Growing up in our house, prayer was non-negotiable. Before meals, before bed, and before tests. My mother prayed before she turned the ignition. Every single time. Backing out of the driveway to grab milk? A petition went up. Driving less than a mile to church? Another one. I rolled my eyes the way Hamlet brooded, often and at length.

I figured Mom was a soft touch for superstition. A nice lady with a nervous habit dressed up as theology. Turns out the habit was sound — and the theology even sounder.

You are not emptying the mind. If anything, you are spilling the contents before a higher power who already knew what was in there.

A recent study published in Religion, Brain & Behavior by researchers in Ireland looked at 628 middle-aged adults from the Midlife in the United States project, a long-running national study that has tracked the health of thousands of Americans since 1995.

They put participants through a standardized stress test and measured what their hearts and blood pressure did under pressure. They found that people who scored higher on private religious practices showed lower systolic blood pressure reactivity to the stressor.

Essentially, when life throws a curveball, the praying person’s heart absorbs the hit.

Religious but not spiritual

The researchers separated two things most people lump together: private religious practices (prayer, Scripture reading, devotion at home) and what they called daily spiritual experiences (a general sense of the sacred, feelings of connectedness, vague “spiritual” vibes). Only the first category, the one with actual prayer in it, produced the cardiovascular benefit.

This matters because the modern wellness industry has spent two decades trying to sell Americans on a defanged, deracinated version of spiritual practice. Meditation retreats. Mindfulness courses. Breath-work seminars at $400 a weekend. All of it positioned as the secular, sophisticated alternative to what your grandmother was doing for free with a worn King James Bible.

But prayer and meditation are not the same animal. The wellness industry would like you to believe they are interchangeable, two flavors of the same practice, both leading to lower cortisol and better sleep. That is a lie.

RELATED: Secular bias, fake faith — beware the new chatbot ‘Christianity’

Empty promise

Meditation, in its popular Western form, is largely about emptying the mind. You sit, you breathe, you observe your thoughts like passing strangers you owe nothing to, you achieve a kind of inner stillness.

The goal is detachment. You are training yourself to step back from your own mental chatter and watch it from a distance. The self is the subject, the object, and the audience all at once. If it works, you feel calmer. If it doesn’t, you feel like you spent 20 minutes wondering if you turned off the stove

Prayer is the opposite. Prayer is a conversation. There is a Person on the other end of the line, and that Person is listening. You are addressing someone, asking, thanking, confessing, repenting, interceding for your sister’s job interview. You are not emptying the mind. If anything, you are spilling the contents before a higher power who already knew what was in there.

Meditation looks inward. Prayer looks up. Meditation is a monologue performed for an audience of one, who is also the performer. Prayer is a dialogue with the Creator of the universe. Meditation assumes the cosmos is indifferent and that the best you can do is make peace with that.

One assumes you are a bundle of neurons talking to itself. The other assumes you are a soul talking to its Maker.

That difference is the whole game.

Praying together, staying together

And the benefits extend well beyond the cardiac. A 2016 systematic review examined a dozen randomized trials and found prayer reduced anxiety in mothers of children with cancer, helped chemotherapy patients cope, and improved spiritual well-being across the board.

Then there is collective prayer, which deserves its own paragraph. Something happens when believers gather and pray together that doesn’t happen alone in your kitchen.

A hospital-based study published in ScienceDirect documented measurable benefits among patients and staff at an outpatient clinic that began every workday with group prayer. The faithful have known this for 2,000 years. Fears that felt enormous at three in the morning shrink to a manageable size when spoken aloud in the presence of people who love you and a God who loves you more.

Burdens get distributed. A timid believer hears a confident prayer spoken aloud and realizes that confidence is available, not reserved. A confident believer hears someone else struggle to find words and remembers that brokenness is not a disqualification. The result is a kind of mutual restocking.

Kneeling and dealing

Which brings me to the deeper point. America is in a mental health crisis. Antidepressant prescriptions keep climbing. In 2023, loneliness was declared a public health emergency by the surgeon general himself. Suicide rates among the youth are at generational highs.

