Tag: injustice

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ACAD – Remnant: 2 Samuel 21

David avenges the Gibeonites

Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. The Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.) David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” He said, “What do you say that I should do for you?” They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel— let seven of his sons be handed over to us, and we will impale them before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord.” The king said, “I will hand them over.”

But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul. The king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite; he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the mountain before the Lord. The seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest. Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens; she did not allow the birds of the air to come on the bodies by day, or the wild animals by night. When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the people of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who had been impaled. They buried the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of his father Kish; they did all that the king commanded. After that, God heeded supplications for the land.

The Philistines went to war again with Israel, and David went down together with his servants. They fought against the Philistines, and David grew weary. Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was fitted out with new weapons, said he would kill David. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall not go out with us to battle any longer, so that you do not quench the lamp of Israel.”

After this a battle took place with the Philistines, at Gob; then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants. Then there was another battle with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great size, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; he too was descended from the giants. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of David’s brother Shimei, killed him. These four were descended from the giants in Gath; they fell by the hands of David and his servants.

2 Samuel 21:1-22 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Samuel%2021:1-22&version=NRSV

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ACAD – Rejected: Isaiah 5

The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

Let me sing for my beloved

    my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
    but heard a cry!

Social Injustice Denounced

Ah, you who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
    large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
    and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.[a]

Ah, you who rise early in the morning
    in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
    to be inflamed by wine,
whose feasts consist of lyre and harp,
    tambourine and flute and wine,
but who do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
    or see the work of his hands!
Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst.

Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
    and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem[b] and her multitude go down,
    her throng and all who exult in her.
People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
    and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
    and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture,
    fatlings and kids[c] shall feed among the ruins.

Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood,
    who drag sin along as with cart ropes,
who say, “Let him make haste,
    let him speed his work
    that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment,
    that we may know it!”
Ah, you who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!
Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
    and shrewd in your own sight!
Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine
    and valiant at mixing drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
    and deprive the innocent of their rights!

Foreign Invasion Predicted

Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
    and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts,
    and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
    and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
    the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
    in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.

He will raise a signal for a nation far away,
    and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth;
Here they come, swiftly, speedily!
None of them is weary, none stumbles,
    none slumbers or sleeps,
not a loincloth is loose,
    not a sandal-thong broken;
their arrows are sharp,
    all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
    and their wheels like the whirlwind.
Their roaring is like a lion,
    like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey,
    they carry it off, and no one can rescue.
They will roar over it on that day,
    like the roaring of the sea.
And if one look to the land—
    only darkness and distress;
and the light grows dark with clouds.

Footnotes:

  1. Isaiah 5:10 The Heb bath, homer, and ephah are measures of quantity
  2. Isaiah 5:14 Heb her nobility
  3. Isaiah 5:17 Cn Compare Gk: Heb aliens

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ACAD – Injustice: Job 5

“Call if you want to, Job, but no one will answer you.
    You can’t turn to any of the holy ones.
Anger kills the fool,
    and jealousy slays the stupid.
I have seen a fool succeed,
    but I cursed his home immediately.
His children are far from safety
    and are crushed in court with no defense.
The hungry eat his harvest,
    even taking what grew among the thorns,
    and thirsty people want his wealth.
Hard times do not come up from the ground,
    and trouble does not grow from the earth.
People produce trouble
    as surely as sparks fly upward.

“But if I were you, I would call on God
    and bring my problem before him.
God does wonders that cannot be understood;
    he does so many miracles they cannot be counted.
He gives rain to the earth
    and sends water on the fields.
He makes the humble person important
    and lifts the sad to places of safety.
He ruins the plans of those who trick others
    so they have no success.
He catches the wise in their own clever traps
    and sweeps away the plans of those who try to trick others.
Darkness covers them up in the daytime;
    even at noon they feel around in the dark.
God saves the needy from their lies
    and from the harm done by powerful people.
So the poor have hope,
    while those who are unfair are silenced.

“The one whom God corrects is happy,
    so do not hate being corrected by the Almighty.
God hurts, but he also bandages up;
    he injures, but his hands also heal.
He will save you from six troubles;
    even seven troubles will not harm you.
God will buy you back from death in times of hunger,
    and in battle he will save you from the sword.
You will be protected from the tongue that strikes like a whip,
    and you will not be afraid when destruction comes.
You will laugh at destruction and hunger,
    and you will not fear the wild animals,
because you will have an agreement with the stones in the field,
    and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
You will know that your tent is safe,
    because you will check the things you own and find nothing missing.
You will know that you will have many children,
    and your descendants will be like the grass on the earth.
You will come to the grave with all your strength,
    like bundles of grain gathered at the right time.

