Know What You Believe

If you read or follow my blog you know that I rarely touch matters of religion because we have the right to believe in or whatever we want. However, I received a message for someone who basically “preached” to me the literal interpretation of the “Word” as he saw it.

I chose not to respond, until now, because I know when that fateful day comes and we transition to the great beyond – heaven. We will get three surprises: 1) You will be surprised who you see when you get there. 2) Who you don’t see when you get there and 3) if you get there yourself.

Having said that let me speak to the issues in the reader’s message, so hostilely sent to me. The representation of Jesus that you see in your church is not Jesus! It was painted by Michael Angelo in the 1600’s and the model was his nephew. In addition, there is no way a blonde haired blue eyed person could come from that region of the world and look European. Next, the good book was revised 28 times and the last time was by the diabolical King James of England, who was a major participant in the slave trade. And further, there was no word “GOD” in any African language before the coming of Europeans.

I will tell you that I found myself very perplexed by the message from the reader. So I wanted to respond in a broad way. This individual has decided that it is OK for him to attack me not knowing which God I worship. So I will tell you. It is the one who healed the sick, had compassion for the poor, and championed the lest of thee. And before I continue I never spoke to any of the issues you claimed was part of my writings.

This characterization is part of a much larger problem that needs to be addressed forthrightly. His very selective use of the Bible particularly when it comes to addressing matters relative to women is not biblical teaching. For example, his suggestion that I read Deuteronomy, and he specifically mentioned - Chapter 22. If you are not up on Deuteronomy, it says that if a woman is not a virgin at the time of her marriage - she can be killed.

So my question is how selectively does this individual interpret the Bible? Does he, for instance, believe that we should currently implement that section of Deuteronomy? There is nothing new about selective interpretations of the Bible. It is as old as the book itself. Let me remind you that White supremacists claimed Black people are the children of Ham and that we are Black because we are cursed; in spite of the fact that the Bible does not say that at all. The White supremacists wanted to believe this and they would find a way to connect that with their interpretation of God's word.

It is very disturbing that people continue to hide behind the Bible in order to justify their own set of prejudices and demons. Again, my understanding was that Jesus was concerned about injustice, the plight of the poor, the sick, the Romans who were oppressing the Hebrews, and the money changers.

So before you try to out Pope the Pope make sure you understand what you believe. And that is my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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Guess Who Came To Dinner

So many times the phrase "look how far we've come" has been stated that makes one think that everything is alright. Watch this video and just imagine the insanity of racism. Most people don't know that Booker T. Washington was invited to the White House at the beginning of the last century making him the first black to ever sit at a table with an american president for dinner, instead of serving the guests, and hundreds of blacks people were lynched as a result.

Today, the current president who is black now does the inviting of others. THINK ABOUT IT!!!  And that's my Thought Provoking Perspective...

 

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LONGING FOR THE GIPPER

It marvels me as I listen to politician’s worship the Gipper and if you did not know I am talking about the actor who was president – Ronald Reagan. One, if not both, of our major political parties has become imbued with the Gipper's political philosophy and governing style. I find this amazing that they praise him so because my recollection of his rule is very different.

Those in the GOP trying to claim that cloak, be it the right wing-nuts or the new Klan (tea party), has moved so far to the right that they now inhabits its own parallel universe. On their little rock, or under it, that today's GOP leaders call home, Reagan would qualify as one of those big-government, tax-and-spend liberals who they would say was trying to destroy the American way of life.

I wonder if these Republicans can remember the real Reagan legend or are they simply unaware of the truth. I have some bad news for you guys; Reagan raised taxes and he did it often, and by a lot. I just want to add that this is the guy who wanted to cut school lunch programs for children, remember he said, “Ketchup as a vegetable” and he also broke the union by firing the air traffic controllers.

When he took office as governor of California in 1967, the state faced a huge budget deficit. Reagan promptly raised taxes by $1 billion - at a time when the entire state budget amounted to just $6 billion. It was then the biggest state tax increase in history. During Reagan's eight years in Sacramento, business and sales taxes soared, and the top state income tax rate increased from 7 percent to 11 percent.

From there the man, and without my vote, moved into the White House. He brought with him a theory called "voodoo economics". This fallacy was supposed to be an idea that implied the way to balance the budget was to lower taxes not raise them. Reagan quickly pushed through the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, a tax cut of about $264 billion, which he and his fellow Republicans hailed as the greatest milestone in human history.