Pundits offer theories that include smartphones, social media, economic precarity, and polarization. All are real, but all are partial. The fuller explanation is the one your pastor has been preaching for years. You cannot evict God from a culture and expect the building to stand. A nation that traded the sanctuary for the self-help aisle was always going to drown in despair. There is a God-shaped hole in the modern Western psyche; stuffing it with meditation apps and microdoses is like trying to plug a dam with Kleenex.

Prayer is older than the problem. Prayer is bigger than the diagnosis. The studies show it, and Christians know it.

​Christianity, Health, Lifestyle, Meditation, Mental health, Mindfulness, Prayer, Science, Wellness, Faith 

Last month, another family requested I play “It Is Well with My Soul” for their loved one’s funeral.

After nearly 50 years of playing the piano for funeral services, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve played that hymn.

The sorrows like sea billows are a given. They arrive for all of us eventually. The question is not whether suffering comes. The question is what we have been taught to do when it arrives.

Those years at the piano have provided an unusual vantage point. Most people attending a funeral spend the service looking toward the front of the sanctuary or chapel. They see the pastor, the flowers, the family, and the casket. Sitting at the piano, however, I’ve spent much of my life looking in the opposite direction.

I see the faces. I’ve watched businessmen, ranchers, physicians, pastors, politicians, mechanics, celebrities, schoolteachers, and grieving children. I’ve seen estranged family members share a pew for an hour. I’ve seen old wounds temporarily set aside. I’ve watched tears fall from people who spent a lifetime convincing the world they didn’t cry.

It’s hard to lie during a funeral service. The face and eyes give it away.

For a brief moment, the distractions of life are suspended in the face of death. Everyone in the room is confronted with the same reality: Life is fragile, time is limited, and something had the final word over a life that may have loomed very large only days before.

When I offer to help select the music, I often ask the family’s favorite hymn. “It Is Well with My Soul” almost invariably stands out.

This year marks 150 years since Philip Bliss set Horatio Spafford’s words to music. Ever since, grieving families have continued reaching for that hymn.

After hearing it and performing it for a lifetime, I’ve become convinced that something happens in the fifth measure where the word “sorrows” lands on the first minor chord of the hymn.

I leave room for that chord.

When I play the hymn, I take my time. I’ve had music ministers try to conduct me faster through it. I politely ignore them. Grief does not benefit from haste.

Not because I am trying to showcase the music, but because I have watched what happens in the room when people hear it. Heads lower. Shoulders sag. Eyes fill with tears. In that moment, the hymn permits grieving people to tell the truth.

The sea billows are rolling.

RELATED: What we lose when we rush past pain

iStock/Getty Images

Sometimes, when I invite the congregation to sing, I watch people exhale. Some simply mouth the words. Others sing through tears. Some stand motionless and stare straight ahead. I’ve watched grieving fathers, mothers, and spouses raise their hands heavenward as tears run down their faces.

Occasionally, I stop playing altogether on the last chorus and let the congregation carry the hymn themselves. There is something profound about hearing a room full of grieving people give collective grief a collective voice.

The hymn was written from within great sorrow. It never hurries people through it. It doesn’t offer clichés or pretend pain isn’t pain.

It acknowledges sorrow while refusing to grant it the final word.

Then comes the line that has occupied my thoughts more than any other: “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say …”

Taught me.

The sorrows like sea billows are a given. They arrive for all of us eventually. The question is not whether suffering comes. The question is what we have been taught to do when it arrives.

What do we reach for when things around us feel so unsteady?

I’ve played this hymn for people who sang it with confidence and for people who could barely get the words out. I’ve watched some sing it as testimony and others sing it as prayer. Some seemed to embody it. Others seemed to aspire to it.

Yet, the requests keep arriving.

After nearly 50 years at the piano bench, I’ve never lost my sense of wonder at what happens when a room full of grieving people stand together and sing: It is well with my soul.

​Opinion & analysis, Funeral, Music, Philip bliss, Horatio spafford, Hymn, Christianity, Faith, Grief, Mourning, Soul 

In the beginning, there was a pool. It was green, and broken, and hemorrhaging millions of gallons a year into the soft earth beneath the National Mall. For decades, nobody fixed it.

America turns 250 this July. For a country that can’t agree on anything — especially about Donald Trump — what is reflected back isn’t always easy to look at.