“We have checked this, and it is true,
    so hear it and decide what it means to you.”

New Century Version (NCV)The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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ACAD – Injustice: Proverbs 13

Wise children take their parents’ advice,
    but whoever makes fun of wisdom won’t listen to correction.

People will be rewarded for what they say,
    but those who can’t be trusted want only violence.

Those who are careful about what they say protect their lives,
    but whoever speaks without thinking will be ruined.

The lazy will not get what they want,
    but those who work hard will.

Good people hate what is false,
    but the wicked do shameful and disgraceful things.

Doing what is right protects the honest person,
    but doing evil ruins the sinner.

Some people pretend to be rich but really have nothing.
    Others pretend to be poor but really are wealthy.

The rich may have to pay a ransom for their lives,
    but the poor will face no such danger.

Good people can look forward to a bright future,
    but the future of the wicked is like a flame going out.

Pride only leads to arguments,
    but those who take advice are wise.

Money that comes easily disappears quickly,
    but money that is gathered little by little will grow.

It is sad not to get what you hoped for.
    But wishes that come true are like eating fruit from the tree of life.

Those who reject what they are taught will pay for it,
    but those who obey what they are told will be rewarded.

The teaching of a wise person gives life.
    It is like a fountain that can save people from death.

People with good understanding will be well liked,
    but the lives of those who are not trustworthy are hard.

Every wise person acts with good sense,
    but fools show how foolish they are.

A wicked messenger brings nothing but trouble,
    but a trustworthy one makes everything right.

A person who refuses correction will end up poor and disgraced,
    but the one who accepts correction will be honored.

It is so good when wishes come true,
    but fools hate to stop doing evil.

Spend time with the wise and you will become wise,
    but the friends of fools will suffer.

Trouble always comes to sinners,
    but good people enjoy success.

Good people leave their wealth to their grandchildren,
    but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for good people.

A poor person’s field might produce plenty of food,
    but others often steal it away.

If you do not punish your children, you don’t love them,
    but if you love your children, you will correct them.

Good people have enough to eat,
    but the wicked will go hungry.

New Century Version (NCV)The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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ACAD – Injustice: Psalm 94

God Will Pay Back His Enemies

The Lord is a God who punishes.
    God, show your greatness and punish!
Rise up, Judge of the earth,
    and give the proud what they deserve.
How long will the wicked be happy?
    How long, Lord?

They are full of proud words;
    those who do evil brag about what they have done.
Lord, they crush your people
    and make your children suffer.
They kill widows and foreigners
    and murder orphans.
They say, “The Lord doesn’t see;
    the God of Jacob doesn’t notice.”

You stupid ones among the people, pay attention.
    You fools, when will you understand?
Can’t the creator of ears hear?
    Can’t the maker of eyes see?
Won’t the one who corrects nations punish you?
    Doesn’t the teacher of people know everything?
The Lord knows what people think.
    He knows their thoughts are just a puff of wind.

Lord, those you correct are happy;
    you teach them from your law.
You give them rest from times of trouble
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
The Lord won’t leave his people
    nor give up his children.
Judgment will again be fair,
    and all who are honest will follow it.

Who will help me fight against the wicked?
    Who will stand with me against those who do evil?
If the Lord had not helped me,
    I would have died in a minute.
I said, “I am about to fall,”
    but, Lord, your love kept me safe.
I was very worried,
    but you comforted me and made me happy.

Crooked leaders cannot be your friends.
    They use the law to cause suffering.
They join forces against people who do right
    and sentence to death the innocent.
But the Lord is my defender;
    my God is the rock of my protection.
God will pay them back for their sins
    and will destroy them for their evil.
    The Lord our God will destroy them.

New Century Version (NCV)The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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ACAD – Injustice: Hosea 10

Israel Will Pay for Sin

Israel is like a large vine
    that produced plenty of fruit.
As the people became richer,
    they built more altars for idols.
As their land became better,
    they put up better stone pillars to honor gods.
Their heart was false,
    and now they must pay for their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars;
    he will destroy their holy stone pillars.

