old. I mean, what you had at first, which was so great and so wonderful and so, oh man, it's everything. And I wanted to be, well, the next year, they changed the entire body style. They add some gizmos and this and that to it that, oh, I just can't live without this. I need somebody to be able to tell me. I need something to tell me when I'm changing my lane. I'm wondering, oh, I've got this little radar thing. Oh, it's so great. I don't know how to read a map. So I need a nav system. Because I've got to have a voice telling me turn left, turn right. And it's always a woman's voice. I don't know why, but it is.  So we need all these things. I mean, we have gotten ourselves accustomed to needing them. At least haven't we? I have to have these things. I have to have this new product. I have to have it. Jesus said, your life doesn't consist in the abundance of the things that you possess. You can use things, but don't abuse them. You can own something, but don't let it own you. So it's really learning to live moderately. And so a man's life does not consist of the abundance of things that he possesses. Jesus was speaking on one occasion. And he was saying to us, you know, the things that the Gentiles seek after, the things that they desire, the things that who don't, the people who don't know the Lord, you know the things that they're looking for constantly. It's what they eat. It's what they drink. And it's what they put on. Eat, drink and what you wear, which is what the substance of commercials for us today, by and large are. You have your weekend commercials and watching a game, even if the game isn't that good. Even if your team loses nine to nothing. Even if that happened theoretically. But what kind of commercials are you getting?  Drink this beer there, right? I mean, what you eat, what you drink, look at our commercials and what you put on, what you're what you're going to wear. And all of that. I mean, that's where we're taught our lives consist of. And I always am amazed by these, I shouldn't really be, but I am amazed at how healthy these people who eat chicken and drink beer all day long are. Not one of them has a beer gut.  Not one of them looks real to me.  I never have a hangover.  They don't even have all their teeth. But the Lord speaks concerning that in his word, doesn't he? And he says, listen, it's not what you eat. It's not what you drink and it's not what you wear. Your life is more than these things. He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you sufficient for the day is the worry thereof. You don't have to be worried all day long and then next day and the next day because worries one of those things that does absolutely no good. And so the Lord is trying to teach us through his word to trust him. And Paul is simply saying, listen, Oh, no man, anything but to love him. Don't get caught up in debt. Because when you get caught up in debt, you end up being owned by the things that you're supposed to own. Now, if you borrow money or you use credit, a good practical application for us would simply be make sure that you make payments when they are due. Now, lending and borrowing are simply part of life. And you find these, these things in scripture, you find this in scripture. A good man deals graciously and lends Psalm 112 verse five says, Jesus said, love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the most high for he is kind to the unthankful and evil. So obviously that the ability to lend in furs proper stewardship and it in furs that that we actually budget in marriage to do the marriage counseling, premarital counseling, when I used to do premarital counseling here, I would point out to the young people, I would say to the young bride to be and and her victim, I would say the sacrificial lamb, we'd always said, I'm getting married. Yeah, you are. But I used to say to the young couple, be careful for three things.  One is you have to develop a healthy attitude and practice of sexual intimacy. To you have to be careful in the way that you learn to communicate and know that words are more or communication is more than simply words. Communication is an entire lifestyle. So learn to verbally communicate as well as understanding the signals and nonverbal communication of your mate. And then finally, you need to budget. Because if you don't budget, you're going to have nothing but problems. And the other things that you have the communication and sex, those things are going to go out the window because you're going to be stressed out over your bills. So set up a strong and solid budget and stick to it. Because that'll keep you from having the pressures that actually divide marriages. A lot of people get so caught up with putting so much money into just the wedding itself that they enter in to their marriage under a financial burden that they don't need. A lot of the young people, as you may know or already know, are entering into marriage contracts are getting married, but they're bringing in their student loans and their car payments. And so many credit card bills and debts that it creates a tremendous pressure for them in the marriage bond. And so we have to be aware of these things. And that's what the Bible's talking about. Oh, no man anything but to love them.  