I live in all Black Neighborhood

Why Integrated societies are good for America?

Do you feel apprehensive walking in a neighborhood, let’s all White, all Black or all Hispanic? Why?

Over the years, I have lived amongst many people, and now, I have chosen to live in an all-black community. It is a new experience, and I am cherishing it.

Knowing each other does not have to be a noble idea or a God-pleasing act, it is the right thing to do; to live freely without fears. When we learn to respect the otherness of the other and accept the God-given uniqueness of each other, conflicts fade and solutions emerge.  It brings freedom back to us. Those of you who are Muslims will understand the concept well as articulated in the Quran 49:13.

We keep piling myths upon myths about the other deepening the chasm between each other. The only way to dissipate fears is to know each other first-hand. Knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding to acceptance of each other. How do we learn about each other and bust the myths if we don’t live as neighbors?

There was a time in the eighties in Dallas, Texas, my hometown when white folks were running away from their neighborhoods to escape from the African American ‘invasion’ of their communities. My question to them was, and is, how far and how long will you keep running?

Each one of us seeks freedom and wants to live without fear, but what do we do instead? We double down on our neuroses. White folks run away from neighborhoods when blacks make the entry, and the black people give up on living with all others and go back to their flock where they are comfortable. The apprehensions never end.

Imagine a child raised with ill will towards Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Arabs, Chinese or Asians. I have closely monitored the results with Indian kids raised to hate Pakistani kids and vice-versa. The idiotic parents poison their kids.

When that child grows up to be an adult and has to work with the other who is not to be trusted, you can guess the anguish that person endures. There is an unwanted battle he/she encounters causing him non-stop distress. As an owner of the business, do you welcome these inner battles between employees, don’t they cut down the productiveness of your firm?

You would want an employee who gets along with all and focuses on delivering quality products and services to your customers.  You also want him to go home with no baggage from work and give 100% of himself or herself to the family. A happy person is productive for his/her family, your community and the nation. 

Besides the individuals, even the City Governments are struggling with the issue of discrimination. They need to see the goodness that comes to all with integrated societies.

Way back around 2005, I was on the government relations committee at the board of greater Dallas Home Builder’s Association. We were appalled with the attitude of the Planning and Zoning Committees members of the City of Plano; they were opposed to zoning-in apartments in the town as they wanted to keep the people with low income out of the city.  Our question was where should the people who work at 7/11 live? Near their workplace or way out someplace in Garland and further draining their income on transportation?  Finally, they listened, and affordable apartments were zoned into the cityscape.

Grand Homes flagship community at Bent Tree hills in North Dallas took over an abandoned neighborhood due to protests by the rich folks for building low-income (meaning Black) housing next door. I was assigned to turn things around and appealed to the humble beginnings of each one of us, and it worked, most of them realized that everyone needs to start at some point.

In 1985, I faced the wrath of homeowners, hitherto my friends but became foes overnight because we contracted to build a new Ryland home to Jim & Mike, a gay couple in Rowlett, Texas. Eventually, the acceptance came through education, and it always works, and they all came back again.

Now, I am enjoying my life with the Black community. There is not a single non-Black person on the busses I have been riding. I walk in into the Senior living centers; I am the only one. I shop at Giants, again, I am the only one.  Each one of my neighbors has made me feel one of them, and I feel home with them.

Now, Muslims are treading on a dangerous path of building ’luxury ghettos’ around the mosques. It’s happening in Texas in the cities of Irving, Murphy, and Richardson; it needs to go. There is safety in integrated living.

Take a look at the Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and other community’s full-time day schools, what are we doing to our children? How are they going to learn about each other, how comfortable are they with different children? Public Schools offer the necessary interactions with different people. I hope private schools recruit children from different faiths, races, ethnicities, and cultures, so our children would be comfortable when they go to work with different people.

