When you think about the elction this year. Think about the fact that most people in this country are struggling. Struggling to make ends meet. Struggling to stay above water as the bills come in faster and faster without reasoning. When a family cannot afford medical insurance because they don't meet a determined allotment for what your income needs to be below.
Its exactly the same as saying to someone who is hungry that they can havea cracker because that will help with the hunger pain.
That is why 8 more years of Republican rule is not an option. We cannot elect Sen McCain.
There is no one that I know that has done better in the last 8 years. In fact, everyone I know, no matter the religion, race or creed has only succeeded in one thin. It is being deeper in debt.
That is not fair for what we were promised if we served, acted, voted and did what was expected.
I leave you with the quote from Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech last night to ponder.
"America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess."
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Silence so great
The silence around the house is so great sometimes.
Death of a parent teaches you lessons about yourself. You never really know you can feel until that moment arrives. It's a hurt that is so deep within you that you wish you could just stick your hand inside and pull it out. You want to know why the sun still rises and sets. You want to know how people can laugh and smile when you feel as if the mountains should fall and the worlde cease. It is a feeling so deep that you can not express it. You think you wil not be able to stand. I was able to get up the next morning. each day that passes, I think of her. When I walk in the house anxious to inform her of my day's activities it then I realize she is not sitting in her chair. When I get ready for bed. I pass her darkened bedroom,longing to go and sit on her bed and recap as I did every night before bed. Though something odd has begun to happen. I won't tell you that its easy. I won't dare say it doesn't hurt. I will say though.... I am okay.
I look back upon her life and realize that there is such a great story. My mother was a great woman. She raised herself and managed to put herself through school. My younger brother and I were her greatest accomplishments she would always say. Never was there a person who was kinder, loved deeper or was more sincere than my mother.
It has only been 3 weeks and 2 days. I think about her every second of each day but not in a sad way. The way she fought the awful disease of COPD should be commended. She fought with every fiber of her body and I know she did it for me, my brother and my dad. Always known to be a tough customer she tried her best but at the end the disease just ravaged her.
I have no regrets as I told her I loved her and I knew she understood it on that Sunday evening before I left to go home. I was there as much as I could be at the hospital. Every day after work I went. Each day the news from the doctors grew more dire and dire. Yet I hoped beyond all hopes that they could fix her. I prayed ever the more fervently that they could cure her.
To no avail my prayers were not answered. As my dad and I drove up and down Atlantic Avenue for the month of July in my car the silence between us spoke volumes. It was the moments that we did not speak that made us realize what we knew was surely coming. We tried to remind each other of what a great fighter my mother is. We tried encouraging each other, but in the back of our minds there was always that slight possibility. The possibility that neither of us dared speak.
When the end came it was swift, just like the bible passage. It was truly a thief.
I do not mourn the exit in the road. I mourn the journey that got us to it. I know she knew we loved her. I know she knew that we never left her alone. She loved us. Sometimes she would just hold on to me and my brother's hands as tightly as she could. I really believe that when my Lord calls me home. She will be waiting on the other side, to guide me.
I have said over and over that her last days were very similiar to the crucifixion. For me it was like watching it in real time. As she became weaker and weaker, her body started to fill with fluid and everywhere they went they would draw water not blood. Her breaths grew more and more labored. She thirsted but we could not give her water. She laid in a bed with a trach in her throat asking, almost pleading for a drink of water and we could not give it to her. Often, she would be bowled over with frustration when we said no. Then she requested to go home. Oh, how I wished we could have gotten her home one last time to her bed. It was not to be. On August 5, 2008 she expired. The sun was as bright as it could be and the weather warm. I often find it funny how on the most tragic of days in your life the weather is crystal clear beautiful.
The legacy she leaves is all the wonderful, great things she taught me and my brother, all the people she helped in small and big ways. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is ... bare all things , pray and always move forward and do not ever look back. It's when you look back you trip and fall as you are not looking where you are going.
She knew of love lost and children buried. She knew of great disappointments and awful out comes. She knew of betrayals and loneliness. She knew of great sickness and great tribulation. She knew of great pride and strength. She knew how to love completely with every fiber of her being and what friendship was and what it cost. She survived it all for 69 years.
Too short if you were to ask me. Then again, I am not God. For it is written to everything there is a season.
I end this by saying THANK YOU MOMMA.
I hope I can be half the woman you were.
Death of a parent teaches you lessons about yourself. You never really know you can feel until that moment arrives. It's a hurt that is so deep within you that you wish you could just stick your hand inside and pull it out. You want to know why the sun still rises and sets. You want to know how people can laugh and smile when you feel as if the mountains should fall and the worlde cease. It is a feeling so deep that you can not express it. You think you wil not be able to stand. I was able to get up the next morning. each day that passes, I think of her. When I walk in the house anxious to inform her of my day's activities it then I realize she is not sitting in her chair. When I get ready for bed. I pass her darkened bedroom,longing to go and sit on her bed and recap as I did every night before bed. Though something odd has begun to happen. I won't tell you that its easy. I won't dare say it doesn't hurt. I will say though.... I am okay.
