Jonathan Tony

Author. Speaker. That Guy Standing Behind You at the ATM.

Worst Book Launch Ever

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Do you have your copy yet? Get it here!

I managed to pull off the worst book launch of all time. I was planning on launching it today and was going to have everything prepared. I was getting my final book edits in and making sure it would be available on Kindle and things like that. Then Thursday night I was watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with my wife and got a text from my friend Andrea showing me how she was looking at my book on Amazon.

I leaped off the couch in a panic and told my wife, “I didn’t know it was already up! I didn’t know!” like I was a horrible Paul Revere.

I went to Amazon and sure enough, the print version was up. So I decided, “Well, I guess it’s time.” I posted on Facebook and Twitter about how it was already up and then did a Live Cast on Facebook, and it was also my first time trying that out. That was fun, though.

Then the next day I was still trying to get the word out and noticed a few errors in the print version I had received for final checks. So I wanted to upload a new version with everything fixed before any more books were sold. I didn’t realize Amazon takes down your current version until the new version is approved, and that takes about 24 hours.

So I managed to not know my book was launched, decide to promote it, and then when people were actually ready to get it I was able to deny them that opportunity and ruin any momentum I had going for me.

I suppose it’s worth noting I have a degree in advertising.

After all of the madness and mistakes, you can now order it in print or on Kindle right here. Clearly I need help in promoting this thing because I don’t know what I’m doing.

The only hope this book has is you sharing it and writing a review on Amazon. If we get enough reviews, Amazon will start to bump it up on different lists and it will become more noticeable. I’m not trying to guilt anyone. This book isn’t going to make me rich and my family will have food and shelter whether anyone buys it or not, I have a great day job.

The reason it got written is because you read my blogs. You told me it was a book worth writing. This is your thing, too. And even though my name is on the cover, it really, truly is not about me. I mean shoot, I can’t even launch this book without making huge mistakes on day one.

So are you in? Let’s do this!

You can order your copy here.

Refugees and Angry Thumbs

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map-of-the-world-1005413_1280I’m pretty messed up right now after the Paris attacks and reading about the refugee crisis. It’s been going on for months now but has just really started trending because they might come to the U.S.

Every time an issue like this comes up, people get angry. And many times rightfully so. I love seeing people’s hearts moved. The problem is, it’s usually just their hearts that are moving. Not the rest of their bodies.

It’s easy to post your frustration and anger.

Anger makes us feel like we’re doing something. Our adrenaline is pumping. We’re fired up. But we’re not doing anything except adding noise.

The refugees are trending right now, but a while back #Kony2012 was trending. That’s still going on, by the way. What happened to the hashtags and articles?

Sadly, the refugees will eventually stop trending and these people will be forgotten about and we’ll move on to the next big news story. We’ll find a new subject to be angry about.

I read things that make me upset, but I have to hold my tongue from blasting other people, or the government, for not doing anything about it when I’m sitting at home on my couch letting my thumbs do the work.

I’m tired of listening to people who don’t get their hands dirty. You lose your credibility when all you do is complain. There are people who are vocal about tons of issues, but they come home and watch Netflix every night.

What if we started actually doing something more than sharing information? What if we got our hands dirty?

You want the United States to open its doors? Good. Have you opened your doors?

If you’re not helping the poor right now, you’re not going to all of a sudden start when the refugees get here.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t share your opinions about world issues just because you’re not involved in every single one. All the needs of the world are too great for you to tackle. But when you’re not doing anything about anything, then you aren’t making a difference, no matter how angry you feel.

I can’t do something about everything. But I can do something about something.

I’ve been convicted about this so I talked to my wife. We’ve decided to choose two specific needs to get behind. Not that we won’t ever give money for wells for Guatemala or donate blood at the next drive, but we can’t do something about everything. We need to focus our energy.

I want to move past anger and frustration towards others and get my hands dirty, not just my thumbs.


Let’s Talk About Prison

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What comes to your mind when you think of prison? For most people, all they can pull from is what they’ve seen in TV and movies. Shows like Prison Break. Movies like Shawshank Redemption. Or even Prison Mike from The Office.

The truth is that most of the depictions we see are far from accurate. While I was living in Gainesville, FL, I went once a week into a county prison with some men from church. Even now, I still go to other prisons around North Central Florida with the same group.

When we think about prison, we think of gang members, rapists and murderers. And while there are definitely those types of people in prison, there are also men and women who are not bad people. They’re just bad decision makers.

It’s easy to grow up in your safe neighborhood, drive a car your dad paid for, get your way paid through college and then come out the other end and look down on the kinds of people who end up in prison. You think things like, “Well, they should have made better choices.” And you’re right, they should have. But your vision is only viewed through a filter of privilege.