‘It looks real good. And you know what, ‘scuse my French, but I f**king hate that.’

In preparation for the 250th celebration, the pool was drained, painted, and fenced off. It brought on lawsuits, court hearings, and more cable news segments than anyone expected from a paint job.

And then the water came back in. On June 4, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool refilled under a blazing June sun. Tourists, joggers, and D.C. regulars lined the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to watch the water rise.

The reflecting pool is the centerpiece of a broader $95 million push by the Trump administration to restore Washington ahead of the 250th. Under Executive Order 14252, “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful,” the National Park Service launched a sweeping effort to restore fountains, rehabilitate historic landscapes, and address aging infrastructure across the city.

The funds come not from the NPS’ congressional budget but from national park entrance fees — money the agency is legally permitted to redirect at its discretion.

More than 20 fountains that had sat dry for years — some for decades — are flowing again. The Columbus Circle fountain in front of Union Station was turned back on in late May for the first time since 2007. Meridian Hill Park’s cascading fountain — the longest in North America — is running again.

The reflecting pool is the latest in a series of restoration projects that have drawn surprisingly positive reactions across the city — even from residents who didn’t vote for Trump.

RELATED: The fountains in DC are back on. It turns out that decline was ‘a choice.’

Blaze News

The pool was designed by architect Henry Bacon and completed in 1923 — a long, narrow mirror stretching almost 2,030 feet between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Trump compared the pool’s length to “skyscrapers.”

The nation’s reflecting pool has also been leaking for most of its existence. The original structure was built without pilings on the soft, dredged riverbed and started losing water almost immediately.

The Obama administration spent $34 million and closed the pool for nearly two years, rebuilding the structure with foundation support and installing a brand-new filtration system. The algae came back within a month. The leaks never stopped.

By the time Trump took office, Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it was losing 45,000 gallons a day.

The Biden-era NPS received estimates “above $100 million” for another fix and didn’t move forward.

Trump ordered a different approach. Workers drained the pool, hauled away what he says were 12 truckloads of garbage, sealed the cracks, and replaced the filtration system with a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler — the first of its kind at the pool. Then, they coated the basin in what the president calls “American Flag Blue.”

When Trump first visited the drained pool on May 7, he said previous estimates to fix it had run as high as $355 million and 3.5 years. He initially said it would cost $1.8 million and take one week.

The contract was signed for almost $6.9 million — awarded to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia firm, through an expedited no-bid process. The DOI later revised the timeline to a month and added $6.2 million, citing the urgency of the July 4 deadline.

It took six weeks. Federal contracting records show the final cost came to just under $14.2 million — more than eight times Trump’s 1.8 million estimate, yet roughly 4% of the $355 million he said it could have cost otherwise. Trump says the work will last 50 to 100 years.

“Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people,” he told reporters who questioned why he was focused on the pool during a period of international tension. “Not a filthy capital.”

Trump drove his motorcade across the drained floor to inspect it personally. He also posted an AI image of himself and other Cabinet members swimming in it.

“It won’t leak; it will shine and be the pride of Washington, D.C., for decades to come,” said Trump.

RELATED: America 250 UFC event at risk: Anti-Trump group sues to shut down event on behalf of Democratic activists

Blaze News

But the landscape architects and historic preservationists weren’t concerned about the preventable water loss. They were concerned about “American Flag Blue.”

“It wasn’t intended as a place that looks jolly like your local golf course,” said Judy Scott Feldman of the National Mall Coalition, a nonprofit that helps protect the area’s historic legacy. The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed suit, calling the project a “permanent blemish” that would turn a national landmark into a “theme park.”

The pool’s original bottom was dark asphalt and tile — not Obama’s 14-year-old tinted gray concrete that critics defended as “historic.” The NPS agreed that a darker bottom, like Trump’s dark navy, improves reflectivity.

An EarthCam time-lapse from the top of the Washington Monument shows what actually changed. The pool isn’t green any more. Trump’s new nanobubbler targets the algae, and the sealant addresses the leaking joints that the Obama renovation didn’t.

One problem reportedly remains: two miles of cracked underground pipes that, if they fail, could shut down the filtration system and bring the algae back. The Trump administration says pipe replacement will begin in the fall.