I look back upon her life and realize that there is such a great story. My mother was a great woman. She raised herself and managed to put herself through school. My younger brother and I were her greatest accomplishments she would always say. Never was there a person who was kinder, loved deeper or was more sincere than my mother.
It has only been 3 weeks and 2 days. I think about her every second of each day but not in a sad way. The way she fought the awful disease of COPD should be commended. She fought with every fiber of her body and I know she did it for me, my brother and my dad. Always known to be a tough customer she tried her best but at the end the disease just ravaged her.
I have no regrets as I told her I loved her and I knew she understood it on that Sunday evening before I left to go home. I was there as much as I could be at the hospital. Every day after work I went. Each day the news from the doctors grew more dire and dire. Yet I hoped beyond all hopes that they could fix her. I prayed ever the more fervently that they could cure her.
To no avail my prayers were not answered. As my dad and I drove up and down Atlantic Avenue for the month of July in my car the silence between us spoke volumes. It was the moments that we did not speak that made us realize what we knew was surely coming. We tried to remind each other of what a great fighter my mother is. We tried encouraging each other, but in the back of our minds there was always that slight possibility. The possibility that neither of us dared speak.
When the end came it was swift, just like the bible passage. It was truly a thief.
I do not mourn the exit in the road. I mourn the journey that got us to it. I know she knew we loved her. I know she knew that we never left her alone. She loved us. Sometimes she would just hold on to me and my brother's hands as tightly as she could. I really believe that when my Lord calls me home. She will be waiting on the other side, to guide me.
I have said over and over that her last days were very similiar to the crucifixion. For me it was like watching it in real time. As she became weaker and weaker, her body started to fill with fluid and everywhere they went they would draw water not blood. Her breaths grew more and more labored. She thirsted but we could not give her water. She laid in a bed with a trach in her throat asking, almost pleading for a drink of water and we could not give it to her. Often, she would be bowled over with frustration when we said no. Then she requested to go home. Oh, how I wished we could have gotten her home one last time to her bed. It was not to be. On August 5, 2008 she expired. The sun was as bright as it could be and the weather warm. I often find it funny how on the most tragic of days in your life the weather is crystal clear beautiful.
The legacy she leaves is all the wonderful, great things she taught me and my brother, all the people she helped in small and big ways. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is ... bare all things , pray and always move forward and do not ever look back. It's when you look back you trip and fall as you are not looking where you are going.
She knew of love lost and children buried. She knew of great disappointments and awful out comes. She knew of betrayals and loneliness. She knew of great sickness and great tribulation. She knew of great pride and strength. She knew how to love completely with every fiber of her being and what friendship was and what it cost. She survived it all for 69 years.
Too short if you were to ask me. Then again, I am not God. For it is written to everything there is a season.
I end this by saying THANK YOU MOMMA.
I hope I can be half the woman you were.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wake Up
Wake Up
It’s summer 2008 and there should be a band of pride running through the African American Community not like no other. Regardless to where you stand on the issues, or whether you are going to vote one way or the other you should be proud. You should be living accordingly.
You should be inspired to get off the street corners rolling craps. There is a strong Black Man who made it through college.
You should own up to the children and stop calling the mother of your child “baby’s momma.” There is a single parented Black man heading for the White House.
You should take pride in your appearance. Must every outfit end with a do rag? Must I see you underwear? There is a well dressed Black man campaigning across the country.
You should learn to speak the proper vernacular, as people will listen to you. There is an articulate Black Man speaking to the masses of all nationalities, creeds and religions.
You should want to stand up and make him proud. We are a people of perseverance and not what mass media makes us out to be.
We are not all drug addicted. We are not all illiterate. We are not all the product of the streets. Quit thinking that the only answer to success is by dealing and gang banging.
Why do you need to tag a wall too see your name. Invent something. Write something. You will get to see your name everywhere. Infamy only makes people look at your name with disgust.
I see the elaborate methods you use and the talents that you have to garner cheddar. Imagine if you use those creative smart ways to do something great.
Lose your slave mentality. We have been off the plantation and afforded every opportunity that was ever possible for us if we wanted it. We have a Black man running for President.