Most privileged people don’t like to think of themselves as privileged because it would suggest they didn’t receive everything they have because of their hard work and abilities. And while hard work is definitely a factor, the truth is many successful people today could have had completely different stories if they had grown up in different situations with different parents in a different neighborhood.

I was on reduced lunch in high school at what many in my hometown of Ocala refer to as the ghetto school, and I still consider myself privileged. To me, privileged doesn’t just mean you had rich parents or grandparents. It can be identified by something as simple as, “Did your mom go over spelling words with you at night and check your homework?” My mom did. Part of my privilege was the attentiveness of the parents I had. Many people in prison had to raise themselves, and maybe a few brothers and sisters as well.

The U.S. currently has 2.4 million men and women in prison. A report by the organization, “The Price of Prisons,” states that the cost of incarcerating one inmate in Fiscal 2010 was $31,307 per year. “In states like Connecticut, Washington state, New York, it’s anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000,” it reads.

Think about this: my first year out of college, I made about $18,000 as a valet at a hospital. I would have been worth more in prison. If that doesn’t make you at least want to reconsider what is happening in our justice system, then please stop reading here.

I’m not suggesting people receive literal Get Out of Jail Free cards, but many in prison have served their time long enough and possibly shouldn’t have even been there to begin with. And I’m glad to see the Obama administration drawing some attention to this lately. There are petty crimes that put men and women behind bars that we really need to reassess as a country.

Many prisoners need to be in prison. Many get out on what I feel is far too early of a sentence. Part of me thinks some people need harsher punishments. Maybe bring back Alcatraz for some of these horrible offenders. Honestly, I have a tough time being sympathetic to wicked people.

Still, many are just decent people who made bad decisions. I know because I’ve met with many of the men. I’ve laughed with them. I’ve prayed with them. Week after week, I would go in behind the razorwire to encourage my brothers in Christ, and I would leave encouraged by them. They would shake my hand and hug me and tell me they were pulling for me in my circumstances at the time.

What if you got caught stealing money out of your mom’s purse when you were a kid and she sent you to time out for 40 years? That seems insane, right? It’s not how you discipline and change a child. Discipline is meant to correct a behavior, not for endless punishment.

We need organizations like House of Hope in Gainesville, FL. Programs like these help prisoners transition back into society after being disconnected from it. They help them find jobs, get their stuff together and start contributing to their communities again. I am close with a few guys who went through the program and they are some of the best men Gainesville has to offer right now.

What if they would have just gone back into their old lives right after prison? Odds are they would not be hard working, tax paying contributors to their society with beautiful families. They could have easily ended up back behind bars.

The term recidivism refers to someone’s relapse back into crime, and it is often after they have already served time. Look at these stats on it:

  • Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.
  • Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.
  • Of those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of the first year.

My message to you today is not to tell you that you should be doing more about this. It’s not even to promote the House of Hope, though I wish you would consider donating or getting involved somehow.

All I am asking is for us to take a step back away from our preconceived ideas about prison and what our perceptions of the types of people who end up in prison are. The truth is, many of us could have ended up there if we’d been caught. And many more could have not ended up there had they had someone in their lives to help them make better decisions.

It’s as simple as that.


Baltimore: Put Away Your Sword

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Here we are again, America. Another city burning cars and burning with anger. Where does the rage come from? Has it been building up for years and is finally breaking like a dam under the pressure? Or is it human emotion lost in another miscommunicated cause that somehow managed to pick up steam?

You can find many opinions online right now about whatever reasoning you want to hear. As for me, I don’t claim to have an answer on this. I’m a white, middle-class man who lives in Florida. There are so many words in that last sentence that disconnect me from having an truly informed view in the way a black, lower class man begging to have his voice heard in the middle of Baltimore has right now. It disconnects me from the white police officer trying to do his job wondering if he’ll make it home alive.

Rioting always baffles me. I’ve never rioted. The SEC wouldn’t even let football fans on the field after we won big games. The most rioting I’ve ever done was when I accidentally knocked over a gumball machine I was climbing on at the Pic-n-Save when I was four. I’ve never really understood why people riot in the communities they live in and burn down their own establishments. Pirates of the Caribbean burning down towns makes sense to me. They didn’t live there; what did they care? But to destroy your own neighborhood is like covering your bed in hot coals and then jumping in.

A lot of people will oppose riots and make blanket statements about an entire race of people, yet we see riots all the time. They just aren’t riots with burning cars and looting. They are verbal riots. As a Christian, I see it in the Christian community constantly. We tear each other down, belittle others and spit out what can only be the result of an overflow of pride in our hearts. If you look at situations like Baltimore right now and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is your opinion, you have a pride issue. I know because I have one, too.