Reagan subsequently raised taxes 11 times, beginning with the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. All told, he took back roughly half of that hallowed 1981 tax cut. Why? Because he realized that the United States needed an effective federal government and to be effective the government needed more money.

Just like today, the Good Ol’ Boys and their unshakable commitment to smaller government should know that on Reagan’s watch the federal employment rolls grew; they shrank under Bill Clinton. Reagan had promised to eliminate the departments of Energy and Education, but he didn't. Instead, he signed legislation that added to the Cabinet a new Department of Veterans Affairs.

On social issues, Reagan advocated a federal ban on abortions, the legalization of organized prayer in the schools and an end to court-ordered busing to achieve racial balance. He accomplished none of this. None of this is to suggest that the patron saint of modern American conservatism was some sort of flaming liberal, just that he was a pragmatist who respected objective reality. In a big state or a big country, big government was a given. When taxes needed to be raised, the thing to do was raise them and I say on those who have benefited the most.

Even though Reagan knew that ideology had its limits, in fact, those extreme views have become orthodox. In my opinion, I don't doubt that he or the GOP today truly believe that ideology. There are some Democrats today that sound and act almost like Reaganites. From my vantage point, if we had not had the last decade of Lord George there might not have been a need for this conversation because when he walked into the White House there was a surplus.
Let me remind you that it was Clinton, who balanced the budget. President Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on the middle class, and Democrats couldn't even manage to reverse tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that might have made even Reagan blush. Obama based his, what they call, Obama-care on Republican ideas - including the individual mandate, which had been proposed by conservative think tanks and implemented by Mitt Romney.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has lost its mind. The GOP argues for deep across-the-board budget cuts of a kind that Reagan ultimately rejected. Party leaders denounce the belief that government can do any good for anybody as "socialism."

Here's a quote that might have come from a Democrat during last fall's tax-cut debate: "We don't seek to aid the rich, but those lower- and middle-income families who are most strapped by taxes and the recession." In fact, it was Ronny who said those words in 1983, when he was arguing for tuition tax credits.

Inspired by an article written by Eugene Robinson with facts derived from it.

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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The Power Of Thought

I woke up this morning with a thought knowing that every single thing that ever existed began with a single thought. With that said, I remembered a presentation by Bishop T.D. Jakes that I thought would be a good message for this beautiful Sunday that was made for us. Thoughts become reality – open your mind and find your reality.

Or maybe I should say it this way – “free your mind and your ass will follow!” And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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THANK A VETEREN AND STOP WAR!

Cynthia McKinney Speaks

I am so empowered by the kindness of my readers who share powerful information with me to share with you. I received this audio clip that you must hear. It is a chilling reminder of what we lived through with the regime of the last administration.

Cynthia McKinney delivers a speech while Lord George was in power that gives us reason to vote because we should never want to go back there…

VOTE!!!

LISTEN TO THESE POWERFUL WORDS!

http://www.spreaker.com/user/4438008/cynthia_mckinney_speaks

On this Memorial Day - Thank a Veteran and Stop War! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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The Huge Shoulders Of Hal Jackson

It’s hard to imagine that not too long ago, and even today, there were and are still firsts with respect to the first Colored, Negro, Black, or African American to do this or that. The amazing radio personality Hal Jackson did it before it was believed possible.

He broke through the color wall on the radio in Washington in the 1930s, pushed the District’s major clothing retailers to let blacks into their dressing rooms and restrooms in the ’40s and became the first black host on a national broadcast network in the 50s – and I for one honor him.

Through most of the second half of the last century, many black New Yorkers grew up knowing Mr. Jackson as a radio DJ whose smiling face appeared on billboards across the city. Decades before that, Mr. Jackson was a household name in black Washington, which is what impressed me about him. Being from the area I remember the broadcasting giant and civil rights pioneer who repeatedly found ways to smash through barriers.

In the mid-1930s, he won free entry into Griffith Stadium as a volunteer to clear trash during Washington Senators games where no blacks were allowed to enter the press box. The Negro League’s Homestead Grays also played there where Mr. Jackson eventually was allowed to narrate some Gray’s games to the crowd in the ballpark. At the time, Negro League games were not broadcast on the radio in Washington.

He wrote a proposal to present “The Bronze Review,” a program of entertainment, interviews and news, but Mr. Jackson said nothing about having a black host. The station’s white executives had no idea that “bronze” was then the classy term for “negro” in Washington’s black community.

