Honest Talk with Yourself

I've been having a very interesting discussion with my brother Jeff over at, Have Coffee Will Write.  He is one of the more well read folks you will ever meet, sincere, an excellent writer.
 We have been soul searching as we deal with the death of Trayvon Martin and uncovering some interesting tidbits.  Love and respect imbued  and I might add received rebuke flow both ways.  I appreciate the different point of view as I think we perhaps both allow our opinions to be jostled around.  


Can our society, as opposed to our nation, move forward without soul searching, true dialogue and even confession?  I don't see how we can.  Can we improve others before we have improved ourselves?  How can we improve ourselves if we have refused to see ourselves as we truly are?  How can we see ourselves as we truly are without coming to terms with the warts and all?  Can we come to terms with that when all we recognize is the euphemism, "warts and all," the truisms like, "oh everybody does that, nobody's perfect," our whatever we tell ourselves to excuse our lack of love our neighborism.  Our "warts" cause us to consign folks to death and poverty as we say, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled; but give not to them the needful things for the body."(James 2:16)

So often I hear things like, "My parents came to America looking for a good life with only $2 between them; they made it, I don't see why those people can lift themselves up."  The bottom line falsehood is I "raised myself up by my own bootstraps" or I built the house I was born in, I got mine now you get yours, ignoring the uneven terrain.

  In the past I've just given up on such ubiquitous ignorance.  I am not even surprised any more that it still exists.  This basic lack of understanding and in my opinion lack of  basic decency, because it is so ignorant... choosing to ignore it is not relegated to "race," or class, or religion or gender but we all identify with our special interest groups and point at the shortfalls in all of the other groups thus making ourselves just like them.  So sadly much of the time I have to name myself among the careless.

I now realize that in life, in living and navigating through this world that the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it and narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.  There are few who find it because there are few who seek it out.  Being comfortable at the expense of others is so easy, so easy.  I check myself more and more to make sure I am on the right path going through the right gate. I cannot answer for you nor can I judge your heart but I can proffer the question; are you?

We are Trayvon's Watchdog

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What if we're wrong...what if we're right?

We are Trayon’s watchdog.  Trayvon is us. Tryvon is my dark skinned daughter who many believe to be ignorant, unrefined, “ghetto,” as if they know the ghetto, and belligerent because of the color of her skin before she speaks or acts, sans hoodie and even many times afterward despite the contrary evidence. Trayvon is every middle-classed Black person discounted as naturally knowledgeable (I worked for my degree and any knowledge I may have amassed like you worked for yours, don’t get it twisted) and exotic by many liberal white folk who sadly truly believe they are color-blind though the be far from it.  These are the ignorant that demand our attention. Trayvon is every Black person ostracized and put in a box by her or his “own” Black folk for being too White, too educated, too articulate, this is the ghetto mind as opposed to saggin and gangsta rap.  God forbid Black folk should like European classical music and art, Carly Simon, even Tracy Chapman or Frank Sinatra, eat Beef Wellington and know what the heck Vichyssoise is.  (Did I spell that correctly?) What is Black anyhow?  Trayvon  is me.  And if you are not dark skinned know that by extension Trayvon is even you, you better recognize… It’s almost too late.

Men in Black

 

The unavoidable context of this case 

 is why it is so huge. Until we are able to put race behind us as a nation we will never be able to exact justice for all; that goes for gender identification, gender preference and a host of other death receiving societal brunts of injustices.

I read Mano Singham's post concerning the Trayvon Martin case and there is good advice in it. .  I think also Dr. Singham, even though dark skinned, speaks as one who does not realize what is at stake, as one who, perhaps as Skip Gates once felt, feels insulated from injustice and microcosmic prejudice in an American justice system.   Read his wellthought out blog here. 

 In diversity training I rely on Daniel Kahneman's research, who Dr. Singham mentions, to explain the necessity of prejudice, the unavoidability of it and how to overcome it, which harkens to what is called system one and system two in his post.

 We cannot remain silent until all the facts are in.  

All the facts have to be wrenched from the grasps of certain gatekeepers with no light assertion of force through public outcry.

Concerning not jumping to conclusions because all the facts aren’t out, it has been a month, many of us noted this and put it on the back burner until now.  The facts are still not out and in fact I believe the family had to sue under the public info act to get the 911 calls release by law enforcement officials.

ADHD and the Media

Dr. Singham mentioned the short media attention in America that is so true, mentioning the Kony endeavor as the most recent.  Personally I'm trying not to let it and other things in the media, die to media ADHD, which is greatly due to our, the public’s short attention span.

Because media memory is so short this particular event, Trayvon's death cannot wait for all the facts given the legal system injustices and its propensity for surreptitiously hiding the facts, which are commonplace to say the least. 

Justice-  "You go down there looking for justice; that's what you find: just us."- Richard Pryor

It is a truism that had the color/race been reversed a Black Mr. Zimmerman would have been handcuffed and taken to jail even if there was less a preponderance of evidence than currently exists, and not released just because he said he was defending himself.  A Black Mr. Zimmerman would have undoubtedly been searched on the spot, tested for alcohol, taken and tested for drugs, detained for further questioning and so on.  This is at the crux of the public outcry more so than if Trayvon was profiled and unjustly killed. 