Blaze News went out to the National Mall and asked five people what they thought.

A resident who has run the Mall route for six years barely broke stride. “I didn’t like the construction, so I started running the Jefferson Memorial way. Honestly, I don’t even care who did it. It was Trump, right? I’m not really political — I work in tech. It looks fine.”

A 13-year-old on his school trip said his class had studied the “I Have a Dream” speech just weeks before. “I didn’t know the pool was broken. I just thought it was always like this.”

A retired couple from Western Pennsylvania had been here before — once for the Bicentennial in 1976 and twice since 2023. He pointed to their matching MAGA hats. “We promised to come back only to Trump’s Washington,” he said, “and seeing it completed makes me feel more patriotic than I already was.”

Not everyone Blaze News spoke with voted for Trump. In 2024, Washington, D.C., voted more than 92% for Kamala Harris.

A college junior interning on Capitol Hill had watched the construction drag on through her first weeks in the city. “I tried walking by here to romanticize, you know, my D.C. hot-girl summer,” she said. “The construction was low-key annoying. Our office has been talking about it, and besides the fact that it seems, yet again, like just another one of Trump’s pet projects, I wouldn’t go as far as to say it looks bad.”

A lifelong resident who works in education stopped at the edge of the pool, looked out at the water, and said: “I’m not going to give that man credit. I’m just not. But it does look good. It looks real good. And you know what, ‘scuse my French, but I f**king hate that.”

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​Blaze news, Capitol hill, Donald trump, Education, Kamala harris, Lincoln memorial, Reflecting pool, Union station, Politics 

While the transgender movement has lost significant ground culturally and politically in recent years, it’s still probing for vulnerabilities — especially during Pride Month.

In a recent interview with women’s sports advocate and founder of XX-XY Athletics Jennifer Sey, Steve Deace highlighted a recent example: In California high school track and field, biological male athlete AB Hernandez (who identifies as transgender) has dominated the girls’ high jump and triple jump at state championships, leading to a California Interscholastic Federation policy where displaced biological girls are forced to share the top podium spot and co-champion status with him.

“You’re on the front lines of this battle. What do you think?” Deace asked Sey.

Sey believes that the transgender agenda has been “pushed back,” but it’s far from being defeated.

She explains that while 27 states currently have laws keeping women’s sports for biological females only, a pending Supreme Court decision this June will determine if those protections are constitutional. She expects the court to uphold them, but emphasizes that this victory would only apply to those 27 states. The remaining 23 states, which prioritize gender identity over biological sex, would still allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports.

In other words, even a favorable ruling from SCOTUS doesn’t end the fight nationwide.

“So we still have a ton of work to do,” she says.

That work, she argues, needs to focus on “[changing] the culture.”

“Seventy to 80% of Americans agree … that women’s sports should be for women … but I don’t think we’ve made meaningful progress in getting that 80% to stand up and say what they believe,” says Sey.

“All right, so how do we do that?” Deace asks.

As for her, Sey plans to “keep producing content, keep encouraging people to stand up and say what they think, to stand up and say the most commonsense thing that there is, which is that men and women are different.”

With every person who speaks this truth, the stronger the “permission structure” becomes in the broader culture, she argues.

“Yes, we need legislation. We need state legislation; we need national legislation to reify Title IX. But I think when we win the cultural battle is when we actually win,” she tells Deace.

He agrees and reiterates the need for people to have enough courage to endure public shaming if necessary — especially “dads at school board meetings” and “young women [willing] to say, ‘I refuse to take part in this charade.’”

Sey agrees that men specifically need to join the movement. “We need way more men in this fight. … We need moms to do it too, but dads have been particularly absent in this fight.”

While she agrees that young female athletes should take a stand for their own rights, she is unwilling to ask them to forgo competing in order to make a statement.

“How do I tell a 14-year-old girl that she needs to do it when a professional athlete with all the money in the world won’t do it because she’s afraid of losing endorsements?” she asks.

“These [professional athletes] are women with enough power and enough influence, and they pull enough dollars in for these brands that I’d be willing to bet that the brands won’t fire them,” Sey continues.