On his debut night, Mr. Jackson arrived at WINX with his first guest, Mary McLeod Bethune, President Franklin Roosevelt’s director of Negro affairs. They waited outside until 15 minutes before airtime to minimize the chance that station managers might bar them from the air. The show went on, devoted to a discussion about Washington’s blighted black neighborhoods. “The Bronze Review,” hosted guests such as first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, entertainer Lena Horne and Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-N.Y.) becoming a nightly must-listen show for black Washington.

By the mid-1940s, Mr. Jackson was doing sports and his late-night talk show on WINX and spinning “race records,” as songs by black artists were then known, during morning drive time on WOOK in Silver Spring. He performed commercials in rhyme and urged listeners to join his Good Deed Club, collecting toys and books for charities.

In 1949, Mr. Jackson by then was the host of a television variety show broadcast from the Howard Theatre. He organized a picket on Connecticut Avenue, then the city’s most prestigious shopping boulevard, against retailers who sold to black customers but refused to let them use the dressing rooms or restrooms. The protest worked: Stores changed their policies.

In 1954, a New York station, WMCA, lured Mr. Jackson to Manhattan to create the city’s first integrated air staff. Mr. Jackson’s “All-American Revue” was designed to appeal to black and white listeners with music by Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Xavier Cugat.

Within a couple of years, Mr. Jackson was again on the air virtually around the clock at white- and black-owned stations. By the late 1950s, Mr. Jackson had added a children’s TV show that featured New York’s first integrated studio audience. It was round this time that Irving Rosenthal, the owner of Palisades Amusement Park, asked Mr. Jackson to host weekend concerts at the theme park and the DJ’s face was plastered on billboards around New York.

Mr. Jackson worked as a popular DJ up and down the east coast; Washington, New York, a midday show at WANN in Annapolis and an evening gig on Baltimore’s WSID as well as owning several radio stations. In 1995, Mr. Jackson was the first black elected to the Radio Hall of Fame. Every black or minority working on radio or in television owe this man a debut of gratitude. Or maybe I’ll say it this way – “They stand on the shoulders of this Giant”.

After paying homage, and much deserved, I will use Mr. Jackson’s nightly sign-off reflected his peripatetic life: “I’ve got to pack the shellac and hit the track, but I’ll be back.” And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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A Comedic Genius

If you were to look Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor up in the dictionary; it will say GENIUS! Known to most of us as “Richard” a comedic genius, the most profound and prolific American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer, and MC. Pryor was, if anyone ever was, ahead of his time and the greatest comedian to ever live. His genius derived from an uncompromising examination of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets.

The great comedian Bill Cosby reportedly once said, "Richard Pryor drew the line between comedy and tragedy as thin as one could possibly paint it." His body of work includes a list far too numerous to mention in this writing that included concert, movies, and recordings. He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder and frequently collaborated with actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney.

Mr. Pryor won an Emmy Award in (1973) and five Grammy Awards (1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982). In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. Pryor is listed at Number 1 on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.

Mr. Pryor had what he called in his autobiography Pryor Convictions an "epiphany" when he walked onto the stage at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas when he looked at the sold-out crowd, exclaimed over the microphone "What the f@#k am I doing here!?", and walked off the stage. Afterward, Pryor began working profanity into his act, including the use of the “N-word”.

In the 1970s, Pryor wrote for such television shows as Sanford and Son, The Flip Wilson Show, and the Lily Tomlin special, for which he shared an Emmy Award. During this period, Pryor tried to break into mainstream television. He was a guest host on the first season of Saturday Night Live. He had his own show – The Richard Pryor Show which premiered on NBC in 1977, but was canceled after only four episodes. Television audiences did not respond to the show's controversial subject matter, and Pryor was unwilling to alter his material for network censors.

In 1979, at the height of his success, Pryor visited Africa. Upon returning to the United States, Pryor swore he would never use the word "nigger" in his stand-up comedy routine again. However, his favorite epithet, "mother@#ker", remains a term of endearment on his official website.

Despite a reputation for constantly using profanity on and off camera, Pryor briefly hosted a children's show in 1984 called Pryor’s Place. Like Sesame Street, "Pryor's Place" featured a cast of puppets, hanging out and having fun in a surprisingly friendly inner-city environment along with several children and characters portrayed by Pryor himself. However, "Pryor's Place" frequently dealt with more sobering issues than "Sesame Street". Pryor co-hosted the Academy Awards twice, and was nominated for an Emmy for a guest role on the television series, Chicago Hope.