Because the scripture is very careful when it speaks concerning that. You see, why should I pay my debts on time? Well, if I do pay my debts on time, it reveals that I have good character and it also gives testimony that I have a proper sense of responsibility in reality. It's really learning just to love my neighbor. And honesty is the earmark of a Christian and honesty demonstrates genuine integrity. The scripture says the wicked borrows and does not repay some 37 21. So we should be careful not to accumulate heavy debt, because the accumulation of heavy debt ruins our testimony. Irresponsible money management brings a reproach on the name of Jesus Christ and accumulating debt places me under the power of the person that I owe. Proverbs 22 7 says it like this, the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. So as stewards, we are to be responsible. We budget our finances and we remember that we as stewards are simply taking care of that which belongs to God. So instead of always spending, we should be learning to save. We should invest it in the kingdom of God. It's obviously unwise to overspend and get into heavy debt. It's better if you can. It's better to pay cash or if you use your card to pay the card off at the end of the month. Some things, of course, you can't. You can't pay cash for by a house by a car. You're going to have to finance that normally. I mean, there are those who are rich enough to pay cash for a house or cash for a car. They just don't go to this church. Most of us, most of us have to finance things and so just be wise. Be wise. Don't enter into debt. Don't get caught up spending. Live with moderation. Why? Because your life does not consist in the abundance of the things that you possess. And so when we're actually putting those things into practice, we are doing what the apostle Paul said. We are loving our neighbor as ourself because when we owe no one anything except to love them, then we're going to treat them with kindness and we're not going to do harm to them. And so love is the fulfillment of the law. If we were to love the Lord and love our neighbor, then we wouldn't need amazing amount of laws that this nation has to govern behavior. We would simply do the right thing because we love. And that's what he calls us to. Somebody says that's impractical. No, that's simply confessing the reality of sinful human nature. But believers can learn to love God and believers can learn to love their neighbor. And in doing so, believers can actually shine as a testimony in a very dark place. Now moving on in verse 11, he goes on to say this and do this. Knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day. Not in revelry and drunkenness. Not in licentiousness and lewdness. Not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. And so love motivates the believer to care. It actually motivates the believer to care about those who are yet unsaved. When he had said love your neighbor as yourself, on the bottom line is, is we want to be saved and therefore we ought to want them to be saved as much as we would like to be saved. So love motivates us to share the gospel and we do so according to Paul here in this passage, being mindful of the season that we are living in. Now he's speaking of the last days when he speaks of knowing the time. And his exhortation really simply put is, in light of the soon return of Jesus, believers should love their neighbors and share the truth of the gospel. Loving your neighbor. Now who is my neighbor? Someone once asked. Someone once asked, well my neighbor is the one who is nearest to me regardless of whether it's somebody who lives next door or somebody who's working in the cubicle next to me or is seated next to me as I'm driving that van or that truck. My neighbor is a person who is there and that person often has a need. And when I have people around me, I ought to be loving them enough to live for Christ because in my living for Christ I'm laying down a foundation developing credibility so that I can share my faith in Christ with them because they may ask me as to why I am the way that I am and I can share with them. Well the reason that I'm this way is because Christ has saved me because I'm walking with Jesus Christ. Now somebody who doesn't care about where their neighbor is going, what their final destination is, is really not loving them. It's this love that I had for my mom and my dad, for my sisters, my brother, it was that love that God placed in my heart because they were lost and needed to be found by Christ that provoked me to share, to share the gospel with them, to let them know. It's the same love that provoked me to start Bible studies or to share with strangers or to become a pastor. The same love to share the goodness of the love of God with people. And we do so as Paul is speaking because we know the time. Jesus is returning. We ought to share the truth. In the book of Titus Paul says this in chapter two verses 11 through 13. Paul said the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So he speaks of them knowing the time. In verse 11 the word knowing speaks of understanding or perceiving. Knowing, understanding or perceiving the time, that word time is a Greek word that speaks of fixed seasons. It's a set period of time. What he's saying is you are to know the necessity of the moment. You're to be a people who are aware of the moment that you are living in. He's saying we are living in the last days. We have an allotted time to make an impact. So he said be wise.  