“I want to put the pressure on them more than these 14-year-old girls. They’re the leaders.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Steve deace show, Steve deace, California, Men in women’s sports, Jennifer sey 

For American Christians, biblical accounts of martyrdom can seem far removed from everyday life. And yet some 388 million Christians worldwide face high levels of persecution or discrimination — from imprisonment and government surveillance to mob violence and social exclusion — for practicing their religion.

Christ never promised his followers a life free from suffering; the New Testament repeatedly warns that persecution is part of the Christian experience. Yet Scripture couples that warning with a command: Christians are not to forget their fellow believers who suffer for the faith.

Few Christians in the United States or Europe will ever face the kinds of pressures endured by believers in North Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, or Armenia.

“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3).

Christians today do respond in many ways, from prayer and advocacy to humanitarian aid and legal assistance. Here are five places where believers face significant challenges in 2026 — and five organizations working on the front lines to support them.

1. North Korea

North Korea remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to follow Christ. While North Korea’s constitution formally guarantees freedom of religion and the government permits a small number of state-controlled churches, independent Christian activity is treated as a threat to the regime. Believers caught with a Bible or participating in unauthorized worship can face imprisonment, forced labor, or worse. In some cases, punishment extends to entire families under the country’s system of collective responsibility.

Organization helping: Open Doors

Founded by the Dutch missionary known as Brother Andrew, Open Doors has spent decades serving Christians living under persecution. The ministry is best known for its annual World Watch List, which tracks countries where Christians face the most severe restrictions.

North Korea again ranked at the top of this year’s installment. The organization supports underground believers through networks operating outside the country, assists defectors, and helps document conditions that would otherwise remain hidden from the outside world.

Open Doors recently published the story of a North Korean Christian who spent more than a decade imprisoned because of his faith before being released. The testimony provided a rare firsthand account from inside the country and reflected the organization’s broader work supporting underground believers and documenting religious persecution that is otherwise difficult to verify from outside North Korea.

2. Nigeria

Nigeria remains one of the deadliest countries in the world for Christians. Islamist extremist groups, armed militants, and recurring attacks on villages have left thousands dead and displaced countless families in recent years. In May, suspected Fulani militants killed five people and abducted several others in attacks on Christian communities in Plateau State, highlighting the persistent insecurity facing many believers.

Organization helping: International Christian Concern

Based in Washington, D.C., International Christian Concern focuses on advocacy, reporting, and direct assistance for persecuted Christians worldwide.

In April 2025, ICC reported that more than 300 Christians had been killed in Nigeria in just over three months. The organization has consistently documented attacks on churches and Christian villages while advocating greater international attention to the crisis.

Last month, ICC released “Nigeria’s $10 Million Genocide Cover-Up,” a report alleging that government officials and international actors have obscured the religious dimensions of violence that has killed tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians over the past two decades.

3. Pakistan

In Pakistan, an accusation of blasphemy against Islam can upend a person’s life long before a verdict is reached. Christians have frequently found themselves among those targeted under the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, while recent investigations have raised concerns about organized networks that allegedly fabricate accusations and profit from the resulting prosecutions.

Organization helping: Voice of the Martyrs

Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who spent 14 years imprisoned by the communist regime for his Christian faith before escaping to the West and launching a ministry dedicated to serving persecuted believers.

Because many of the Christians it serves live in dangerous environments, the organization often withholds names and identifying details from public reports.

In September 2025, Voice of the Martyrs Radio featured Pakistani Christian scholar Dr. Yousaf Sadiq discussing efforts to preserve and distribute the Punjabi Psalter, a collection of Scripture-based worship songs used by Christians in Pakistan. The project was presented as one way of strengthening believers living under pressure. VOM has also highlighted cases involving Christians accused under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and encouraged prayer for imprisoned believers.

4. China

Unlike North Korea, China does not ban Christianity outright. Instead, the government seeks to control it. Churches are expected to submit to state oversight, religious leaders face pressure to promote Communist Party priorities, and believers who resist can find themselves under surveillance or behind bars.

Organization helping: Aid to the Church in Need

Aid to the Church in Need is a Catholic pontifical foundation that supports clergy, seminarians, religious communities, and Christian families in countries facing hardship or persecution.

