Not All Deals in your Feed are Legitimate

By: Shona M. Dennis M.Div

There are times when we must speak the truth, things people NEED to hear that they don’t want to hear so they can’t keep protecting themselves. Inviting them into what they can’t see, hear, or understand and giving them small steps and new insights.

Click, Connect, and Collect are buttons and links we press to the things that attract, appeal, and get our attention. Nowadays, so much artificial intelligence is working to develop new algorithms to get attention. They say if you say anything loud and long enough folks will start to believe it.

The new currency today is ATTENTION. That’s the distraction, marketing ads, customized pitches, creation of more digital products, endless masterclasses, and social media agenda that gives too much airtime and cultural space to folks seeking attention. Our life now is one constant never-ending stream of self-referential garbage that passes in through our eyes and out of our brains at the speed of a touchscreen, the tv, and the marketplace of the world.

Concerning moral accountability not many have the self-control to look away, the bite-sized content spreads like wildfire, creating an in-home & online experience of a never-ending series of cultural car wrecks where we all gawk, ooh & aww discuss, and/or make fun of something for 12 minutes until distracted by the next oncoming collision.

Click, Connect, Collect is robbing folks of their time, focus, integrity, honesty, and ability to get important things done in their lives and pay attention to the things and people that need their attention.

Modern technology is changing us and society. It’s changing how we are and react every day to the world around us. The age of attention is changing the basic economics of our day-to-day lives. It’s changing them in profound ways, ways that most of us likely don’t notice that our Attention is being SOLD

Isa1:1-6 The Lord has spoken, the animals know their master/creator, Israel does not understand. Your whole head is injured, your whole heart is afflicted, from the sole of your feet to the top of your head there is no soundness, only wounds, welts, and opened sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.

Because our Attention is being sold, more and more folks are turning to alternatives besides the ALMIGHTY God for soundness, solutions, soul, spirit, salvation, and SIN issues. Creating more cycles of trauma daily. Keeping folks from rising to the level of God but falling to the level of the system, machine, and matrix. King David said I will look to the hills from which comes my help.

The fields of advertising and marketing have been invented and have come to dominate society, as means of disseminating the information people need to allocate their resources appropriately. These same fields have become a way of promoting and destroying lives.

In fact, there is now more information than any of us could possibly know what to do with.

Dan 12:4 concerns the end times. God tells Daniel to close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase their knowledge.

2 Tim 3:7 says people will be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth

No, the new scarcity in the internet age is attention. Since there is a surplus of information, more information flowing through our society than any of us could ever hope to process or understand, the new bottleneck in our economy is attention. We now live in an attention-based economy.10

Chief Warrant Officer Five (Ret)

David Williams Appointed by GEN Raymond T. Odierno in 2014, CW5 David Williams served as the Army’s first Army Staff Senior Warrant Officer (ARSTAF SWO) from 14 March 2014 to 11 July 2016. As the ARSTAF SWO, he provided the Chief of Staff of the Army with subject matter expertise on all aspects of warrant officer training and development. In 2017, CW5 Williams retired from the Army with over 39 years of Active Federal Service.

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Prior to his selection as the ARSTAF SWO, CW5 Williams served in multiple broadening positions including Officer Education Branch Chief, HQDA G-3/5/7, Pentagon, Washington, D.C; Program Manager, Warrant Officer Training Programs and Chief, Army Training Requirements and Resources System, Leader Development Division, Human Resources Command, Alexandria, VA; Commander, 1 st Warrant Officer Company; Small Group Instructor, Advanced Studies Branch, Warrant Officer Career College; and as the Senior Training, Advising, and Counseling (TAC) Officer at Fort Rucker, AL.

CW5 Williams is currently creating a mentorship and coaching foundation which is expected to launch in 2023.

Chief Warrant Officer Four (Ret)

Farrell J. Chiles served on Active Duty and in the Army Reserve for a total of 38 years. He was drafted in 1970 and served two campaigns in Vietnam. As a Reservist, he was mobilized for a year for Operation Enduring Freedom (2004-2005). His primary MOS was Legal Administrator (270A). Farrell Chiles is active in several community and professional organizations. He served five consecutive years as Chairman of the Board of the National Organization of Blacks In Government (BIG)) and seven years on the Board of Directors of the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation in the capacity of its Vice President for Resource Development. Farrell is the author of five books, including four on African American Warrant Officers.

He is a Vietnam veteran and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom. Mr. Chiles is the author of several books like, As Big As It Gets and African American Warrant Officers (Their Remarkable History) to name a few. His writings provide insights to the history of the Warrant Officers, rich in their achievements and contributions to the United States Army. Mr. Chiles served as Chairman of the Board of Blacks in Government (BIG) and as Vice President for Resource Development for the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation. Mr. Chiles currently is an appointed commissioner on the County of Los Angeles Consumer Affairs Advisory Commission, volunteers reading time to students, and shares African American collections at libraries and museums.

Farrell J. Chiles Legacy Award - Established in 2022 in honor of Chief Warrant Officer (Retired) Farrell J. Chiles, who served in the United States Army Reserves honorably for 38 years. The recipient of the Farrell J. Chiles Award of Distinction embodies good character and leadership while serving in the military and as a civilian within the community. Additionally, the recipient must have significant contributions to the African American community.

Chief Warrant Officer Five (R) Roy “Big Ruck” Rucker. Roy was born and raised in the small, Mississippi Delta town of Panther Burn in 1971. He is a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 (CW5) and an astute serial entrepreneur and businessman, having over 25 years of business experience in various markets.

Roy’s 30+ years of Army service afforded him the opportunity to lead at all levels, as well as allowing him to serve in diverse locations geographically dispersed around the world. His last official Army assignment was serving as the

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Chief Technology Officer for a 147,000-member organization that spans the entire Pacific Region from Alaska to Australia and also as the Senior Warrant Officer Adviser to the Commanding General of the United States Army Pacific, with responsibility for 3,037 Warrant Officers in the entire Pacific Theatre of Operations. He retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 5 on October 31, 2018.

Roy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College, a Master of Science degree in Leadership and Management from Amridge University, and is currently a candidate for a Doctor of Business Administration degree in Leadership from Walden University. Roy is a certified Director of Information Management, certified ITIL Foundation and Intermediate for the Lifecycle Tract, and various other IT and Leadership qualifications/ certifications. Roy currently resides in Rockwall, TX with his wife, Monifa (27-year retired Army Veteran and CW4), and daughter, Rylee.

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Chief Warrant Officer (Ret) James Earl Davis

It’s not every day that a black-owned franchise opens for business, specifically restaurant franchises. But for James Earl Davis, the founder, CEO, and president of WafflezNCreamz, you could say it’s in his blood. Through the creation of the southern fast-casual concept centered around the “Best ChickenNWafflez in Town”, he is a third-generation business and restaurant owner following in the phenomenal footsteps of his mother and grandfather.

James is also the CEO and President of Topwings, Inc. formed in 2000 doing business as

Wingstop in three locations in the Houston metroplex in Humble, Tomball, and Veterans Memorial in the Food Town shopping center.