And so he says we need to wake up, do this knowing the time. Now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  Calvary Chapel ministry briefly, Calvary Chapel ministry is birthed out of, was birthed out of a revival. The Jesus movement. God chose to use certain people including my own pastor Chuck Smith. Chuck didn't do anything amazing. He didn't do anything different really. It was different than the traditional church of his day. He actually taught the Bible and opened the doors to those who are hungry to hear. And that's how Calvary Chapel began and that's how the Jesus movement began. And we were all imparted. One thing all of the guys from the early days what we call first generation, we were all imparted. One thing and that is this the days are short. Jesus is returning be busy performing the master's business. That's what we receive from the beginning. We know that there's a war for human souls. We believe in a literal devil. We believe that he wants to destroy. We know that he wants to do whatever he can to undermine the work of God. We believe that. And so when we first got saved we went about doing the Lord's work and we should continue to do so to the very end. But the problem is these believers have grown spiritually apathetic. They've grown lazy. They lost their fire. They lost their zeal. That's why he's saying to them you need to wake up. You need to awaken out of your unresponsive inactive apathetic spiritual doldrums. That's what he's saying. Wake up. Jesus said watch therefore for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening at midnight at the groin of the rooster or in the morning. Unless coming suddenly he finds you sleeping. And what I say to you I say to all watch be alert be awake why because he said I'm going to return I'm coming back and so we need to believe that. The night is far spent he says. The day is at hand. That time is limited. Do not be indifferent. Let us consider one another in order to stir up loving good works not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching the writer of Hebrews said. And that is true. That's what provoked me to share the gospel with my mom. This knowledge that's what provoked me to share the gospel with my dad. This desire for him to go to heaven. That's what provoked me to share the gospel with my sisters and my brother. That's what has provoked me as a Christian. Not always faithfully I would not want to stand up here pretending that I've always been solid and always growing. I had my my ups and my downs I had to learn stability I had to learn so many lessons especially obviously in the early days but there was one overriding factor and that was this is true Jesus is returning we have to be ready we have to be ready and that's something that wasn't created by watching different things you know movies on the return of Christ or reading books or hearing lectures on that. I believed very much that Jesus Christ is returning because the word of God says it and he's saying the night as far as spent the time of man's rebellion and sin is about to end God's reign is about to begin Jesus he's saying is returning at any moment and we are to be busy until he comes Paul when he was writing to the Corinthian church said to them awake to righteousness do not sin for some of you do not for some do not have the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame some do not have the knowledge of God he's saying listen you're in church and the bottom line is you've got people around you who are coming to listen to the message who don't even know the Lord and he said I'm saying this to your shame because you really ought to care enough about the people around you to at least want them to be saved and he was telling the Corinthians he is saying to them this church that is well known for so much bad he was saying to them you need to awaken to righteousness you need to sin not you need to live more properly you know the bible speaks concerning the walk of the believer in a variety of ways there's so many things that were commanded in scripture as it pertains to our walks with God but one of the words that is used in order to kind of speak concerning the way I'm to walk is when Paul says I'm to walk worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ that word worthy means to walk appropriately if the message of the gospel is a message of God's holiness his love his transforming power then I'm supposed to walk in an appropriate way in other words if I've embraced this then my life ought to be giving testimony that it's true so somebody says what do you think the greatest threat to the United States is do you think that that foreign belief systems entering in like Islam and others is the greatest threat do you think that the issues related to politics like immigration or the budget do you think that those are the greatest threats what is the greatest threat that the United States may have today and if I were to take the time to ask you to to text in your response to give me some answers as it relates to what you perceive it you might get a variety of responses the breakdown of the American family the lack of religious training in in in the homes of disregard for Christian traditions you know the attacks on Christmas things of that nature and a lot of people would write well I think these are the greatest threats my response to that question if I were to be asked would simply be the greatest threat to the United States is carnal Christianity it's believers in name only who are not following Jesus Christ that's the greatest yeah I yeah that's the truth carnal Christianity where people are walking calling themselves Christians and undermining the power of the testimony listen information leads to assimilation which produces transformation but a lot of people stay at the information they just get the information but information is supposed to be assimilated so information should be assimilated in my life so that it produces a transformed life and so I'm undermining the gospel of Jesus Christ when I just rest on gaining information because when all I do is just subscribe to information I'm simply saying mentally I agree with that well that makes sense to me but I have to assimilate it I have to in other words activate by faith I need to respond to that take it into my life so that it'll produce a transformation and that's what gets people at least it gives me the ability to speak credibly to somebody who can say I know what you were but I see what you