In 1989, he appeared in Harlem Nights, a comedy-drama crime film starring Eddie Murphy. It was a financial success, grossing three times the amount it cost to make it (worldwide) and is well known for starring three generations of black comedians - Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Redd Foxx. In 1990, Pryor suffered a second and more severe heart attack and underwent triple heart bypass surgery.

By the early 1990s, he was confined to using a wheelchair as well as a motor powered scooter for the remainder of his life to get around when his multiple sclerosis began to take its toll on his body. On December 10, 2005, nine days after his birthday, Richard Pryor left us for the great beyond and on that day his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was covered with flowers, beer bottles, fan letters etc. Just the way Rich would have wanted it.

I will tell you that on that day in December the world lost a treasure and I lost a hero – a man that only comes this way once in a lifetime. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU’VE HEARD EVERYTHING

There is a huge legal battle going on in Detroit over the estate of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. There are lawyers, judges, and family fighting to see who controls the estate of “Mother Parks”.  Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. was asked to disqualify himself and in what some have said is unusual he made a decision, which is he will let them know if he will in will continue to preside over the Parks’ estate fight.

Burton told lawyers in a five-minute hearing that he would issue a decision on the disqualification motion in 30-45 days without hearing legal arguments from lawyers in the case. Then, he ended the hearing, leaving lawyers to argue their positions with newspaper reporters.

“It’s outrageous that Judge Burton needs 30-45 days to decide a completely unopposed motion for disqualification,” said attorney Steven G. Cohen, of Farmington Hills, who sued Burton last week on the grounds that he conspired with probate lawyers John Chase Jr. and Melvin Jefferson Jr., allowing them to bankrupt Parks’ estate with unnecessary and excessive attorney fees. “He obviously can’t serve as a presiding judge in a case where he is the defendant.”

Cohen said Burton should have ruled this morning since the other lawyers in the case filed no written objections to his request. “This means the motion is unopposed and should be granted immediately,” Cohen said. Troy attorney Alan May, who represents Chase and Jefferson said Cohen’s accusations are outrageous.

Cohen represents Elaine Steele, Parks’ longtime friend and assistant, and the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, which Steele founded with Parks. Last week, Cohen sued Burton, Chase and Steele, on the grounds that they conspired to bankrupt Parks’ estate and strip Steele and the institute of their share of Parks’ historically valuable belongings and intellectual property rights.

The controversy is the latest development in a long-running battle that began after Parks’ death in 2005 when her nieces and nephews challenged her estate plan. Though Parks had selected Steele and retired 36th District Court Judge Adam Shakoor to handle her estate, Burton put longtime probate lawyers Chase and Steele in charge.

Instead of marshalling Parks’ assets and sitting on the sideline until Steele, the institute and the relatives settled their differences, Cohen said Chase and Jefferson waded into the fight and started billing the estate for legal fees.

In 2007 Steele, the relatives and the institute signed a confidential agreement giving the institute and Steele 80% of the proceeds from the sale of Parks’ belongings and the royalties from licensing Parks’ name. The relatives were to get the rest.

Instead of putting Steele and Shakoor back in charge of the estate, as the agreement required, Cohen said Burton kept Chase and Jefferson in place. Cohen said Chase and Jefferson fabricated a phony breach of confidentiality dispute that Burton eventually used to strip Steele and the institute of their share of the estate.

Last December, at Cohen’s request, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered Burton to put Steele and Shakoor back in charge of the estate. It also voided the forfeiture order. Cohen now wants Burton off the case and the lawyers to reimburse the estate for the legal fees their received.

May says Chase and Jefferson billed reasonable fees and improved the estate by recognizing the historic value of Parks’ belongings, which a New York City auction house is trying to sell to an institution that can display them. “Shameful.”

This may well be the first time I am at a loss for words as this woman fought for justice while living and her name must continue to fight. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

As report by David Ashenfelter of the Detroit Free Pree

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You Should Know Dr. Ben

Professor Yosef Ben Jochannan, affectionately known as "Dr. Ben", the foremost African scholar and an Egyptologist had a profound impact upon my thinking. He taught at Cornell University for over 15 years, Dr. Ben has lectured widely on both sides of the Atlantic on the theme - the ancient civilizations of Egypt. His presentations placed him in great demand by students and community groups, especially those of African descent through an unwavering theme that the ancient civilizations along the Nile were African and the foundation of the world.

Dr. Ben was formally education in Puerto Rico. He continued his education in the Virgin Islands and in Brazil. Dr. Ben earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, and a Master's degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Havana, Cuba. He received doctorial degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Moorish History from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona Spain.

