Woebeit Dr. Gail Gross, after a slight pause to collect her wits, assured me that she not only understood my honest opinion of her, but also respected it. The following week, however, she short-stopped me quickly and hung up the phone when I challenged her unfounded premise that, “It’s all about money.” I was simply seeing how she would react to being told the truth and/or total honesty. And, inadvertently, she acted just like any other egotistical person who for some insane reason thinks they’re always right.

No, I’m not one of the child psychologist’s favorite people, but she is no different from people who hate honest people, who say what they mean and mean what they say and consider secrets sneaky. Hell, my parents never discussed family business in front of me. I don’t even allow people to whisper in my ear, because when you’re proud, you say it loud. I was much older before realizing that people really couldn’t handle the truth very well. My philosophy was: If God is omnificence, he sees what’s in my heart, so I’m not about to have more respect for people under the guise of being discrete. As a child, I got beatings for running my mouth before my brain turned on.

Hey, daily, I use to automatically put on two pair of pants for padding, in anticipation of a butt warming. Most whippings resulted from rebutting lying adults, because my parents didn’t allow their kids to disrespect a grown-up, no matter how big a lair they were. Then again, I learned that actions spoke louder than words. My neighbors never proved I threw rocks through their windows, or jars of urine and/or feces on their porches, but since they abruptly stopped talking to my parents about their “bad-ass little boy,” one has to suspect that they knew I was leader of the feared “Night Raiders.” Hello Dr. Otis King, Sam Jr., Sandy Tatum Jr., Carl “Bless” Singleton, Willie Bright, et al.

I did confess to the legendary Wheatley coach Wister Lee (40 years later), however, that I, was the culprit who sweetened his gas tank after a boarding. Nevertheless, being falsely accused or lied on has always been… and still is one of the quickest ways to provoke my African warrior mode. I’ve gone to jail for calling cops’ a damn lie during traffic stops and it’s common knowledge that I was dishonorably discharged from the Army for beating up a White lieutenant, whose lies constantly kept me in trouble with the commanding officer (I was his favorite because I was the company’s star athlete), when I caught him in an off-based, Korean “cat house.”

I took it seriously when my Grandpa Richard Justice told me, “A Negro ain’t free until he can say what he means and means what he says, like a rich White man.” Profundity aside, Grandpa Justice only shacked with my daddy’s momma and wasn’t really my Paw Paw. Hey, but I can handle the truth. For sure, I adhere to 16th Century France’s Michel Eyquem de Montague’s contention, “I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older,” and that’s why so many people think I reside in the Twilight Zone. Most people lie about relationships any way.

What virile brother will admit they often choose celibacy because he doesn’t want to be bothered with a significant other? Not many, I assure you. That’s really why there’s so much breaking up and making up. But if it’s truth you want, handle this: If truth is told, what about all of that preaching about Jesus the Christ being a risen savior? Well, from my Outer Limits perspective, that ain’t about nothing. Hey, an immaculate conception, a few miracles, including calling Lazarus forth, or getting up “earrrrly Easter Sunday morning with all power in his hands!,” ain’t no biggie for the creator of the cosmos. Okay. Okay! I heard the clap of thunder roll and ducked the lighting flash too, but when you really think about it… ain’t that the truth?

Furthermore, since God Almighty had all power in the first place, in my old, feeble mind, the only people that should be amazed about that ecclesiastic revelation are agnostics, and/or atheists who doubt that there’s a great I AM! I realize that my example was a bit extreme, especially when I’m one of God’s anointed prophets, but I just wanted to shock you a little bit (to see how you react to a truth that lingers in the recesses of most Christians’ bemused minds, woebeit they would never admit it. Ergo, since I shared an ultimate truth with you, do you think you can answer a few questions honestly? Even if you keep the answers between God and yourself?

Please, answer truthfully, my dear brothers and sisters. Do you think that White folks will ever accept Black folks as equals? Insofar as the answer to that question makes the following questions academic, I should ask if you think “The New World Order” is a conspiracy between European Aryans to totally control the world? Do you think AIDS is a manufactured malady that was created to control populations among people of color? Do you believe that those free screenings for prostate and breast cancer have anything to do with controlling America’s minority populations?

Do you really believe America’s public schools intend to educate minority children to compete with White children in the professional and business world? Do you think Black folks are brain dead not to question information in the mainstream media? Are you praying with me brothers and sisters? Finally, do you want African-American News&Issues to continue telling it like it is, because it is like it is, whether we tell it or not? Does anybody know where I’m coming from?