Like many ministries operating in sensitive regions, ACN does not always disclose detailed information about beneficiaries or projects in countries where publicity could place local Christians at risk.

This year, Aid to the Church in Need spotlighted the case of Jimmy Lai, the imprisoned Hong Kong Catholic publisher and pro-democracy activist serving a 20-year sentence under Hong Kong’s national security law. Through interviews with Lai’s family and its “Faith Under Siege” podcast, ACN has helped keep international attention focused on one of the world’s most prominent Christian prisoners of conscience.

RELATED: 5 pro athletes who boldly take a knee — for Jesus Christ

Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

5. Armenia

Armenia is one of the world’s oldest Christian nations and the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as its official religion. But recent disputes between the government and the Armenian Apostolic Church have prompted warnings from religious-freedom advocates who say one of Christianity’s oldest institutions faces mounting political pressure.

Unlike North Korea, Nigeria, or Pakistan, the concern in Armenia is not mass violence against Christians but an increasingly contentious relationship between the state and the church that has shaped Armenian identity for more than 1,700 years.

Organization helping: Christian Solidarity International

Christian Solidarity International, a Switzerland-based human rights organization, advocates on behalf of persecuted religious minorities around the world.

In 2026, CSI conducted a fact-finding mission in Armenia, where its delegation met with imprisoned Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan after negotiating access with Armenian authorities. The group later delivered letters from the archbishop to participants at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, released a report on alleged state persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and urged Western governments to raise concerns about detained clergy and religious freedom in Armenia.

Remembering the forgotten church

Few Christians in the United States or Europe will ever face the kinds of pressures endured by believers in North Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, or Armenia. Yet their stories serve as a reminder of both the cost of discipleship and the fragility of religious freedom in a fallen world. They also challenge Christians elsewhere not to forget their brothers and sisters in Christ.

As the Apostle Paul reminded the early Church, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

​Armenia, China, Discrimination, Faith, Martyrdom, Nigeria, Persecution, Religious freedom, World watch list, North korea, Charity, Lifestyle 

Who kills more black males than anyone else? Other black males.

That is why the available data should tell you that if you are the parent of a black son, you should be far more concerned about what other young black men may do to him than what race-baiters and grievance-mongers may have to say about the Karmelo Anthony verdict.

We are tired of the fake black bravado culture that costs young men their lives and then demands that everyone else pretend the killer is the victim.

A jury in Texas deliberated for less than three hours this week before declaring Anthony guilty of first-degree murder for stabbing Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet last year. The judge sentenced the 19-year-old to 35 years in prison.

Justice was done. The facts are clear. And since this is 2026, not 1956, I am strenuously declaring any attempt to build an indefinite period of racial grievance around this case unavailable for the historically aggrieved. Those days are over.

I do not owe anyone moral deference because of skin color. I owe my neighbor love. I owe him fairness. I owe him the truth. I owe him the same moral standard I owe every other neighbor.

That cuts in every direction. You might be black, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight, male, female, rich, poor, Christian, atheist, or whatever. None of it gives you permission to stab another young man and then demand that the country treat you as the victim.

My ancestors were so-called greasy Catholic dago wops who arrived with little, lived in real ghettos, worked thankless jobs, had children, and actually made their way in America in spite of it all. My mother had a kid at 15 — me — earned a GED, went to college, and improved her life. I was on food stamps and government cheese before we made our way forward together.

I owe you nothing.

The race-baiting Jezebel Jasmine Crockett has lived a far more privileged life than my mother or I ever did. She happens to be black, but I’m way more ghetto than she is.

So we’re done with her nonsense. The incendiary name-calling no longer works the way it once did. Americans under 60 are not moved by every accusation of racism. Many younger white male voters now respond with open contempt when activists try to turn criminal cases into racial theater. They don’t care — and they can’t wait to tell you so.

We are tired of the fake black bravado culture that costs young men their lives and then demands that everyone else pretend the killer is the victim. You do not get to stab someone because your feelings were hurt. You do not get to talk yourself into violence and then ask the public to blame society for your choices.

Two young men are gone from their families in different ways. One is dead. One will spend much of his life in prison. Both outcomes are terrible. Neither outcome can be fixed by pretending that race explains away responsibility.