 

A point is that he is profiled and unjustly accused hundreds of times a day, everyday without recourse because of the color of his skin.  Many know the arrest and release stats and the "who is in prison stats,' better than I.  Fifty years of research has come to no other conclusion than skin color to explain the gross disparities and inequalities in the legal system where people of color are concerned.

In the rape case of the "Central Park Jogger," that Dr. Singham notes, Trisha Mieli was raped in 1989 but "all the facts" didn't come out until 2002 when the real culprit, a White looking, curly haired Hispanic and serial rapist, Matias Reyes confessed to the crime and his DNA corroborated his testimony. 

Perhaps had that incident and consequent railroading of five Black youths, garnered as much attention as Trayvon Martin’s murder those innocent, young, Black boys, who spent the majority of their youth wrongfully accused in jail would not have been incarcerated. Thirteen years is a long time to be incarcerated awaiting the facts especially when you are fifteen.  If one reads the case, one will see that all the facts did not come out because, as so, so often is the case the police were not looking for the facts once they had identified the 'usual suspects.' 

In the Trayvon Martin case, I think many people are coming from a point of view that the legal system and law enforcement officials have proved ad nauseum that they are not worthy of the public's trust and confidence to serve justice and many would rather err on the side of being loud, vocal and wrong than to let the system, "do what it do one  mo’ ‘gin,” which to many of us is nothing less than emasculation, decimation and genocide of dark skinned people, especially its men.  It seems thus far Florida law enforcement officials are living up to this very low standard.  

If you say the lie long enough it becomes the truth

We are now being asked to believe that a man with a gun in his hand was accosted by a boy and then screamed out, “help help me!” (there is absolutely no credible reason, beyond a supposed insanity of Mr. Zimmerman to believe he would carry a gun, follow someone, put himself in danger, and not have his gun drawn.)  It is no surprise many are screaming, “Emmitt Till” all over again.

A comparison of the statements in the Central Park Jogger case reveals troubling discrepancies. ... The accounts given by the five defendants differed from one another on the specific details of virtually every major aspect of the crime — who initiated the attack, who knocked the victim down, who undressed her, who struck her, who held her, who raped her, what weapons were used in the course of the assault, and when in the sequence of events the attack took place. ... In many other respects the defendants' statements were not corroborated by, consistent with, or explanatory of objective, independent evidence. And some of what they said was simply contrary to established fact.

 Motion to vacate

If this were the exception not the rule the Trayvon injustice would be garnering far less attention, however it is not.

Thanksgiving Came Early

I often wake up asking the Lord to give me a witness or an opportunity to help someone.
Today in between morning communion and my Theopoetic readings (http://www.campus-agape.org/)  I went to ________ supermarket to get odds and ends for tomorrow, Thanksgiving.

When I walked in a distressed looking lady asked me if I drove.  She had been stranded by whoever gave her a ride to Dave's and she needed to get to East Cleveland.  After I got my odds and ends I got her and started off.
She had to get to the person who had stranded her because her prescription meds were left in the car.  "I am so sick, I feel so bad, I need to get my prescription and go home."  It turns out she is the fiance of one of the cats that works at _______ who I "know" and like very much. He is not that keen on me.
I asked her why she was sick.  "I have ovarian cancer.   I had some removed but it is back.  I am having surgery next week to have everything taken out, God bless you for taking me, God bless you. "
She was having custody issues with her kids and they were possibly spending Thanksgiving with someone who drinks a lot.  I didn't understand because I thought she said the kids were 18 years of age.  I ministered to her and prayed for her the "kids" the over drinker in the name of Jesus.

She said she had a few dollars she could give me.  I explained how I ask God to give me at least one person to minister to, to help in some way everyday and that she was my blessing.  She was my answer to prayer.  She mentioned paying me two or three more times and each time I told her she had already given me something and that she was my answered prayer, my blessing. I don't think she was a Christian or church-goer or "believer."  She was someone God loves though.

I told her how good God is.  As i was driving her home I inadvertently told her of an issue I was going through and she said, "Oh ok, good, you prayed for me and I will pray for you."  I hope she does but whether she does or doesn't isn't God faithful?  Isn't God good?  He used me to answer her desperate prayer to get home.  I don't know how many folks she had asked to take her home.  More than a few.  In the midst of my misery God's Spirit sprang forth and took my eyes off of me and blessed somebody.
I believe she will be much, much better on the other side of surgery than had I not prayed for her.  And now God may use me to bless the finance.
Seems like such a little thing but I am thankful and overwhelmed at God's goodness.
Bless his Holy name.  Bless his Holy name.  Have ya ever been there? Overwhelmed by life and stranded with seemingly no help on the horizon. Call on Jesus.
Praise God he causes it to rain on the just and unjust alike.  God answers prayer.  God is love.