Integrated living produces secure societies, and you don’t have to run from place to place in search of security. Would you raise your children free from prejudices? Your children have at least 70 years to live, why do you want to poison them?  Let them be free from your racial, ethnic, religious, economic and cultural prejudices, let them live without fear.

How do you raise your child to run for the President of the United States, Senate or Congress is a full chapter in the new book American Muslim Agenda by this author.

The Center for Pluralism conducts workshops to turn your employees to give 100% of their heart, mind, and soul not only to the place of work but to their family as well making them productive employees.

Dr. Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His new book, the “American Muslim Agenda” is about everything you wanted to know about Muslims. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kindle. Mike is a public speaker, author, interfaith wedding officiant, a newsmaker and the executive director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. More about him in three formats at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/
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What is a Good Life?

Note:  You’ll find an occasional sprinkling of Urdu/ Hindi/ Kannada languages in all my essays written at this particular site.. I let my Indianness ooze out of me with occasional references to things that are Indian. In all other writings, it is nothing but English, if you have a need to understand them, please shoot an email to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com  

Is it about having what others have or living your own life? Until a decade ago I had a great materialistic life from the first point of view, but in the last several years, I’ve chosen to live a minimalist’s life, that is living with bare necessities, only what is needed. Indeed, happiness and desire for things are inversely proportional to each other.

If we focus on living our own lives, we’ll live happily. The problems begin when we want to have what others have, there is no end to having things, and there is nothing wrong with wanting and having stuff if that is what you want.

I am hoping, each one of us can find a new mirror to see ourselves, and purposefully determine what we want out of life.

Tum bhi ek din mar ja o’gay, hum bhi ek din mar’jayeingay
Ana ki Takraron ko mita kay, sukoon hum kab payeiengay?

One day, your life will come to an end, and mine too. If we keep arguing with our egos, when will we find peace?  When will we stop and smell the roses?

IT IS GOOD TO BE FREE

Whether it is new or an age-old tension between you and your sister, brother, parents, spouse or kids, and friends, customers or clients, how long will you carry the burden?

Tum bhi ek din marja o’gay, o bhi ek din mar’jayeingay

Death will end the complaints anyway, then why do we need to carry the burden through death? Why not end them now and enjoy the rest of the life? It is good to be free, free from anxieties and tensions.

Whether it is hatred for an individual, a group, or their faith, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture or other uniqueness, it is our burden, they quietly come and go, they may not even know about our hate, but we’d be still carrying the burden, anger, and pain.  As a corollary, you or your friends may have loved someone intensely during your teen years without the other person even knowing about it. Pyaar huwa chup ke se, huwa tha na?

LET YOUR LOVED ONES BE FREE 

All the stuff I have accumulated over the years would be useless whenever I croak.  It would be a hassle for my kids to get rid of that crap (good stuff to me) should something happen to me, and my kids have zero interest in anything I own except the family pictures.

Why should my kids spend time in disposing of the stuff they don’t need?   Should I burden them with a sense of guilt to get rid of that stuff?   Should I worry what they will do to my stuff after I am gone?  They have their own stuff they have accumulated like I did, and I should set them free to live their own lives.

Should I become a watchdog guarding my ego, my way of doing things, controlling and seeking perfection in others? To be tense and give tension to others?  It’s a choice we make, to enjoy life with or without things we need, and do things that give us peace of mind.

I came from a 5000 Square foot home with lots of great furniture, paintings, silverware, expensive knick knacks etc… you name it, I had it. Three years ago, I gave away everything I had and chose to live in an apartment with bare necessities. The 4th copy of one of the Russian paintings that I gave away sold for 45,000 to a Bible Museum in Dallas. I did not flinch losing it. I am glad, I did not feel the blood rushing either. I had some extraordinary sandalwood carvings – I am happy I don’t have any of that and when I die, I will go with freedom. I am free now. “Ab shaad hoon main, azaad hoon main, kuch kaam nahin hai aahon say.”