If you are black in America, you face a choice: Are you black or are you American? It’s your call, and I’m praying you make the right one, because this nation needs all the loyal patriots it can get right now.

RELATED: White-hating agitator claiming Karmelo Anthony was ‘legally lynched’ is a criminal, disgraced ex-judge

LeoPatrizi/iStock/Getty Images

But if you make the wrong decision, please know that your fate will be yours and yours alone. We’ve run out of patience with any racial decadence, disarray, and deviance. We have no time to coddle you as we try to save what’s left of this culture. Try being a better human.

If a black male is more likely to be assaulted by a black male and a white male is more likely to be assaulted by a black male, then you’re only left with two options as to why that is the case: Either Charles Darwin was right about some races being favored over others — his book “Descent of Man” is the guidebook for modern eugenics and one of the most racist things you’ll ever read — or you can believe that despite being made in the likeness and image of God like the rest of us, modern black culture just sucks and we’re tired of paying for it.

For the record, I believe the latter. Either way, it’s 2026, and the time for a reckoning is at hand. It’s your sin, not mine. Take responsibility for your actions. Stop wasting your life. Leave the ghetto behind.

The choice is yours.

So are the consequences.

​Opinion & analysis, Karmelo anthony, Racism, Grievance, Crime, Austin metcalf, Texas, Murder trial, Morality, Charles darwin, Jasmine crockett 

Do you have young people in your life who can’t figure out how to make “food happen” without overspending on DoorDash? Are you alarmed about the lack of basic cooking, shopping, and life skills in the teen-to-30 set?

I’m here to help anyone willing to learn. I have no illusions that many of my readers are under 50, but you fellow middle-agers might want to clip this piece for your grandchildren who could benefit from some basic home economics.

Equipping your first kitchen in your first apartment is not only affordable, it’s downright cheap. That is, if one is willing to buy used.

Below, we’re going to talk about setting up your first kitchen on a budget. Then I’m going to throw in two easy, cheap recipes that even the most reluctant would-be cook can master.

DoorDash math

Before we get to the practical advice, let’s describe the problem. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Open social media, and you’ll find young people who believe that fast food or DoorDash is cheaper than buying groceries and cooking.

The illiteracy and innumeracy of so many members of the Gen Z cohort is not an exaggeration, and it’s not a joke. It’s also not “just them being naive on social media.” If the responses to online discussions about food cost are to be believed, it’s actually true that millions of young people are so innumerate they’re never going to be able to cover their daily living expenses.

This is hard to explain because it’s nonsensical.

Take this X post that shows the unit cost of a burger and fries meal bought from a fast food joint compared to the unit cost of buying the ingredients and making the food at home. The fast food meal costs $14.99 and feeds one person. The homemade version using ingredients from the store comes out to $5.43 per person, yielding four meals.

So far, so obvious, right? Wrong. Take a tour of the responses to that post and find young people who say that, no, the groceries actually cost more than the fast food meal. How? They add up the total cost of all the groceries instead of comparing the unit per-meal cost when you divide the grocery bill among the four meals it yields.

Frozen assets

That’s how bad off the kids are. Even more, young responders seem not to understand that you can store leftovers.

This one is representative: “The point is. If you’re a single person. As most young people are now. It is cheaper to get the fast food than to get the groceries. Make one meal and watch the rest rot, or be forced to eat cheeseburgers every night for a week.”

Make one meal and watch the rest rot? Why let it rot instead of eating the leftovers or putting them in the freezer? We see why right there in the text: This young’un thinks it’s unbearable to be “forced to eat cheeseburgers every night.”

After trying my best to explain reality to these children using unit price comparisons, I gave up. They want a luxurious convenience lifestyle, and they’ll defend that desire to the point of absurdity.

But there are also many Gen Z people who could budget their money more wisely by returning to basic home cooking and self-sufficiency like we older people remember. The trouble is that they haven’t been taught. Their parents didn’t teach them household management, and schools dropped home economics. The young have been trained by culture and social media to believe everything is too expensive and that they’re powerless to do anything about it.

That means it’s on us older people to give some remedial home and life training. Think of this piece as the first installment of Uncle Josh’s Finishing School for Generation Z.