The Hundredth Monkey by Ken Keyes, Jr. (->FREE COPY HERE<- ) is about nuclear proliferation and critical mass, mass consciousness. The lessons can apply to the Wall Street debacle, Occupy Wall Street, the 99%, the 1%. We must scream it, sponsor golf fundraisers against it, dance it, art it, poem it, make jokes concerning it, rally it, protest it, show love, talk it, do it, unite, drag people into the higher consciousness kicking and screaming, get involved, we already are by default. An excerpt:

There is no need to feel helpless or get paralyzed by hopelessness. We know we have the power to make changes if we can join together and raise our voices in unison. There is more power in numbers that we ever hoped to dream about! I call for us to let our numbers grow exponentially as we all take it on ourselves to spread these messages. We are the bearers of a new vision. We can dispel the old destructive myths and replace them with the life-enriching truths that are essential to continued life on our planet.
St. Mary, Kentucky Ken Keyes, Jr. December, 1981

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Where is the Love?

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com
The above Op Ed letter submitted by Warren E Buffet, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" is a breath of fresh air. However his "outing" the rich and legislators in Washington begs the question, "why now?"  The political slant in favor of the rich has existed since at least April 30, 1789 when George Washington was sworn in as president.
It also begs the question what expectations do the rich eg., Warren Buffet have concerning any outcomes based on our country, politicians, and all taking Mr. Buffet's advice.

Our country is in serious trouble, not only due to our debt and mortgage crisis, which was not a lapse in judgement but rather chickens coming home to roost to poor morals leading to unethical and illegal behavior bred in America culture and escalated since the 70's,  but financial and cultural trouble do to the erosion of the middle class.  The shrinking middle class call to arms got a lot of play during the Reagan years and interesting statistics leaped to the forefront.   However, for every statistic heralding the end of the middle class there was one to suggest things were not so bad.

The boundaries between classes are  imaginary  spanning around groups according to economic and psychological standards. In the 1980s at least one economist defined the middle class as a state of mind. "Says Lawrence Lindsey, assistant professor of economics at Harvard: "A middle-class person is someone who expects to be self-reliant, unlike the upper class with its unearned wealth or the lower class with its dependency on society. Far from declining, the middle class is bigger than ever, and its ethic is alive and well."" (Is the Middle Class Shrinking? by Stephen Koepp; Gisela Bolte/Washinton and Jon D. Hull/Los Angeles Monday, Nov. 03, 1986 Time Magazine)

Like the little engine that thought it could middle classers through hard work, determination and belief in themselves felt they had arrived at a station in life  that at least would not be toppled. As comforting as this is at first blush this mindset ethic has created a false sense of security that has caused the middle class to react slowly to a drastically changed, even more, uneven terrain that at one time affected the small percentage of middle class fringers who found themselves overwhelmed by American politics and the resulting economics. Like Dorothy observing, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," more and more middle classers have been awakened from the American dream into an uncertain nightmare on Elm street where one must stay awake and alert.

In essence the fringe group has eaten at a significant part of the core middle class and the new fringe has failed to realize it is now the outskirts of the middle class and spinning of the circumference. Never has the saying, "a paycheck away from" hunger, homelessness, no health insurance, the working homeless, and displacement been so real for so many.
"Joel Kotkin seems to concur with some of this doomsaying. In his piece in the Dallas Morning News, Kotkin says:

Most disturbingly, the rate of upward mobility has stagnated overall, as wages have largely failed to keep up with the cost of living. It is no easier for poor and working-class people to move up the socio-economic ladder today than it was in the 1970s; in some ways, it’s more difficult. The income of college-educated younger people, adjusted for inflation, has been in decline since 2000." (Warner Todd Huston, "Is the American Middle Class Disappearing?" Canada Free Press 2010)

Still not a believer?

• 61% of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49% in 2008 and 43% in 2007.
• Only the top 5% of households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• A staggering 43% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• For the first time in US history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

Have we seen the last of the attacks on collective bargaining?  Probably not.  Power struggles such as in Ohio where Democrats staged a walk out in favor of unions, in Massachusetts where the attack on unions was led by Democrats and  in Indiana point to a government as usual panicked and looking for money in a business as usual support- big- business environment.  There is absolutely no creative thinking based on a long range view of  the real state of America advocating the case for the little people, the heart of our country.

It is patronizing for president after president to ascent we are the strongest greatest country on the planet when even the most ignorant of world affairs know we lead in military expenditures only.  We have lost ground in education and health care and steadily slide down the world leader list.  We still have not conquered the game of race and what is most startling is that many polls suggest most A

If we take Mr. Buffet's "we're all in this together" advice what then? We may avert a financial apocalypse, the middle class may still believe in the American dream which supports the upper class risking the possible complete demise of the middle class, and Mr. Buffet and the rest of the really really rich, stay that way.   By the way the American Dream is based on the premise that anyone can become part of the upper class through you guessed it, through hard work, determination and belief in ones selve, laudable ideals to be sure, but grossly misplaced.   I would think there would be many writings out if they are not out now about the American cast system.

