Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work — and realizing what opportunity is and what isn't."– Lucille Ball
Lucille, it is good to see that you have a serious side. I remember the I Love Lucy TV series. I agree that hard work and recognizing opportunity are good components for success.
Today, Linda, Nails, Carrie, Will, and I traversed the Olmsted loop. The girls and their horses did fine and got out ahead of me but turned off the trail before I caught them. They rode a shorter loop and returned before me. Today was hot, and of course the trail was dusty. Aside from being tired I had an opportunity to think about a number of concepts for my second book.
Earlier in the week, Linda and I watched a movie titled American Violet. The story took place in Texas in the year 2000. This film was based on a true story. In 2000, counties received federal money based on guilty pleas related to drugs. So this one community rounded up blacks in commando like raids. It did not matter whether or not, they were guilty. They were simply rounded up and in some cases it was based on a single individual writing down their name and giving it to me police official.
The real kicker came when they are given a choice by the prosecutor. They could plead guilty and be considered a felon without hardly any jail time or go to court and likely be sentenced up to 25 years. That was their choice. Statistically in this country, about 95% of these so-called criminals had plea-bargained or admitted they were guilty, which may or may not have been true.
In this film, the main character, the young black woman with four children was locked up based on an individual writing down her name, so this informant could make his quota. It was clear that she was innocent. Should she lie and take the plea bargain or go to court, and wind up in jail for 25 years? Her mother wanted her to take the plea bargain.
This young black decided to fight even though the prosecutor had her dismissed from her job and was the “judge” who decided whether she should lose her children as a result of a bogus child protective investigation. Fortunately, she was approached by the ACLU and given an opportunity to take legal action against this racist prosecutor. She chose to fight. So her mental fortitude allowed her to stay in and stand up to the corrupt system. Her toughness
intrigues me as I am thinking about my next project. Motivation, understanding behavior is a main interest and one reason I became a psychologist.
My first book: It Has Nothing To Do with Age is available@barnesandnoble.com. In this book, I address the why factor or the motivation element in understanding why we compete in extreme sports.
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