I FOUND MY MIRROR 

With a few exceptions that I regret, I have not maligned anyone in my life, or gone around telling bad things about others.  I have no grudges in my heart either.

What is the gain with hatred and malice or backbiting? It’s actually a loss, it keeps you bonded with the dislike of others.

Asking others to forgive you for your shortcomings is not giving away control of your life, but giving an expression tof how you feel. If they act up, you forgive them and move on.  Let it not be you who gives up on hope.

Let’s tie the loose ends of life, every day and live a full life!  My mother tied the loose ends, and I was able to facilitate Najma, my late wife to do the same, and here I am, making the efforts.

Michami Dukadam friends. Let’s start our life afresh with a clean slate, now, from today!

I went to Dallas to attend celebrating a friend’s life who had passed away a week ago, he was a great soul. It was time to reflect on life. While there, I went around in Plano with my son and his family. The Quality of life is undoubtedly far better here than most places to raise a family, and the amenities and facilities were incredible. Plano and Richardson are beautiful cities with God’s diversity of creation, people of different races, faiths, and ethnicities were all there. I went to watch my Grandson play soccer indoors, and it was a joy to see all of God’s creation there.

On the way back home to DC, I was sitting on the plane next to a friendly sociable woman, and we had a good healthy conversation over a period of four hours. She had so many experiences to share, and occasionally my mind wandered at the possibility of taking this conversation further, and each time, I dropped the idea. Thanks to the problem in the plane, it was delayed by an hour and I was secretly humming the song, “Aye abr-e Karam, aaj itna baras…”

As we landed at Reagan Airport and walked towards the baggage, another song helped me preserve these beautiful moments.  “Chalte Chalte, younhi koi mil gaya tha.” In the journey of life, I ran into someone,  those few moments were pleasant, and let them remain so, and let them remain a dream. We parted, I did not ask for her phone number nor she did.

For a few moments the desire to live that life again surfaced, but am glad, I quickly came out of it and woke up reminding myself of what I’ve chosen. My commitment is to Pluralism, and I should stick to it until the Center of Pluralism is doing everything I wanted it to do. I have to live a purposeful life and leave behind ideas and practices that may benefit one soul or the other. This is not a noble thing or a great thing, it is simply what I want to contribute to my planet.

Tying the loose ends of life – the real story of my late wife Najma
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/06/celebration-of-spirit-of-volunteerism.html

Mike Ghouse

Dilip Kumar and Madhubla; a powerful love story

I was the 65^th viewer of the this outstanding 33 minutes love story, it is one of the best real love stories with full range of emotions I have seen. I do regret that it is not in English or English subtitles. It is in Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu) language, the language of Indian Films.

This is a dream come true for guys like me who want to see Indian films in less than an hour (usually three hours)… if I did not have the passion for Pluralism; this is what I would have done; to reduce all Indian films to one hour. Here is the best example of such work.

This is the real love story of two of the greatest movie actors of Bollywood. It is incredible work, a story created from of pieces of different films, reflecting the real love story of Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.

It is one of most beautiful love stories laced with a touch of some of the most beautiful songs and dialogues, its indeed a hog’s heaven for the people of the subcontinent.

I had the luxury of spending over three hours with Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu, when they were in Dalals, and subsequently managing his media schedule. I was also their attendent along with Taj Bhai in checking them into the hotel. We had great philosophical conversations with them, indeed, we talked about Pluralism way back then in the early Nineties. It's been 18-19 years ago.

I thank the narrator lady Nigar Khan for putting this together, however, I really wish she had not acted and talked like villainous Bindu in the old Indian movies. I love that set with dim blue gray lighting.

I dropped everything to watch this film, and if you do, please let me know.

Thank you

Watch and enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR3SEh2rM78&feature=player_embedded

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Mike Ghouse, watch the trailer of the film I am making on the website www.AmericaTogetherFoundation.com. When complete, it is a love story weaved into American Context, making a patriotic American out of all of us.