Government backed credit card companies and banks are the new loan sharks able to change rules, interests and contracts in a single sweep of the pen.  Many churches are still only sellers of "pie in the sky" that nominally support the poor and down trodden but not in deference to their own fiefdoms.  We are a society without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable and unmerciful from the greatest to the least.  Because of the aforementioned we are a nation of cynics.
Time for some black eyed peas and cornbread as I ponder, where is the love?

 Dismal wouldn't you say?

2-1-1 Food

Free Food at a Price

My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19.  Today God supplied my need to humble myself.

July 12, 2011.  Today my wife and I went to an emergency hunger center in our neighborhood, (see video at end of this blog) in Cleveland Heights.  Inside we were met by a dour man in his 60's, standing in front of a desk, face snarling, slightly slouched over, one hand in his pocket seemingly sizing up the scum as he looked up peering over his glasses at us.

"Take a ticket he barked," as our eyes met.
 I felt trapped in a "Where's Waldo" episode, only Waldo had a whip,and the  stopwatch was racing to zero, as my eyes frantically raced up and down, back and forth across the room until I found the number 7 on a dowel of numbers on one of the walls.  "Oh look honey," my wife exclaimed, "only 7 people in front of us!"
An elderly lady had entered the room.  "You're the only ones here," she explained.
"Okaaaay, so why do I need a number," I thought.  I was fearful to broach the topic, even just out of curiosity, we sat down and the surly man began to ask questions to ascertain how provably poor were we .  We supplied the proper documents while an upbeat, friendly man named Bob handed me a bag of fresh green leafy stuff and a bag of lettuce with peppers in it.   We agreed that the green stuff  was most likely Swiss Chard. 

There were also baggies of sugar, flour, instant coffee and canned items on the desk.  He stood briefly in the doorway behind the dour, surly gent seemingly apologetic.  Was he apologizing for Mr. Surly or for my being there?

 I didn't have my child's social security number with me but Mr. Surly assured me I could bring it  when I came back.  The thought of returning had not occurred to me.  At one point my wife and I stumbled over information Mr. Surly requested, "Now look," he chastened, "I can't hear both of ya talkin at the same time!"  The sweet elderly woman interpreted "We both have trouble hearing."

I felt my eyes widen so I picked up a flyer advertising a community meal at the church housing this food center, to bow out of the info gathering.  "Oh you ought to come to that, the food is really good!" the sweet older lady chirped.  I then eyed another piece of paper.  "A lot of places on that list have really good food too but you need to call and make sure the hours are correct, this list may be outdated," she cautioned.

Not knowing the procedure it occurred to me maybe I should've brought a packing box, so I decided to take the few things on the desk and the greens to the car. Two others had come in during our interview, a lone woman and a young woman with a small child.  The little girl had apparently not received the memo about not making eye contact and we studied each other on my way past her.    A woman in the passenger's seat of a car stirred when I came outside.  Today the recipients of free food handouts, seemed too intent on avoiding eye contact, or was I projecting?  I leaned out of my way, like Michael Jackson in "Thriller" into the driverless car, to make eye contact with the woman who smiled sheepishly and replied to my hello.  There I'd done it!  I'd broken through the invisibility cloak!

I returned inside, like a convict to the electric chair, hearing the voice of another inmate,  loudly addressing a cell phone as if straining to be heard over the din of an imaginary crowd in the tiny room.  "Uh huh, well I calt chu the otha day and told you I wasn't doin' nat.  Listen I'm over at da food place.  I had my money come in an' I'm goin' to da sto'.  You want me to pick you up anythang?"

She was obviously not a novice.  She was serenely oblivious to the rest of us.  She was seasoned enough to owe obeisance to no one.  There was something to admire there but did I want to become a regular?

 

The Bounty: sugar, flour, 2 bags Jack Rabbit pinto beans, 1 bag of Diamond rice, 1 jar of Hampton  peanut butter, 2 cans of Hudson sweet corn, 2 boxes of Tabatchnick 1% milk, one box of cream mushroom soup, 1 can of Hart sliced potatoes, 1 bottle of SunPac orange juice, 1 baggie of sugar, 1 bag of flour, 1 plastic tin of Giant Eagle Itty Bitty brownies "($3.99), 1/2 pound cake, a 2 pound loaf of bread, 2 bagels, 2 muffins, 4 small whole loaves of bread, 2 cans of Port Royal tuna, 1 can of First Harvest sliced peaches, 2 cans of Family Pantry chicken noodle soup, 1 can Estofado Verduras (stew), 2 cans Delmonte leaf spinach, 1 can Lady Liberty pear halves, 1can of Mothers Maid apples, 1 can of Beckman's greenbeans. 

See you Thursday?

Roseanne Barr on the Lack of Change in the TV Industry -- New York Magazine

Nothing real or truthful makes its way to TV unless you are smart and know how
to sneak it in, and I would tell you how I did it, but then I would have to kill you.
Based on Two and a Half Men’s success,
it seems viewers now prefer their comedy dumb and sexist.