Must every answer to an infraction be a bullet? Do you really think that garners you respect. It garners you a real nuisance and negates you. If you really knew any better you would understand that the things that make you truly dangerous is knowledge and building your community. Think about this. Where are the most guns? Who uses them the most? Imagine if this kind of gun play was in a middle class community in Middle America someplace? You can’t right? That’s because it would be shut down!!! Years ago when we were hanging from a tree (not too long ago) no one would defend us and we were relegated to just another “n****”. Aren’t you tired of that yet? Some of us have to work five times as hard to make our mark because every time one of you thinks “crime will pay” our lives become harder.
Every day all across the country there is yet another young man dying, for his hood. You want to fight with a gun in your hand so bad? You want colors to defend. Here is an idea. Go just the Marines, the Air force, the Navy or the Army. They will teach you to use a gun. Give you real colors and teach you what it means to die for your hood. Oh wait you are going to say. “I ain’t gonna go die for someone else.” But, you will ride or die right? Here is an idea how about you ride or die for the real bad boys; the armed forces. Make it though basic training then come back and talk to me.
Stand for something. Don’t be a hero when it will get you zero. Be a hero when people want you to step up and man up. That’s what is missing. Where are the men in our community that will man up and take responsibility for raising the young men of our world? Who will teach them to act right and know what it truly means to be a man. That man doesn’t just procreate and run the streets.
Ladies, think this over. You think its okay to date someone who slings. Right? He has got money and can take care of you. Right? Wrong. That’s not what life is. It is not thinking that because he can buy things for you and drives that car that is all. You are not building a real world. You are not building a future. I guarantee you, if you closed down shop, the guys would act right. Why? They think they impress you with their over the top bravado. I
Drugs, alcoholism and a false lull; that we were okay have ripped our nation in half. It has taken away the pride and the fight we once had. We should be standing taller than we ever have. Do you know that when the founder of this country founded it they never would have envisioned that we would be so educated? That we would be running for President.
Then you listen to music artists and see movies and think. “Oh that’s the way it is in the hood.” Did you ever think that maybe it doesn’t have to be that way? Did you know that there are affluent all African American communities that won’t let you cross the street in them? Did you know that? That’s because you have bought shame and discouragement upon us. Change it. Be part of change. Not part of the status quo.
Think it over… Be proud and act Proud. Don’t wallow in the mud. Wake up!
It’s summer 2008 and there should be a band of pride running through the African American Community not like no other. Regardless to where you stand on the issues, or whether you are going to vote one way or the other you should be proud. You should be living accordingly.
You should be inspired to get off the street corners rolling craps. There is a strong Black Man who made it through college.
You should own up to the children and stop calling the mother of your child “baby’s momma.” There is a single parented Black man heading for the White House.
You should take pride in your appearance. Must every outfit end with a do rag? Must I see you underwear? There is a well dressed Black man campaigning across the country.
You should learn to speak the proper vernacular, as people will listen to you. There is an articulate Black Man speaking to the masses of all nationalities, creeds and religions.
You should want to stand up and make him proud. We are a people of perseverance and not what mass media makes us out to be.
We are not all drug addicted. We are not all illiterate. We are not all the product of the streets. Quit thinking that the only answer to success is by dealing and gang banging.
Why do you need to tag a wall too see your name. Invent something. Write something. You will get to see your name everywhere. Infamy only makes people look at your name with disgust.
I see the elaborate methods you use and the talents that you have to garner cheddar. Imagine if you use those creative smart ways to do something great.
Lose your slave mentality. We have been off the plantation and afforded every opportunity that was ever possible for us if we wanted it. We have a Black man running for President.
Must every answer to an infraction be a bullet? Do you really think that garners you respect. It garners you a real nuisance and negates you. If you really knew any better you would understand that the things that make you truly dangerous is knowledge and building your community. Think about this. Where are the most guns? Who uses them the most? Imagine if this kind of gun play was in a middle class community in Middle America someplace? You can’t right? That’s because it would be shut down!!! Years ago when we were hanging from a tree (not too long ago) no one would defend us and we were relegated to just another “n****”. Aren’t you tired of that yet? Some of us have to work five times as hard to make our mark because every time one of you thinks “crime will pay” our lives become harder.
Every day all across the country there is yet another young man dying, for his hood. You want to fight with a gun in your hand so bad? You want colors to defend. Here is an idea. Go just the Marines, the Air force, the Navy or the Army. They will teach you to use a gun. Give you real colors and teach you what it means to die for your hood. Oh wait you are going to say. “I ain’t gonna go die for someone else.” But, you will ride or die right? Here is an idea how about you ride or die for the real bad boys; the armed forces. Make it though basic training then come back and talk to me.
Stand for something. Don’t be a hero when it will get you zero. Be a hero when people want you to step up and man up. That’s what is missing. Where are the men in our community that will man up and take responsibility for raising the young men of our world? Who will teach them to act right and know what it truly means to be a man. That man doesn’t just procreate and run the streets.