Then they will say, “We have no king,
    because we didn’t honor the Lord.
As for the king,
    he couldn’t do anything for us.”
They make many false promises
    and agreements which they don’t keep.
So people sue each other in court;
    they are like poisonous weeds growing in a plowed field.
The people from Israel are worried about
    the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven.
The people will cry about it,
    and the priests will cry about it.
    They used to shout for joy about its glory,
but it will be carried off to Assyria
    as a gift to the great king.
Israel will be disgraced,
    and the people will be ashamed for not obeying.
Israel will be destroyed;
    its king will be like a chip of wood floating on the water.
The places of false worship will be destroyed,
    the places where Israel sins.
Thorns and weeds will grow up
    and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
    and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

“Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah,[a]
    and the people there have continued sinning.
But war will surely overwhelm them in Gibeah,
    because of the evil they have done there.
When I am ready,
    I will come to punish them.
Nations will come together against them,
    and they will be punished for their double sins.
Israel is like a well-trained young cow
    that likes to thresh grain.
I will put a yoke on her neck
    and make her work hard in the field.
Israel will plow,
    and Judah will break up the ground.
I said, ‘Plant goodness,
    harvest the fruit of loyalty,
    plow the new ground of knowledge.
Look for the Lord until he comes
    and pours goodness on you like water.’
But you have plowed evil [iniquity]
    and harvested trouble [reaped injustice];
    you have eaten the fruit of your lies.
Because you have trusted in your own power
    and your many soldiers,
your people will hear the noise of battle,
    and all your strong, walled cities will be destroyed.
It will be like the time King Shalman
    destroyed Beth Arbel in battle,
    when mothers and their children were bashed to death.
The same will happen to you, people of Bethel,
    because you did so much evil.
When the sun comes up,
    the king of Israel will die.

Footnotes:

  1. a. 10:9 Gibeah The sins of the people of Gibeah caused a civil war. See Judges 19–21.

New Century Version (NCV)The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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ACAD – Injustice: Zephaniah 3

Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations

How terrible for the wicked, stubborn city of Jerusalem,
    which hurts its own people.
It obeys no voice;
    it can’t be taught to do right.
It doesn’t trust the Lord;
    it doesn’t worship its God.
Its officers are like roaring lions.
    Its rulers are like hungry wolves that attack in the evening,
    and in the morning nothing is left of those they attacked.
Its prophets are proud;
    they are people who cannot be trusted.
Its priests don’t respect holy things;
    they break God’s teachings.
But the Lord is good, and he is there in that city.
    He does no wrong.
Every morning he governs the people fairly;
    every day he can be trusted.
    But evil people are not ashamed of what they do.

“I have destroyed nations;
    their towers were ruined.
I made their streets empty
    so no one goes there anymore.
Their cities are ruined;
    no one lives there at all.
I said, ‘Surely now Jerusalem will respect me
    and will accept my teaching.’
Then the place where they lived would not be destroyed,
    and I would not have to punish them.
But they were still eager
    to do evil in everything they did.
Just wait,” says the Lord.
    “Someday I will stand up as a witness.
I have decided that I will gather nations
    and assemble kingdoms.
I will pour out my anger on them,
    all my strong anger.
My anger will be like fire
    that will burn up the whole world.

A New Day for God’s People

“Then I will give the people of all nations pure speech
    so that all of them will speak the name of the Lord
    and worship me together.
People will come from where the Nile River begins;
    my scattered people will come with gifts for me.
Then Jerusalem will not be ashamed
    of the wrongs done against me,
because I will remove from this city
    those who like to brag;
there will never be any more proud people
    on my holy mountain in Jerusalem.
But I will leave in the city
    the humble and those who are not proud,
    and they will trust in the Lord.
Those who are left alive in Israel won’t do wrong or tell lies;
    they won’t trick people with their words.
They will eat and lie down
    with no one to make them afraid.”

A Happy Song

Sing, Jerusalem.
    Israel, shout for joy!
Jerusalem, be happy
    and rejoice with all your heart.
The Lord has stopped punishing you;
    he has sent your enemies away.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is with you;
    you will never again be afraid of being harmed.
On that day Jerusalem will be told,
    “Don’t be afraid, city of Jerusalem.
    Don’t give up.
The Lord your God is with you;
    the mighty One will save you.
He will rejoice over you.
    You will rest in his love;
    he will sing and be joyful about you.”

“I will take away the sadness planned for you,
    which would have made you very ashamed.
At that time I will punish
    all those who harmed you.
I will save my people who cannot walk
    and gather my people who have been thrown out.
I will give them praise and honor
    in every place where they were shamed.
At that time I will gather you;
    at that time I will bring you back home.
I will give you honor and praise
    from people everywhere
when I make things go well again for you,
    as you will see with your own eyes,” says the Lord.

New Century Version (NCV)The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Let Ferguson – and the United States – burn!

This post erupted from me a couple of days after the Grand Jury in Ferguson, MO decided not indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen who was found guilty and executed for the crime of walking in the street on his way home. I sat on this post because the raw fury burning through me was a very unusual and unsettling feeling. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t posting thoughts that were only contained to the moment I wrote them down in. Now, nearly two weeks later and after several more murders of unarmed men (Rumain Brisbon of Phoenix Arizona) and boys (Tamir Rice, Cleveland, OH) by police officers across the United States and yet another Grand Jury decision to not indict at least one police officer, Daniel Pantaleo for the murder of Eric Garner in New York City who was found guilty, then jumped by at least five police officers and choked to death for the crime of standing on a street and possibly selling single cigarettes, this post, in its original form, is tame.