Roseanne Barr on the Lack of Change in the TV Industry -- New York Magazine

AFA Writer Condemns Christians Who Practice Yoga | Right Wing Watch

Click here to read AFA article entitled->:AFA Writer Condemns Christians Who Practice Yoga | Right Wing Watch

Instead of our spiritual "leaders" like Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention and Douglas Groothuis of the Denver Seminary leading the flock into the freedom which comes only through Christ they shackle Christians to the idolatry of religion. They suggest that the bible narrowly defines a methodology to following Christ.
^{They have at least read James 1:27-} Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. So then specifically their issue must be what is and what isn't being polluted by the world.

Please bear with me as I lay out the foundational thoughts of Buddhism to point out where I think my brothers in Christ miss the boat or feel free to scroll down to "Christians Involved in the Practice of Yoga."

The foundation of Buddhism is centered on the " Four Noble Truths:

1. The truth of suffering (dukkha)
2. The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
3. The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)

The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (No.4) is the Eightfold Path one must follow to be enlightened.
You can find this in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.
Here is the Eightfold Path by Barbara O'Brien, About.com Guide:

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

The Eightfold Path is divided into three main sections: wisdom, ethical conduct and mental discipline.
Wisdom: Right View and Right Intention are the wisdom path. Right View is not about believing in doctrine, but in perceiving the true nature of ourselves and the world around us. Right Intention refers to the energy and commitment one needs to be fully engaged in Buddhist practice.
Ethical Conduct: Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood are the ethical conduct path. This calls us to take care in our speech, our actions, and our daily lives to do no harm to others and to cultivate wholesomeness in ourselves. This part of the path ties into the Precepts.
Mental Discipline: Through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration we develop the mental discipline to cut through delusion. Many schools of Buddhism encourage seekers to meditate to achieve clarity and focus of mind.

The Truth of the End of Suffering
The Buddha's teachings on the Four Noble Truths are sometimes compared to a physician diagnosing an illness and prescribing a treatment. The first truth tells us what the illness is, and the second truth tells us what causes the illness. The Third Noble Truth holds out hope for a cure.
The Buddha taught that through diligent practice, we can put an end to craving. Ending the hamster-wheel chase after satisfaction is enlightenment (bodhi, "awakened"). The enlightened being exists in a state called Nirvana.
-Barbara O'Brien

 Christians Involved in the Practice of Yoga
I would make several points here about Christians involved in the practice of yoga being wrong for doing so. My first point is revealed in a question, do you know all of the above philosophy about Buddhism or enough to say you truly have an understanding of what is going on here to the point of agreement or disagreement? If the answer is no then continue on in blissful ignorance because to be affected by this one must buy into the Truth is the End of Suffering hook, line, and sinker.
The first part of this makes a lot of sense. The Buddha preached that we can end craving through discipline and practice. Many Christians undertake disciplines to do likewise.  There is a plethora of scripture that speak of the ability to control one's mind such as Romans 12.1-2 ending in, "don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.."


The departure from Christianity says that after one has mastered this one moves on to a state called Nirvana. At this point huge buoyant, all encompassing red flags should be everywhere a Christian looks. This is directly tied to the concept of Reincarnation which basically says one is doomed to a cycle of returning to the concrete until one gets it right and this is diametrically opposed to the good news found only in Jesus Christ.  If one has any foundation in Christ then this is absolutely, positively wrong.

  If you are in Christ you might have noticed that just about all of your thoughts and perceptions go through a Christ filter.  This means that you convert things into the likeness of Christ in your daily living.  A number of years ago there were some Tibetan monks at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  One of them the Venerable Lama Tenzin Yignyen is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk and very, very charming. They were there to spread the word of Buddhism through creating a sand mandala.

A mandala is a cosmic diagram that represents the dwelling place or celestial mansion of a deity. Both the deity, who reside in the mandala and the mandala itself are recognized as pure expressions of Buddha's fully enlightened mind. Mandala can be visualized, painted or constructed from wood, precious jewels, rice, flower and so forth. Sand is considered to be a superb medium because of its number and the great skill required to create the mandala's exquisite details.

There was a public question and answer with these wisemen and Christians would have agreed with every moral platitude they uttered.  Why, because Christianity does not corner the market on morality, it is universal.  We had great conversation myself and the monks until one morning I asked could I worship with them and they were curious enough to listen.  I told them I wanted to meditate on Christ with my didgeridoo, that was where they drew the line.  My didgeridoo sounds a lot like chanting/throat singing  if I want it to and I showed them.
My point is that I get involved in the world all of the time but I am not of the world, Christ is with me and the Holy Spirit is in me.  I have the mind of Christ.  Therefore I can meditate, change my state of consciousness, which was such an affront to brother Mohler and Gruthias and twist myself like a pretzel and not affect my standing in Christ.  Paul said that buffeting the body might even do a little good when comparing spiritual exercise to body exercise.  In 1Cor.9 Paul beats his body to make it his slave... Downward Facing Dog anyone?
By change my state of consciousness, I do not mean over indulgence or introducing anything into my body for an effect, we are commanded not to be filled with such things but to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  However I believe "altered states" is a dangerous acid test for real Christianity and if my brothers believe this they must start within the church and every Holy Roller congregation from West Virginia to New Jersey to Cleveland Heights Ohio.  Sadly  AFA author, Marsha West, who I greatly respect, Mr.s Gruthias and Mohler point to Christians who apparently are not very grounded in knowledge of the scriptures and following Christ through the Word as proof of their judgement.   I'm sure had they wanted to they could have pointed to more learned judgements among their respondents. 