are can you tell me how you became what you are now because I knew you I knew you when you were this way I knew you in that way but I see that you're different than that now how is it that you became different how did you change and so you can answer and you can say how did I change I really didn't change myself I simply came to realize what I was what I was was lost what I was was a drunk what I was was a fornicate what I was was angry or whatever the sin may have been or all of them that's what I was but then I heard this message of grace and love and peace and joy and it comes to faith in Christ and I and I embraced that and Jesus Christ by his spirit dwelt within me and transformed me from the inside out he wrote his law on the tablet of my heart and I do those things now out of the pleasure of pleasing him not so that I might gain some brownie points in heaven with him but because that's the life he gave to me because I'm dead I'm dead to my old life and alive in Jesus Christ and that has transformed me so what is it well I received information and it became an assimilation and it produced a transformation and that's how it works you see and so if I really here's the key if I really believe that Jesus Christ is returning it is going to be something I live with anticipation for he's coming at any moment he's coming at any moment and I ought to be ready when he comes and that's what he wants us to know so I should be watching and the night is far spent indeed what am I to do cast off the works of darkness the night is far spent the time of man's rebellion and sin is about to end so I cast off the works of darkness the Lord soon return is intended to provide motivation to the believer to be prepared like like Peter said the end of all things is at hand therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers so Jesus is returning soon because Jesus said that he would I go and prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you he said I will come again receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also I'm coming to receive you so what am I to do well he says cast off the works of darkness put on the armor of light we cast off something and put something else on what do I cast off well I cast off the old things my life and my associations those things that that hinder me are to be cast off so I might walk and serve the Lord unhindered this old lifestyle is like an old suit of dirty clothes to be removed and discarded it's like what Paul said when he said put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you he said have nothing to do with sexual immorality impurity lust and evil desires don't be greedy for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world because of these sins the anger of god is coming on those who disobey him you used to do these things when your life was still part of this world but now is the time to get rid of anger rage malicious behavior slander and dirty language don't lie to each other for you've stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds he said that in Colossians 3 5 through 9 in Ephesians 5 11 he said have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them by contrast the way that I live ought to cause the works of darkness to be exposed for what they are he says live a life like that so we cast off this whole way of life and we put on something new and he tells us put on god's armor put on god's armor we're engaged in spiritual warfare so we put on the armor of god we take up the whole armor of god like paul says that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all the stand stand therefore having girded your waist with truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taken the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation the sword of the spirit which is the word of god praying always with all prayer supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints we're in a spiritual war we need to wake up to that the enemy is after us like a roaring lion he is seeking whom he may devour and he's after us listen the minute that you say yes to Jesus Christ you become his enemy and he wants to destroy you he wants to undermine the work that god wants to do there are things that he'll place in your path the day you get saved that you never had opportunity for before the day you get saved somebody will call you up and say hey you don't want to smoke some pot this guy hasn't called you up in weeks and now he's calling to the day you got saved hey let's go out and club tonight i got some things man i just got a new ride let's go and and man you know i like this and they want me and it just the opportunities to sin just it seemed to just knock on your door the phone rings you get text whatever it may be and so we have to realize that we're in spiritual warfare the enemy had you and now you doesn't and now the lord has you and so the enemy wants to destroy you so we put on the armor of god we gird our ways with truth we're strengthened on the inside knowing that the word of god is true it's like what jesus said sanctify them by your truth your word is truth we have put on the breast plate of righteousness it guards our our internal organs and our heart and kidneys and all of those and this breastplate was intended to do that and what we do is it is guarding our insides so we rest in our right standing with god we know that we've been made right by jesus christ our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace the enemy is on the prowl he wants to destroy us we need to be on constant alert we need to protect our walk so our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace he's putting traps before you the roman soldier would have some sandals that he wore and they would line the