Ladies, think this over. You think its okay to date someone who slings. Right? He has got money and can take care of you. Right? Wrong. That’s not what life is. It is not thinking that because he can buy things for you and drives that car that is all. You are not building a real world. You are not building a future. I guarantee you, if you closed down shop, the guys would act right. Why? They think they impress you with their over the top bravado. I
Drugs, alcoholism and a false lull; that we were okay have ripped our nation in half. It has taken away the pride and the fight we once had. We should be standing taller than we ever have. Do you know that when the founder of this country founded it they never would have envisioned that we would be so educated? That we would be running for President.
Then you listen to music artists and see movies and think. “Oh that’s the way it is in the hood.” Did you ever think that maybe it doesn’t have to be that way? Did you know that there are affluent all African American communities that won’t let you cross the street in them? Did you know that? That’s because you have bought shame and discouragement upon us. Change it. Be part of change. Not part of the status quo.
Think it over… Be proud and act Proud. Don’t wallow in the mud. Wake up!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Don't be a Knucklehaed
Don’t be a Knucklehead
Okay, so we know how the verdict turned out. That does not give you the right to walk around and act a fool today. Think about all the great policemen who have been helpful and continue to be helpful.
Young men, continue your book knowledge. Imagine what you could do with all that creativity and ingenuity that you use to do wrong. It amazes me all the complicated method you create to do wrong. I am sure we could use your brain to do good. This now more than any other time in history is a time for us to hold our head up and look forward.
Young ladies. Be young ladies try and think of something else other than being and purchasing your worth with your bodies. You are worth so much more than that.
Just a little bit or warm weather and you have stripped down to nearly nothing. I am not a prude by any means, nor am that old.
Secondly please stop getting on the subway and discussing the entire intimate details of your friends personal lives. You do not know who is on that train that knows you and your friend. Just suppose she didn’t want to be “outed” you just did. Young men that swearing and using certain words as if they are the only words that you know. Everywhere I go I am seeing the crass and inappropriate language of young people no matter the race, creed, or political background become obnoxious, loud ruffians all the time.
Just don’t be a knucklehead
Okay, so we know how the verdict turned out. That does not give you the right to walk around and act a fool today. Think about all the great policemen who have been helpful and continue to be helpful.
Young men, continue your book knowledge. Imagine what you could do with all that creativity and ingenuity that you use to do wrong. It amazes me all the complicated method you create to do wrong. I am sure we could use your brain to do good. This now more than any other time in history is a time for us to hold our head up and look forward.
Young ladies. Be young ladies try and think of something else other than being and purchasing your worth with your bodies. You are worth so much more than that.
Just a little bit or warm weather and you have stripped down to nearly nothing. I am not a prude by any means, nor am that old.
Secondly please stop getting on the subway and discussing the entire intimate details of your friends personal lives. You do not know who is on that train that knows you and your friend. Just suppose she didn’t want to be “outed” you just did. Young men that swearing and using certain words as if they are the only words that you know. Everywhere I go I am seeing the crass and inappropriate language of young people no matter the race, creed, or political background become obnoxious, loud ruffians all the time.
Just don’t be a knucklehead
Monday, April 21, 2008
Wait she lives!
Wait she lives…
Wow long time no write. When last I left you I was still looking for a job. I found one!
Actually found two. But, I am jumping ahead. My topic for the day. The Holy Father’s visit to New York.
Okay I will admit it; I was a little stand offish as I loved JPII. After seeing him I can say I really LIKE HIM. I was not sure what to expect. After hearing all he said last week. I found new thoughts unleashed. It affirmed all that I believed. See, we all need to plug ourselves in to a socket and re-energize.
Re-energize is what it did. He reminded me that I should live my Faith OUT LOUD.
Sometimes we get comfortable just living day to day wallowing in our own misery. Truth is that we were not made to be alone in thoughts or actions. We are part of a great community that is there to love and foster each other in the bonds of truth.
That is definitely where I am.
So yes I am back. There is so much to write about. Including the annoying state of
Television.
Wow long time no write. When last I left you I was still looking for a job. I found one!
Actually found two. But, I am jumping ahead. My topic for the day. The Holy Father’s visit to New York.
Okay I will admit it; I was a little stand offish as I loved JPII. After seeing him I can say I really LIKE HIM. I was not sure what to expect. After hearing all he said last week. I found new thoughts unleashed. It affirmed all that I believed. See, we all need to plug ourselves in to a socket and re-energize.
Re-energize is what it did. He reminded me that I should live my Faith OUT LOUD.
Sometimes we get comfortable just living day to day wallowing in our own misery. Truth is that we were not made to be alone in thoughts or actions. We are part of a great community that is there to love and foster each other in the bonds of truth.
That is definitely where I am.
So yes I am back. There is so much to write about. Including the annoying state of
Television.
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