Talk:Seddie/@comment-9587339-20150421182323/@comment-14284535-20150423160542

Hey, if you had lived my life, you would see why. Remember that I am unlikely to live much longer than most of you have been alive until now. I am trying to teach you to learn the easy way so you don't have to learn it like I did:

I was the first non-white in a KKK stronghold. I was the first non-Jew, non-Christian to go to my Kindergarten. T eachers helped the kids beat up my "heathen ****ing ni*ger a$$" for that. The police told me to suck it up. I fought religious, race, and social hatred for my entire youth.

I was the first one of my relgion to go to my college. People of it and other Far-Eastern religions followed me there. When there were problems with them, the administration used to call me to explain them. Their families threatened my life if I didn't take the hit for any of their criminal behaviours. (I always told them to, and I quote, "come and get me.")  Then they tried bribes, which I used to report to INS (precursor to DHS).

When I was in grad school, profs in my department told me I was intellectually inferior for being religious. A few tried to get me run out because they felt my religiousness would embarrass the department (never mind the quality of my work, which got me invited to a conference - all expenses paid - by a Nobel Prize winner).

I was arrested in Columbus, Ohio because "I was trying to be too white in a good neighbourhood" and I had to remember that I was living in "the south". Because of my religion and skin colour, I have had people threaten to kill me for being a terrorist. (The Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills arrested people for attempted murder because they conspired to get me at games.)

What I am suggesting will help give you the mental toughness to expect to perservere, to not feel beholden to celebrities, to feel free to take the consequences of honesty, and to be able to live with a very clear conscience. You would be amazed at the doors that opens. Yes, it closes some, but I am cool with the trade-offs. I hope you are as happy with yours.