Matthew 7:1-5, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in our own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Last Sunday, our pastor, Father Tom, asked the congregation how we’d feel if blacks started to worship at our predominately white church. And, would we feel uncomfortable if some guy or gal covered with tattoos and pierced ears full of earrings and metal objects protruding from their tongue and nose would attend Sunday mass. As I pondered over Father Tom’s question I wanted to get up and respond that I personally would not care. Frankly speaking, I, as a sinner would not judge others because of their skin color or mode of dress. As a musician I’ve played in bars, clubs, parties, and people’s homes from all walks of life and lifestyles: poor, rich, black, white, brown, yellow, gay, straight, criminals, lesbians, and Lord knows what other types of people I’ve met in my many years in the music business. Though I don’t condone the lifestyles of others, I usually treat them with the respect they’ve given me. And as I’ve stated in previous articles, I’ve made more enemies in my church than I’ve made in bars due in most part to my conservative political beliefs and writings.

Father went on by telling the congregation that when he was a youngster growing up in Chicago, his dad and older brother, along with some neighbors, went to a rally where Rev. Martin Luther King was speaking. As Rev. King spoke, Father Tom said his dad and many whites hurled rocks and burned the cars of blacks that attended Rev. King’s civil rights gathering. Father continued by saying that when he was in grade school he kissed a black girl and the teacher scolded him and told his father about the incident. That, according to Father Tom, angered his dad so much that he took him out of public school and enrolled him in a Catholic school where few if any blacks attended. It was obvious that Father Tom’s dad was a true racist.

As I listened to Father Tom’s sermon, I began to get the feeling that he was trying to make the white parishioners reflect on their feelings towards others who aren’t white. It appeared to me that Father Tom thinks that whites are the only racists and bad people in the United States. Apparently he knows little of crime statistics regarding blacks and Hispanics, nor is he knowledgeable of the dislike of blacks towards their own kind and whites as well. Obviously, he is also blind to the gang related crimes between blacks and Hispanics where blacks and Hispanics gun down their own kind just because they are from a different part of town or for drug turf intrusion. I understand racism well, but to kill someone because he is not from your neighborhood is far worse to me that being a racist. Here is an interesting stat I found in the internet: While African Americans comprise 12% of the U.S. population, 45% of all murder victims since 2002 were African American, 91% of whom were killed by African Americans. Nationally, homicide is the leading cause of death for black men and second leading cause of death for black women ages 15-24. Sort of horrifying stats for a group of people who are not considered racist isn’t it? As for Hispanics hating other Hispanics, I can tell you from first hand experience that many Hispanic acquaintances I’ve known who fell victim to a homicide, were most often murdered by other Hispanics, particularly in gang-related turf confrontations. Isn’t it interesting that though whites are considered mean and racist, Hispanics and blacks are killing each other in large numbers?

I live in Lake Worth, a predominately white suburb of Fort Worth. In the 20 plus years my family and I have resided in Lake Worth, I can’t remember a single act of hostility towards a family member or me due to our ethnicity or my political leanings. As a matter of fact, I’ve been approached several times by my white neighbors to run for political office and surprisingly not all were Republicans. On the contrary, when I lived in North Fort Worth, a predominately Hispanic community, most of my Democrat neighbors despised my conservative political views and newspaper opinions. Though I didn’t give a rat’s rear-end of how my Hispanic neighbors voted, they in turn hated my political signs during a Presidential election and would tear them up. So much for freedom of speech in my former Hispanic community.

Many of you by now are probably thinking that I’m pandering to whites. Far from it, I just want to point out that Hispanics, along with most blacks, are just as racists as white folks. And to prove to you how blacks are just as racist as whites I’ll leave you with these recent poll statistics in this year’s presidential election. In recent polls taken among blacks, clearly indicate that 92 percent of them plan to vote for Senator Obama. In similar recent polls however, white voters tend to split their votes between Senator Obama and Senator McCain. In the meantime, Senator Obama has yet to make strong inroads in the Latino communities in our country. Kind of makes you wonder who are the ones who have the speck in their eye doesn’t it?