Police officers approach Eric Garner in front of a convenience store on July 17, 2014. He was suspected of selling single cigarettes.
Police officers approach Eric Garner in front of a convenience store on July 17, 2014. He was suspected of selling single cigarettes.
Police officers take Eric Garner down in front of a convenience store on July 17, 2014. He was choked and remained unresponsive after the police officers got off of him. He was pronounced dead shortly after. He was suspected of selling single cigarettes.
Police officers take Eric Garner down in front of a convenience store on July 17, 2014. He was choked and remained unresponsive after the police officers got off of him. He was pronounced dead shortly after. He was suspected of selling single cigarettes.

My rage is no longer boiling over, it’s crystalizing.

November 26, 2014

All the people outraged about those expressing anger by rioting and burning down a community, I say who gives a fuck? Seriously? Police officers around this country are killing unarmed CITIZENS, i.e. PEOPLE, without any fear of prosecution and the main concern of those watching is “be careful of other people’s PROPERTY?”

WHY NOT BE CAREFUL OF OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES?

WHY NOT BE CONCERNED WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S RIGHT TO LIVE FREE OF HARASSMENT AND THE VERY REAL THREAT OF DEATH BY OTHER PEOPLE WHO SWORE AN OATH TO PROTECT AND SERVE THEM?

What is wrong with this country? What is wrong with the people who can justify in their minds that the killing of ANYONE over a presumed suspicion of cigarette theft is okay? Do you think YOUR life is worth more than a handful of cigarettes? Is it worth more than a pack or a carton, do you think? I think you’re thinking “YES, of course, I AM worth more cigarettes!” Then how can there be a debate about the worth of this child’s life? And how can people be more outraged over the lost and damage of property than they are over the destruction and loss of life?

All over the internet people are lamenting “How can ‘they’ destroy their own community?

Who are the “they”?

The people who were supposed to stay in ghettos? In neighborhoods cut off from civilized society?

Who are the “they”?

Why is no one thinking the “they” are “us”? Why is no one talking about how America has destroyed its own? The media isn’t talking about how America hates its own. People with a conscience are infuriated with America ignoring, diminishing and murdering its own.

Some Americans are mad because buildings are burning and cars are being overturned? Well, I’m undone by the deaths of people who have been burned, shot and suffocated. “They” – Americans – are mad because humans are being categorized and treated as meaningless in this country.

The burning of Ferguson is a REACTION to continued blatant injustice in one case that is rooted in a history of blatantly sustained inhumane injustices toward a group of people in this country. If the out-of-touch Americans want a reasonable reaction, then ‘they’ should insist on reasonable justice being applied in every facet of these United States of America. Had the bare minimum of an indictment been issued for Darren Wilson when he murdered Michael Brown, an unarmed teen, then neither the first riot nor the second riot would have happened in Ferguson, MO. The people have a right to expect law enforcement officers to be answerable to the same laws they are responsible for enforcing. That is the true American way.


December 6, 2014

Upon hearing the grand jury in NYC saw no reason to hold Daniel Pantaleo accountable for the killing of Eric Garner, all I could think… indeed, all I could write was:

December 3, 2014

I’m out of words.

But I won’t be silenced. I will not be rendered immobile.

That night I marched. I shouted through the streets. I stood in solidarity with thousands of Americans across the country who are also outraged by the assumption of power the police in this country have taken upon themselves. Two comments within my hearing enraged me enough to shout directly at the police officers while demonstrating my outrage. The first was when a police officer threatened to arrest people if they sat down in the street. Sitting in a street is not a crime. Sitting in a street that is occupied by people standing and chanting while being closed to traffic presents no danger to anyone. The second comment was shouted by a cop as we walked through the streets. “Get on the sidewalk!” “No, we’re taking the streets,” we chanted. “Do as you’re told,” the officer shouted back. For that he got an infuriated, “Fuck you! I don’t have to do as you say,” from me. Apparently the fact that Michael Brown was killed shortly after he flippantly refused to walk over to Darren Wilson when he was waved over seems to be lost on police officers. Police officers themselves are NOT the law. Their job is to uphold the law. Satisfying their egos is not a citizenship obligation for Americans.

eric-garner-protestsThe police essentially justify their killings of civilians by two sets of reasoning: 1) The person did not obey them; and 2) they feared the person, i.e. they thought the person was a threat to them personally.

Do as you’re told.

Again, I say, “Fuck you! You do as you’re told!” The people trump government.