Dr. Ben was adjunct professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York for over a decade (1976–1987). He has written and published over forty-nine books and papers, revealing much of the information unearthed while he was in Egypt. Two of his better known works include, Black Man of the Nile and His Family and Africa: Mother of Major Western Religions. In his writings, he argues that the original Jews were from Ethiopia and were Black Africans, while the white Jews later adopted the Jewish faith and its customs.

In 1939, shortly after receiving his undergraduate degree, Dr. Ben's father sent him to Egypt to study firsthand the ancient history of African People. Since 1941, Dr. Ben has been to Egypt at least twice a year. He began leading educational tours to Egypt in 1946. When asked why he began the tours, he replied "because no one knew or cared about Egypt and most believed Egypt was not in Africa." According to Dr. Ben, Egypt is the place to go to learn the fundamentals of living. Over five decades have passed and Dr. Ben, a preeminent scholar and Egyptologist, remains focused on Nile Valley Civilization.

Dr. Ben immigrated to the United States in the early 1940s. He worked as a draftsman and continued his studies. He claims that in 1945, he was appointed chairman of the African Studies Committee at the headquarters of the newly founded UNESCO, a position from which he stepped down in 1970. In 1950, Ben-Jochannan began teaching Egyptology at Malcolm King College, then at City College in New York City.

Dr. Ben taught that Aristotle visited the Library of Alexandria. In 2002, Ben-Jochannan donated his personal library of more than 35,000 volumes, manuscripts and ancient scrolls to The Nation of Islam. Ben-Jochannan has been criticized for allegedly distorting history and promoting Black supremacy. I say, since it is a fact that Africa is the birth place of mankind the facts he revealed are truth. Read the work of Dr. Ben and get to know this great man!

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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A MOVEMENT FOR MARY THORSON

Every now and then something is brought to my attention accompanied by a request for my support. There is so much evil in our world today and it saddens me to what degree mankind extends its viciousness onto another human being; often times these actions have dire consequences.

A friend asked me to share this horribly sad story of institutional abuse with my readers. I hope it will help her cause and you will sign the petition in support of her valiant effort.

Here is the back-story: On Thanksgiving, a grade-school gym teacher parked her Mercury SUV on the shoulder of Interstate 80/94 in northwest Indiana, got out and walked in front of a moving semi-truck. The 32-year-old's suicide shocked the tiny Ford Heights school district where she worked. In other words Mary died to teach!

In the days afterward, tension grew amid conversations by co-workers about what had happened and questions from the Army veteran's parents. The turmoil peaked during a crowded meeting in December, when some teachers and school board members clashed.

The suicide note that Mary Thorson left centered on frustrations at the school, and her death spurred some of her co-workers to speak out at the public meeting. Teachers described an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the two-school district, where little things snowballed over time.

Even some of those close to Thorson acknowledged that it's difficult to pinpoint why anyone commits suicide, but her death opened wounds in the district. School district officials have vowed to work on healing with new channels of communication. School board members and the administration expressed sorrow over Thorson's death but was also surprise at the way some teachers described the work atmosphere.

Thorson, known as Coach T, left behind a handwritten, six-page note in her SUV. Other than one paragraph in which she apologized to her parents for the hurt her death would cause, the rest of the note was exclusively about Ford Heights School District 169.

The students "loved her," said Walter Cunningham, who taught physical education with Thorson. "She treated them like a daughter or son. They all gravitated toward her." Like many of the teachers there, Thorson used her own money to buy students school supplies or warm clothes if she saw a need, Cunningham said. More than 98 percent of the 520 students in the district are considered low-income, according to state records.

There is a documentary soon to be released that tells the story of a grade school gym teacher who committed suicide in November 2011 and left a note alleging intimidation in the workplace directed by Myra Richardson. It is chilling and I would encourage you to support the film, and remember it could occur in your child’s school.

Lastly, I cannot say I know much about the details of the situation but a friend close to the situation asked me to share the story of this tragedy. Therefore, on her behalf I ask that you kindly visit the website below for more information about what she calls “teacher abuse” and sign the petition. My prayers and sympathy goes out to the family of this teacher for their tremendous lose.

Sign the Petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-secretary-of-education-stop-bullying-and-making-teachers-change-grades-to-pass-students

http://www.marythorsondocfilm.com/index.html

And that is my Thought Provoking Perspective …

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