the soles of the sandal with with protective insert perhaps some metal of some sort of whatever because when he was walking there were times that they would put these sticks and they would put in the sticks in the shallow soft ground and when he put the full weight his full weight on that that that disguised trap it the pungy stick would would burst through his his his sandal and and crippling him he couldn't he couldn't move he'd be there incapacitated and so they would protect their walks and the enemy is constantly putting out landmines for you to destroy you you need to have your feet shod with the uh preparation of the gospel of peace you need to have the shield of faith because the enemy will throw his fiery darts and try and distract you but we have the ability with the shield of faith to apply everything that we believe about god in that situation then we wear the helmet of salvation we need the helmet because satan constantly attacks our minds he encourages us to doubt our salvation he discourages us in our walks with christ so we dwell on the reality of our salvation and god's faithfulness to us the enemy will whisper in your some of you have heard it in one form or another but the the whisper is always the same you're no good you've never been any good this isn't going to work yeah you went forward or yeah you prayed or you did this and that but really do you really think you can change your spots you you can't change the way that you are you cannot change you're always been that way i mean didn't your dad tell you that's the way you are you're going to be a loser all your life will never be anything but that didn't your teachers tell you that you're stupid didn't they tell you that you had no capacity to do anything that you're you're just going to end up doing some low level work all the rest of your life didn't they tell you that didn't they tell you how stupid you are in one form or another you never were able to pass those tests were you you always got d's d minus is you barely made it out of high school and you think that you can be used by god are you kidding me you're an idiot have you ever heard those kinds of things i have you're a loser you are you are a loser you are just so you're nothing you can't change once a drunk always a drunk once a druggy always a druggy once an angry man always an angry man once a person who doesn't know how to love you'll never learn how to one who cannot keep a relationship you'll never be able to have a prolonged one you just can't do it and i i learned a long time ago that when the devil knocks on the door to ask jesus to answer the door when he knocks on that door and says something i've got my savior in between me and him he's my advocate he stands up and he's the righteous and he says this one belongs to me you can't have him i've transformed him he's new in me that comes to the gospel of jesus christ that comes to the power of god that's how it works and it does god changes you radically that's what he does and we have the sword of the spirit which is the word of god and it's wielded skillfully and precisely in the battles that we find ourselves in we learn to use that armor he says to us again and finally verse 13 let us walk properly as in the day not in a revelry and drunkenness not in licentiousness and lewdness not in strife and envy but put on the lord jesus christ make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts so we are to walk properly conduct our lives appropriately we walk in a way that is worthy of the message of god and like he had said to the thessalonians in first thessalonians five six through eight he said let us not sleep as others do let us watch and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night those who get drunk are drunk at night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation we walk properly he said not in revelry and drunkenness which speaks of wild drunken parties he said not in licentiousness and lust which speaks of hopping from bed to bed with unbridled lust shamelessly not in strife and envy that's contentious arguing rivalry jealousy that often accompanies the partying but instead of all of that put on the lord jesus christ make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust that's my responsibility i put on the lord jesus christ i make sure that i'm walking with him and i make sure that i don't give myself place to fail if i was an alcoholic i don't suddenly think that i can go to a bar and witness if i had a lust problem you're not going to find me going to some place where they have women dancing on poles i'm not going to be binding near the books because i know to stay away from that and i'm not going to make provision for those things in my life i have to stay away from those things and so the reason i want to stay away from those things is so that i can have a walk that brings honor to god and is blessed by him so i take off this old life and i put on the new one and i do so with anticipation of seeing jesus christ as it says he had a little while and he who was coming will come and will not tarry he was 1037 he who testifies to these things says surely i am coming quickly amen even so come lord jesus as it says in revelation 22 verse 20 so we are ready for him and we are waiting we will not make provision for the flesh but live in anticipation of being with him and we will learn to love one another because love demonstrates that we know the god of love and because that is true our lives will be changed we will have credible testimonies we will not bring dishonor to the gospel and we'll have opportunity to share of the soon return of jesus because we're living as if we expect it to happen even in our lifetime


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