There's a Zen story in which a professor visited a Japanese master to inquire about Zen. The master served tea. When the visitor's cup was full, the master kept pouring. Tea spilled out of the cup and over the table.
"The cup is full!" said the professor. "No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," said the master, "You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
If you want to understand Buddhism, empty your cup.
Got Christ? Then guess what, your cup is full, no more will fit in.

Regina Brett

Check out Regina Brett's mothers days blog. Do you know these things about your mom?

Life Lessons from: NEWTON'S LAWS of MOTION (sorta)

First Law:

·       A Situation, Policy, Object, Dilemma, Train Of Thought, or Malaise, (SPODTOTOM)

·        [Which is] at rest remains at rest until acted upon by a force.

·       A SPODTOTOM [which is] in motion continues moving in a straight line at constant velocity until acted upon by a force.

Also called "Law of Inertia"

Accelerated motion

Newton's Second Law:

F = ma

Acceleration of a SPODTOTOM is directly proportional to the net force acting on the SPODTOTOM and inversely proportional to its mass.  Translation: the more force you apply to a, SPODTOTOM over time the quicker the SPODTOTOM will move or change.  The bigger the SPODTOTOM the slower the change.

Newton's Third Law:

Whenever one SPODTOTOM exerts a force on a second SPODTOTOM, the second SPODTOTOM exerts an equal and opposite force on the first.

Isabel Trautwein

I've been chosen the Poet Laureate of the City of Cleveland Heights and will be installed April 20 at Cleveland Heights City Hall. Recently, I went to a pot luck in honor of this fact and met many wonderful folks. One person in particular is Isabel Trautwein a violinist. She played a few pieces of Bach, J.S. Bach and they were wonderful. She works with the Rainey institute in Cleveland's Hough Neighborhood and I was moved to post this since I have had the privilege of working with this fine institution.
I am hoping to exact some modicum of change in the culture school aged youth in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights community as poet laureate of Cleveland Heights. Prayers, cherished.

The Strickland Administration strips Chuck Brown Bail Bonds of the Right Conduct Business

Follow the link and read about the issue from the pen of Eric J Brewer, former mayor of East Cleveland, Ohio. A $40 million business put out of business by the Strickland administration because of inconsistencies during a period when the owner was ill. The inconsistencies were corrected yet two years later the company with its 180 employees is closed.
Can Cleveland and even Ohio afford a $40 million dollar cut, especially in light of what Mr. Strickland has added in the way of jobs and income? It seems he has added very little if anything.
If you'd like to ask the honorable Ted Strickland about this here is how.
This link takes you to Ted Strickland's survey page where you can type in a message:
http://www.tedstrickland.com/page/s/survey?gclid=CMfJv5irtKICFY9M5Qod7hCI4g.
This previous link takes you to the following page where you can send a note to friends. There is a pre-written note that I changed and sent. Supposedly you can only send to ten folks at a time but I sent to at least twice that many:
http://www.tedstrickland.com/page/invite/survey
If you don't have time and would like a script this is what I said in the survey and in the page to friends:

I was appalled to find that this administration shut down Chuck Brown Sr. This was a 40 million Bail Bonds business. Was this a personal vendetta or an example of using a hatchet instead of a scalpel? Supposedly it was due to administrative inconsistencies that occurred while Mr. Brown was ill and I note corrective measures were put in place once he was well. Dear sir, I would like an accounting from your administration and I will remember this the next time you want my vote. I am also informing people of this through my facebook, MySpace pages and my blog. I will gladly print your views on this once I have them and have them researched.
Respectfully submitted

Juan "Enoch" James of Cross Movement dead at 35

Enoch of Cross Movement Died Yesterday
Timothy BliSs Jones
Oct 18, 2009





On Saturday morning, October 17, 2009, Juan "Enock" James was pronounced dead.  While at his job in Houston, TX, he collapsed from what is most likely a severe heart attack.  The autopsy results are not in yet to confirm the final cause of death.  This was an unexpected occurrence and a complete shock to his family, friends and fans.  All that is known of his condition is that he had hypertension and was on medication to stabilize his blood pressure, but nothing indicated he would suffer a heart attack.

Born on July 12, 1974 in Philadelphia, PA, Enoch lived his life for the Lord until his death.  Juan James was one of the founding members of The Cross Movement and is heard on Heaven's Mentality, House of Representatives and Human Emergency. Earlier this year, Enoch along made a guest appearance on the song "Da Body" from The Tonic's The Dash album.