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Josh Slocum

Make frugality great again

Equipping your first kitchen in your first apartment is not only affordable, it’s downright cheap. That is, if one is willing to buy used instead of insisting on having brand-new for no good reason.

You can often buy kitchenware at thrift stores for about one-quarter the price of new. Like most of my generation, I equipped my first apartment at thrift stores. As a homeowner in my 50s, more than half my house is secondhand goods.

Basic kitchen equipment

This assumes you have a stove and fridge, as almost every apartment does. If not, an electric burner or two can be bought for $20 to $50. A dorm-size fridge can be bought secondhand for about $75.

Once you have those covered, I recommend:

1 large skillet1 large sauce pan with lid1 small sauce pan with lid1 large pot big enough for boiling pasta or making soup, with lid2-3 mixing bowls1 spatula1 pair of tongs1 good chef’s knife for cutting meat and vegetables1 drainer/colander1 cutting board3-4 assorted wooden spoonsEnough plates, glasses, and flatware to serve 4

At any thrift store I’ve been to recently, you can buy everything above for a total of less than $50, maybe a lot less.

From here you can buy additional pans, utensils, and more as needed. But this basic setup is enough to make many meals, including the two recipes that follow.

Cheap and cheerful

My mother started teaching me how to cook when I was about 8 or 9 years old. This used to be considered normal, and it should be now. If the young person in your life doesn’t know how to cook, these are great places to start. Anyone who can follow directions can make these meals. They’re tasty and nutritious, and they’re inexpensive.

I will use typical prices at my local grocery stores to estimate per-meal cost. My calculation will give a final per-serving cost. Leftover bulk ingredients can be used for other dishes, or frozen and stored for later meals.

Each recipe assumes four servings, but you’re likely to get six in reality.

Bean and sausage stew

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound dried beans such as navy or white beans ($2)1 pound Italian sausage ($6)1 medium onion (89 cents)2 stalks celery (about $2 for a whole bunch, use two stalks)1 bay leaf (about $5 per jar, about 20 leaves per jar)Olive oil for sautéing (negligible cost on a per-serving basis)Salt and pepper (essentially free on a per-serving basis)

PREPARATION:

Put the dried beans in a large pot and add about twice as much water as beans by volume. (The beans will expand and absorb much of the water.)

Salt the water well and add the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about one and a half hours. Stir occasionally, and check for doneness by biting into a bean.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet with some olive oil on low to medium heat. Chop the onion and celery. Crumble the sausage into the pan and add the onion. Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring, until sausage is cooked through and vegetables are softened.

Add the sausage and vegetable mixture to the simmering beans for the last 15 to 30 minutes of cooking time.

When the soup is done (beans are soft), finish it off with a bit of cream for a hearty stew. Hot sauce is also nice. This goes well with a green salad and crusty bread with butter.

Estimated cost per serving: $2.65

Baked chicken, potatoes, and fresh vegetables

This is the kind of cooking I was raised on, and I still cook this way. Working in restaurants taught me fancier exotic dishes, and I like them too. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve returned to American home cooking as a mainstay. Plain food, cooked well and nicely seasoned, will never steer you wrong. The price is right, it tastes good, it’s good for you, and it fills you up.

You can use this paradigm of meat-starch-vegetable with any kind of meat.

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds chicken legs, or thighs and drumsticks ($4)1 pound fresh carrots, peeled and cut into sticks or pennies ($3)2 large russet potatoes cut into 1.5-inch chunks ($2)Olive oil to coat the bottom of a large glass baking pan (negligible)McCormick Montreal Chicken Seasoning (about $5 per jar)Salt and pepper for the vegetables (negligible)

PREPARATION:

Coat a large glass baking dish with olive oil.

Season the outside of the chicken with the Montreal seasoning. Then, work your finger under the skin and pull it back. Season under the skin.

Take your potatoes and carrots and toss them by hand in the olive oil until they’re coated.

Place the chicken and vegetables all in the same baking dish, and bake at about 375 degrees for about half an hour. You’ll know it’s done when the chicken juices run clear and the skin is getting golden brown. Don’t worry about exact timing; this is forgiving.

Estimated cost per serving: $2.75

Bon appetit!

​Lifestyle, Cooking, Home economics, Home cooking, Intervention