Hey Christians, you’re allowed to be angry. You’re allowed to have an opinion. You’re even allowed to voice your opinion. There are times to make statements, and there are times to fight back. But before you go laying into the masses and generalizing beyond control, consider your professed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who told his followers to put away their swords.

An angry mob came against Jesus the night he was put on trial, and his right-hand-man Peter chopped off a guy’s ear. Peter was ready to throw down, and I probably would have been, too. It’s a gut reaction for most humans to stand our ground. But Jesus told him to put down the sword, and then he healed the ear of one of the men coming to take him away to die.

What do we do with that? Seriously. Does that not make your brain hurt? We have a leader who, while on the cross, pleaded for mercy on his murderers.

I believe a misconception with Christianity is that we all must be pushovers. That’s what turning the other cheek means. I disagree. I believe we should be anything but pushovers and we should be the loudest voices of all.

Just not the loudest voices for our own opinions. Not the loudest voices for our pride. We are to scream love at the top of our lungs in whatever voice we have been given.

Proverbs 31:8
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.

If someone does something wrong and you do not participate, it doesn’t automatically make you right. I’m beginning to believe justice isn’t as simple as a two-sided coin of right and wrong. We’re dealing with complicated matters in complicated times. Now more than ever we must be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. (James 1:19)

The world needs your voice. It just may not need your message.


Understanding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

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I’ve been watching Keith Hughes videos for a while and I really love how he breaks things down. It’s hard to find unbiased facts and discussion these days, but he seems to do all he can t0 keep it between party lines. He breaks down what is going on in Indiana and across the country recently in this video. I listen to them while I’m running or driving, so you don’t have to sit there and watch it and you can still learn something.

This stuff is important, and I hope you get something out of it!

American Filter

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Welcome to America. We gave you the transistor radio, the automobile, the musical Rent, and all the paranoia you can stomach. And Taco Bell, which is also hard to stomach.

America is the land of opportunity. The land envisioned by our forefathers where men and women would live free to think and worship as they pleased. For the most part, we do. We have been given the incredible gifts of freedom and opportunity. Yet, as with any gift humanity receives, we abuse them.

People love to debate. People love to belittle others. People love sounding intelligent. So naturally, arguing with strangers on the Internet makes the most sense for many people.

Religion. The Middle East. Politics. Dancing with the Stars. You name it, people are arguing about it. What makes us want to argue? What makes us feel educated enough to present statements of opinion like they are scientific facts?

I’d answer simply: Pride. But we mustn’t forget stupidity, which is also a key factor.

Americans are only able to see the rest of the world and even experience the rest of the world in short bursts. We go to college. We go on mission trips. We watch a documentary on Discovery Channel. We gather and gather information, but we gather it as Americans. We can’t help it; it’s who we are.

I’m not saying people aren’t educated or that experiencing a culture first hand is worthless. It’s just that no matter what you see or where you go, you always will experience the rest of the world as an American. And as such, we view everything through an American filter.

I think it is nearly impossible to make general statements about the condition of the world as it relates to America. You can’t use European countries’ methods as evidence that the same practices will work identically in the states. Europe has countries that are the size of Indiana. Sure, we can learn from what they may be experiencing, but it can’t be solid evidence as to how it would play out here. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

This applies to religion, too. There are American Christians and there are Chinese Christians. There are Muslims who attend Ohio State studying anthropology, and there are Muslims in Pakistan. While the sacred texts these groups study are the same, the cultures are not.

We see everything through a filter. And that filter even changes over time in regards to America and our way of life. Immigration today is not the immigration of the early 1900s. Times change. Cultures change. We must acknowledge that changes and differences exist and will continue to.

My sister and I didn’t grow up with any pets. We just weren’t used to animals and didn’t care to live with them or without them. My mom got a puppy a few years ago and became a super dog person. My sister and I still were not.

When she went down to visit my mom, she told me, “It was ridiculous. Mom let the dog jump all over the furniture. I couldn’t take it.” Then my sister got herself a puppy. I went over to her house to see the new puppy and she assured me that her dog would not be jumping on the furniture.

I came back two weeks later and there were blankets all over the couch. She looked at me and said, “Yeah, I know… I gave up. I’m as bad as Mom.”

The same thing happens all the time with people who haven’t had kids yet. You start with one very clear opinion that you are sure of, then you have kids and you go back on everything you said because you didn’t really know what you were talking about.

Those strong opinions are viewed through personal filters. It’s the same with world issues. It’s not that we don’t have hard facts, or that we didn’t do a lot of homework. We just instinctively see everything through our American filter.

What are civil rights to us may be a high privilege to those in other countries. What are bare necessities to us may be luxuries to third world nations. You can rattle off statistics, but you can’t truly experience and understand a statistic that you are not a part of.

Do we really know what is best for the rest of the world? Does the world need more America in their lives?


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