He is survived by his wife Natalie James who gave birth to Jana James in 2005.  He is also survived by Genesis James (9yrs), Juan James Jr. (11yrs.), and Chavonna James (17yrs).


Juan James will be deeply missed and we will forever remember him for his great music and ministry.

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Ironically Enoch's death comes on the same day a song in rememberance to our deceased loved ones was released yesteray. Hear it here: www.blissent.net/LetGodBeTheBoss.zip

Burger King Sponge Bob and Sir Mix A Lot Roll the Dice

and figure they can stand the heat of those opposed to Burger King's latest commercial starring Sponge Bob Square Pants and Sir Mix-a-Lot.
Recently those cutting edge heart attack cats at Burger King rolled out a new commercial aimed at children. The commercial revamps Anthony Ray's, a.k.a Sir Mix-a-Lot Grammy award winning single "Baby Got Back," from the Album Mack Daddy recorded on American Recordings.
This commercial which has aired as early as 6:00pm in many areas of the country is fun until you pay attention. The original "Baby Got Back" lyrics say "Tell 'em to shake it! (Shake it!) Shake it! (Shake it!) Shake that healthy butt!" apparently "Mix-a-Lot's in trouble Beggin' for a piece of that bubble," and he reports "My anaconda don't want none Unless you've got buns, hun." Hmmm. This reptile butt thing sounds a bit kinky. Oh it's a metaphor! Got it.
Well in the Burger King version the ladies certainly shake it and true to Rap video values they get it measured and shake it some more. Burger King reports that they intend this commercial for adults who take their families to Burger King and that it is not being aired during children's shows. Thank goodness for small favors but what makes them think adults want a healthy dose of he-man female objectification without prior notice?! Whatever makes them think that seems to be correct because few adult moms and dads I've talked to are shocked at anything other than my raised eyebrow and many don't mind if their kids see it.
Well I think I'm about to yank my TV basic cable out and go rent CSI and whatever else I occasionally watch for my sake and my daughter's sake. I make sure she stays to Disney, Nickelodeon, Animal Planet and the like which are sometimes questionable unless she's watching sports with me which is where we were first introduced to the BK Sponge Bob Sir Mix-a-Lot alliance. I had no warning this commercial was queued up. I was so shocked it was one of the few times I missed a discussion of content op with my kid. I mean come on isn't that BK guy just a little creepy?
Is the content just playful fun? I think Mix-a-Lots rap promo and commentary at the end of the commercial says it best, "...a square butt with sharp angles underwater we keep it grungy cuz everybody know he spongey
now spongebob i want to get with cha cuz you makin me richa
burger king wants me to seal the the deal 99 cents get a toy and a kids meal,"and then his commentary,"Booty is Booty."

Well said Sir well said. Here are the entire lyrics from the commercial (the full video can be found on youtube so put your kids in check)and the commercial.

Lyrics

I like square butts and I cannot lie,
Squid and Sea Star can’t deny.
When a sponge walks in, four corners in his pants,
like he got phone book implants,
the crowd shouts, all the ladies stare.
Man those pants are square!
Swinging through the seaweed tangles
is a butt with sharp right angles.
Now, SpongeBob,
I wanna get with ya,
‘cause you’re making me richer.
Burger King wants me to seal the deal:
99 cents get a toy and a kids meal.

No Children Left By Design

In an article by Sam Dillon one day before "Tax Day" the New York Times reports "Education Standards Likely to See Toughening."

No Child Left Behind was one of the few domestic bipartisan accomplishments of the Bush administration full of Republican morality such as fighting "soft bigotry" that was as equally palatable for Democrats and Civil Rights advocates alike.

Although it upped the ante of Federal involvement to an uncomfortable level for many Republicans it was still up to individual states to set the standard and as Daniel L. Whitney says just "git 'er done." As it turns out Republicans were uncomfortable for naught since Mr. Bush failed to grease the wheels of social progress with money.

In Education Week blogger Diane Ravitch concludes that "Obama has given President George W. Bush a third term in education policy" and that "Arne Duncan is the male version of Margaret Spellings." As one may recall outgoing Ed Secretary Spelling planted big sloppy wet compliments on current Secretary Duncan at a ceremony in Chicago at the beginning of the year lauding him as a true reformer... like herself. If Mr. Obama had been interested in changing the way Education in America works this should have been his cue to drop Duncan like Silva dropped Irvin OK OK like Ali dropped Foreman.

Last November Barack Obama appointed professor of education at Stanford’s School of Education, Linda Darling-Hammond as head of his education policy transition team.
Yes! He's got he's got but then in January... he ain't got. She was supposed to develop education policy action plans and proposals for the Obama administration which begs the question what did she come up with and how much of it is in the Obama cocktail for change?
Well I'm not hating on the President. This is the first of many misfires not because of poor choices in leadership and bad decisions but because of the business as usualness of it all and the faint smell of cronyism in the air.

