Year after year, month after month, week after week, hour after hour and minute after minute, you observe golfers attempting to strike a golf ball with a golf club. These people aren’t world class athletes but they have athletic ability. They aren’t physically ripped but they have adequate sinew in some of the right places. They are reasonably intelligent — intelligent enough to understand the task at hand. Even so, they hustle to spend thousands of dollars for expert instruction, just to affirm that the expert instruction agrees with previous expert instruction, with previous video instruction, with previous instruction manuals, with previous books by every PGA Champion that every lived, and most important, with previous instruction from fellow players. They have devoted mind, body and soul, money and time, to countless hours of repetitive practice to accomplish one basic skill — to strike a golf ball in the general proximity of the center of the face of a golf club. The ball in no way attempts to avoid this strike. It doesn’t weave, dodge or duck. Very calmly, it sits there, composed, anticipating a thrilling flight but most often disappointed by a bumpy ride. Some would say the balls get to know their owners and thus have no high flown expectations. In their fruitless search of even modest success, all golfers, especially senior golfers, are essentially ignorant about the secret to golfing mastery. They understand the importance of physical fitness and flexibility. They do something about both. They understand the urgency for tempo and balance. They improve both. They understand swing plane, spine angle and follow-through. They studiously repeat all three. And still, despite using an instrument that approaches the size of a squash racket, they fail time and again, as did their ancestors who, by today’s standards, used prehistoric equipment. Yet a tiny minority of those very ancestors could strike the ball dead center almost every time, as do a minority of players today. And please don’t be confused. The objective is not about propelling a golf ball straight or high or low or long. The objective is simply for the center of the club — any club — to meet the center of the ball — any ball. The preponderance of evidence proves that this objective is physically impossible for the vast majority of golfers, for a simple reason. They do not possess one key physical ability, the vital ability, needed to accomplish this one basic  act — the raw ability to concentrate. Admit it. Until now, you didn’t think of concentration as a skill, asset or physical endowment like running, jumping and throwing. You thought concentration was some sort of grit or willpower that you turn on and off, willy nilly; and you punished yourself repeatedly for lacking proper disposition, temperament and character. Now you know the truth. Concentration is an ability, like singing. Like dozens of other God-given talents. It just exists, nestled in your DNA. You either have it or you don’t. Of course, what little you do have you begin to lose as you age. And as you age, you also suffer memory loss. Therefore, during the elapsed two seconds of a golf swing, whatever concentration  you begin with takes a leave of absence — time and time again. But you won’t be dissuaded. You stay with it, firm in the knowledge that accidentally, when you least expect it, your club will strike the center of the ball. Perhaps once. Perhaps twice. Enough to promise that tomorrow you vow to concentrate even more.

He will have to show up for a press conference clad in his Thobe, Bisht and perhaps Ghutra & Egal, before the fawning press and brainless public will begin to consider that Barack Obama might just be, possibly, perchance, maybe — a devout Muslim. To most observers, there seems to be only a smidgen of evidence that suggests the President might regularly kneel to the East. Or maybe you should ignore the fact that he was born to a Muslim father, fostered by a Muslim stepfather in a Muslim nation where he was registered in school as — a roll of drums, please — a Muslim. To be fair, you should ignore BO’s documented support of the Muslim Brotherhood. While you’re at it, don’t forget to ignore the POTUS bowing and scraping before Muslim potentates. It’s easy enough to ignore his interview with the NY Times when he described the Muslim call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.” You may choose to ignore these first few lines:

Allah is Supreme.
Allah is Supreme.
Allah is Supreme. Allah is Supreme.
I witness that there is no god but Allah.
I witness that there is no god but Allah.
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet. . .

