Here are some great quotes from the the dude’s Dude, John Wayne:

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very
clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes
we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

“Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the
dinner ready when you get home”

“Life is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”

“If you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.”

“A man ought to do what he thinks is right”

“If everything isn’t black and white, I say, “Why the hell not?””

“Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.”

“A horse is a horse,it ain´t make a difference what color it is.”

“Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful”

“Never say sorry - it’s a sign of weakness”

“I’m the stuff men are made of”

“I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from
psychoanalyst’s couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.”

“I’ve had three wives, six children and six grandchildren and I still don’t
understand women”

“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.”

Ever think about how we might affect each person that we meet?

I think we forget we’re not invisible until we want to be cared for – our ethics are based more on our convenience rather that what is good for others.

Ok, I can only speak for myself . . . seems I find myself doing this quite a bit and I know it’s less than ideal. . . In the end, though, it is the ideals that we hold that help guide us to a better life.

What then is the ideal for us?

It’s a big question . . . but it’s my belief that Jesus simplified this and it’s religion that has lost this message in the end.

At his last supper with his disciples he prayed a prayer for all who would believe in him: “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” (John 17:21)

I think one critical error with many people’s view of religion is that it’s counter intuitive to Jesus’s actual vision . . .  Jesus’s last prayer was about unity and us becoming a community, to care not just forourselves

We desire having an “US”and we want a “THEM”. This is a terrible illusion we crave to believe.

We want an “US” so we can justify treating and seeing others as them – the people who are not “US.”

It provides a false solace.

In the end we are just “US.”

We want definitions, it’s what we do.  We feel if we can define something, we have some power over it. We want to have control.

We want to set up line items to define who is good and who is evil and who we let in and who we keep out.

To talk about who is going to heaven or hell is totally pointless and it divides us, working against Jesus’s vision for who we are to be . . . .

There is only “US”. We are one. The one’s who do not see this may be lost, but they are still with us regardless.  

We are to be there for the lost and here to help each other. 

Our one commandment is to Love above all else. 

And Love does not live in a building . . .

Love is real and it’s there when we choose to put our egos and false sense of plans aside and see the need of others and choose to serve

We are conditioned to ask, “What’s in it for me?”

The truth is: Everything.

What sort of world do you really want to live in?

We have the choice to make it so.

If you ask, who is God?

It’s simple, God is Love.

Love is a choice and it’s up to us to choose to love or not love.

To Love sounds simple, but we are all scared to love first.

This is where it takes faith . . .

It’s not a feeling. 

Jesus’s message was simple and if we really want a better world, we are to Love.

We are all somebody and we are all together. 

It begins with us.

It begins with the choices and actions we make every day.

What kind of world do you want?

Make a choice.

History starts now.

This was the ghetto house that me, Guy, and Ruben lived in back in our Baylor days from 1999 to 2000. There were a lot of memories made here. Lindsay, Bill, and I stopped by here on our way up to Dallas to pick up some cars from an auction that we won the week prior. I wanted them to see this ugly and memorable place from my past and I was suprised to find that it was left open for us to explore. I can’t believe how small our rooms were — but, damn, the yard was huge — hey guys, do you remember when we cut that big ass tree down in the back and burned the whole thing in the back yard?

This was the old  house that me, Guy, and Ruben lived in back in our Baylor days from 1999 to 2000. There were a lot of memories made here. Lindsay, Bill, and I stopped by here on our way up to Dallas to pick up some cars from an auction that we won the week prior. I wanted them to see this ugly and memorable place from my past and I was suprised to find that it was left open for us to explore. I can’t believe how small our rooms were — but, dang, the yard was huge — hey guys, do you remember when we cut that big tree in the back and the fire we had?     

“Give a man to fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he will eat for life.”

This is my plan for handling the homeless in this country; I would like your serious thoughts and consideration.

This is an idea I am trying to turn into a reality.

It will happen . . .

As for now it’s still in its conceptual development phase.

This is an active work in progress, here’s the current working plan:

(3 year program)

Provide
free education in a series of levels to the homeless:

1. Ethics and life decision skills - non religious

2. Provided spiritual education (optional)

3. Provide education in basics skills:

                 
(phase 1) -reading, writing, math, basic science

                 
(phase 2) -art appreciation, music, philosophy

4. Provide testing to develop functional skill set

5. Technical education and development.

Financial and housing incentives provided in return for development scale . . . Or grades.

All residents of this program must stay in mandatory dormitories in program.

Program provided by a first come first serve basis, with an allowance made for 1 formal entry a month.

Freedom limited in accordance with progress in courses.

Those in dorms required to provide state base work from 6AM to 2PM . . .

Rewards of freedom for outstanding progress.

If citizens do not progress, they will be assigned under the direct care of a mentor
(a resident of the program) who will receive additional freedom for his student’s progress . . . Brothers helping brothers and sisters helping sisters.

There will be an assignment of levels given; with each level more freedom is allowed.

These mini communities will be set throughout the city and be a refuge to only those who agree to it’s tenants.

Healthcare is given, food is provided, but at a cost paid by labor and progress in classes and in community involvement.

Exercise and personal care will be taught and promoted with freedom. . . Cleanliness, grooming, and body fat will be measured and graded.

These centers will be run by a series of prominent community members and companies, who are offered substantial tax relief in exchange and with each center’s progress graded they will receive additional tax and financial incentives.

The highest performing center will be awarded a 100% tax waiver to its sponsor.

University professors, teachers, business professionals, religious leaders, and community leaders will be offered tax incentives in exchange for their services and awarded additional financial rewards for each student’s progress.

For hiring graduates of this program, businesses will be given additional tax incentives.

Graduates may continue education in ethics, religion, math, philosophy and receive additional financial rewards for monthly testing progress.

How do you feel how this program will affect the economy and local communities?

What drawbacks will be encountered?

How can this program be improved?

Please provide your feedback . . . together we can make a difference today.

Respectfully,

Aaron Manley Smith