Deafening Blow

DEAFENING BLOW

by

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (December 5, 2015)

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity...The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way...I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalms 37:1-40, King James Version [A Psalm of David.]).

Greetings In The Holy Name Of Jesus,

My sisters and brothers, 'We have come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in his Holy Word. He's never failed me yet. Leaning. Leaning on the Lord” as the fathers of old who had not seen the promise witnessed the glory of God---His Word, our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Recently, the compilation of all the bad news delivered a deafening blow and rendered me speechless but nevertheless I had to bear witness of the signs of the times---the troubling waters. I spoke to a friend I've known for the last 25 years who lived in San Bernadino, California and who still lives near about terrorists and job-related issues of racism---targeting minorities to vent frustrations----how one in leadership at her job was so awful with the Asian engineers and denied the true worth of African-Americans work performance crediting white workers with high performance evaluations that they did not earn until the company responded to the complaints left on the company's Ethics Hotline and transferred the leader who was hating out to the plant in Utah which is 60 miles away from the nearest town there---giving little opportunity to interact with humans outside of the ones at the plant---a plant that had more people who shared his thoughts for he also had problems in his marriage with multiple-relationships and abusive behavior.

I thanked God for my friend of 25 years to finally have this terrorist out of her work life demeaning her work performance and now the one he hailed up high---the truth of her job performance was revealed since he left---letting everyone see she did not have the skills or performance at work that he so stated on her evaluations. The bad leader could no longer get my friend to do the work and give the credit to her. She had to 'cut the mustard' [a deep south colloquial saying] on her own and she could not for she never could because he did not make her work at a high level of performance because he gave her privileged high performance evaluations---entitlement not in company policy just a malpractice by bad leadership that cheated in the evaluation process to identify the truth of the company's human capital. The night before, a friend of 47-years who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, FL but who grew up in Miami, Florida told me about the six students who were gunned down going to school or coming from school and she said, “They keep playing it on the television.” Yet, I had not heard of it.

I was sort of hysterical when I told my friend in California of 25-years about it. In addition, a man unknown to me came by my farm house asking for a work contract and asking for money in which I became suspicious of, requiring money up front before the work was done----to me, he was just talking me out of money, stealing but I told him, I did not know him and I did not have any money. My friend in California agreed and said, “You're not going to pay him any money up front and he is not getting paid until the job is done to your satisfaction.” He identified himself through a cousin but the news was old news more than six months old so why now was he at my door and why did he come back when I did not respond to his trespass the day before when he came without calling to arrange a mutual time if a mutual time, was agreed. I just could not understand why he kept coming inside----pass the gate just because it was convenient for him six months later and why was he asking for money up front before he even received the contract for work. It was quite a two days of activity.

Understandably, I tried to calm myself down and buried the emotional overload beneath the surface and I had a relative success until the terrorist attacked the next week--- when the husband and wife

2

terrorist team killed 14 people and wounded 21 more at the developmental disability center at the time the wife's husband was at a training session for county inspectors. I tried to reach out to my friend there who still lived near San Bernadino but the telephone line said the network was not working to try later so I kept calling but the network did not come back that night to let them receive calls. So, I called