Of course, you also must ignore words the POTUS studiously avoids. Words like “God” and “Christianity.” This avoidance comes as no surprise since in 2009, Obama told the Turks “we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.” To back up this claim, he routinely recited the most revered line of the most revered document in American history by omitting the phrase “by their Creator.” After you process that, try hard to ignore his previous references to “my Muslim faith.” And while you’re in the ignoring mood, this is the perfect time for you to tune out. Because everything the POTUS says about the Paris violence and the Syrian refugee initiative might lead you to believe that Americans are unduly paranoid and Muslims unduly reproached. In his own words, he lectured you and revealed a Freudian slip of the silver tongue: “I think on one hand non-Muslims cannot stereotype, but I also think the Muslim community has to think about how we make sure that children are not being affected with this twisted notion that somehow they can kill innocent people.” You can ignore these historical words, just as you can ignore historical premeditated acts — leaving Benghazi defenseless, leaving Iraq to ISIS, leaving Syria to Russia, leaving Iran a pathway to nuclear weapons, leaving American borders naked. You can also overlook that he quietly appointed Muslims to key posts within his Administration. Apparently, the rise of Obama and the rise of Islamic terrorism is simple coincidence. Apparently, the media, Congress, Governors and armchair pundits see nothing sinister in the Obama presidency —  can not conceive the possibility of Muslim intrigue occupying the Oval Office — can not think the unthinkable. Apparently, BHO grew up a Muslim, walks like a Muslim, talks like a Muslim — so, he’s . . . a . . . Christian. Right.

Gone With The Wind was published in 1936 and the movie followed in 1939. Both book and movie were blockbusters; in fact, some say the book was only second to The Bible in copies sold. Every American – especially every African American of voting age – should take time to give it a look. The movie would certainly gin up their resentment and hatred, not just for the conditions of slavery, but also for the stereotypical depictions and characterizations of slaves. Nonetheless, everyone should watch all 3 hours and 58 minutes to dwell on just a few seconds — on one secondary scene – less than 30 seconds of background dialogue – that gives prophetic insight into 2015 politics – and African American behavior. The scene is this. Scarlett O’Hara and Mammy are sloshing through the mud of an Atlanta street and they pass by a crowd of newly freed black men listening to what carpetbaggers have to say:

(to Scarlett)

Hey, what are you doin’ tonight, Susy?
That’s one of them Georgia peaches.
There’s nothing like that in Ohio.

(to the former slaves)

You know what we’re going to do?
What?
We’re going to give every last one of you forty acres and a mule.
And a mule?
Forty acres and a mule!
Gee!
‘Cause we’re your friends…

…and you’re gonna become voters . . .
. . . and you’re gonna vote
like your friends do!

That was 150 years ago. Today’s carpetbaggers still beat the same drum and the ancestors of those slaves still dance to the rhythm of the free stuff and the promises. Incomprehensibly, in 2015, they still vote to cling to the shackles of dependency and the pathology of resentment and bitterness. Meanwhile, they elected one of their own President (twice). They see their brothers and sisters sit on seats of power at major institutions. Their athletes dominate all major sports at all levels. Their celebrities populate music, movies, television and other entertainment venues. They’ve come a long way from war-torn Atlanta. From slavery to Freedmen. To 40 acres and a mule. To citizenship. To voting rights. To separate but equal. To Martin Luther King and Civil Rights. To Affirmative Action. To Barack Obama. And then, unfortunately, to Miami, Ferguson, Baltimore and Columbia, Mo. Therefore, you must come to a conclusion. Instead of instilling optimism, dedication and confidence, the unprecedented progress from slavery to the White House has created unprecedented pessimism, dissatisfaction and hostility. You must conclude that Black anger and racist discord have nothing to do with material rewards, greater opportunity and political power. You must conclude that the Black Race has a visceral animosity toward the White Race, believing that the White Race considers the Black Race intellectually, morally and culturally inferior. There it is. The racial divide has nothing to do with the trappings of success. It has everything to do with a perceived lack of acceptance. Yet the White Race elected a Black President. Evidently, this acceptance isn’t broad enough or deep enough. It’s a bit more than 40 acres and a mule. But curiously, it’s not enough. You must conclude that nothing is.