Some people looking at the NCLB(No Child Left Behind) Obama version wonder what all the hub hub is about. Syracuse University professor Adam Banks left a short note on Face book that said,

the problem is that data crunching and standardized testing will *never* improve the quality of education--especially not for Black students and students of color. attempting to decide which teachers are effective and which are not can never be accomplished through students' test scores either. teacher evaluation has to happen through serious in-class observation by teachers who know their pedagogy, know the students and know the communities the schools are in.

Points well taken to be sure.
In addition I suggest that to have any semblance of an informed opinion on how to address this proposed fix and the problem "Savage Inequalities" by Jonathan Kozol among others is a must read.
Many of the failures and inequalities we face are by design and much of the design is by the politics of the haves and have nots. Globalization and heated academic competition from primarily China and Indian (England France Germany, etc have always been in the mix) are causing the USA to rethink how we use, abuse, advance and handicap our human resource.
To not understand that the deplorable living conditions and the educational famine that exists in Chicago's North Lawndale and the South Side of Chicago primarily populated by people of color were created by people with power in business and politics who had and have choices is nothing less than irresponsible if you are from Chicago and the President of the United States.
To not be aware that third world conditions that existed and may still exist in East St. Louis, Illinois were contrived and carried out by businessman is to be woefully outgunned, outnumbered, naive and unprepared to lead this country toward a civil, human, equitable, healthy functioning school system for all.

Having said that there are good things in the Obama version such as putting money behind the fix that Bush didn't do. Equity in in teacher distribution is in the language, subgrants to local educational agencies and "Innovation Fund" accommodations also look pretty good to me as far as causing the education system to no longer be self contained and unconstitutional. One may remember that a number of years ago the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the way Ohio funds its schools is unconstitutional yet to date the situation still exists. Unconstitutional or not there may not be a rich suburban school that gives my kid a 20 to 1 edge in spending and opportunity if we move from a house tax based funding of schools to something else "more equitable." So tell me what's fair about that!?

Michelle Obama gets Pride! What Nerve.

Now that a week has gone by the "P-word" pronouncement by Michelle Obama has been beat down, dragged around, sympathized with and pretty much abandoned by Michelle. That "P-word" is the issue of pride finally, in America.
Well what are the poli-social implications of this fall out? Why couldn’t Michelle instead of backpedaling respond like Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun Times? I followed this story because I had the exact same response as Michelle in about the exact same words. Naively, until I was sucked into the maelstrom of opinion, I did not know I had thought anything wrong. I thought the thought quite effortlessly and innocently.
Finally, I too, like Michelle felt I could be proud of my country. I felt I could cross over from being a team USA wannabe and fan to being a fan that is part owner, part of team USA and yes maybe I could even take the field as a player who might have a shot at 1st string.
Now I have pride in my Cleveland Browns but on the real? Those are Randy Lerner’s Cleveland Browns. I’m just a Big Dawg drinking beer in the dawg pound. I revel in their wins scream and shout and agonize over the penalties, inexplicable losses and even team relocation without a potent voice.
Maybe my new ownership status in the team and such is fantasy, because home-girl Cindy McCain and even some Black-folk writers can not understand nor empathize with any part of “finally proud” thus pitting themselves in opposition to her, but in my opinion mostly against her new found pride and mine. The problem is not that they disagree, it’s that they are happily oblivious to the obvious deep divide between themselves and the Obamas and thus between their American experience and mine. Many times I tire of being the voice of dissent by default as Michelle Obama was.
Sometimes I think that because I was born here in the USA I have basically the same outlook as all Americans when it comes to American identity. Then I realize that some Americans may always be owners some may always be fans and the tell tale signs of melanin, kinky hair and subculture determines many an outcome in life and politics.
Yes there is a major difference between McCaines and Obamas and it looms ever larger in deference to the “elephant in the kitchen,” determined to raid the fridge nightly leaving empty cartons of truth, reality and justice in its wake.
Senator John McCain’s great-great grandfather, William Alexander McCain was in the Confederate Army. He owned a 2000-acre plantation in Carroll County Mississippi and also had 50 or so slaves. Mr. McCain’s grandfather, John Sidney McCain Sr. was an Admiral in the United States Navy and had quite an illustrious career. John Sidney McCain, Jr. was a four star admiral in the United States Navy who served in World War II through the Vietnam War.. Doesn’t all that tradition just make ya, I dunno, sorta proud?
How can an owner with ownership tradition and privilege backed by the “us” constitution founded on the U.S. Constitution and ownership worldview see through the eyes of a fan? What does the owner know of long lines, freezing weather, high concession stand prices, the cost of credit to make ends meet… oops sorry I mean the cost of parking or taking the bus with a family of five all to see the game, and participate only as “the twelfth man?”
Does anyone know how long it takes the attitude and outlook of a slave owner to dissipate and not affect his progeny? Would you say about as long as it would take the effects of slavery to wear off of the slave’s progeny? I’m just sayin that sometimes “the apple don’t fall to far from da tree” and John McCain was a damned good fifth generation soldier.
Cindy Hensley McCain’s outlook on life and politics began ( It helps to sing "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oats to this part) as she was born into the world Cindy Lou Hensley, heiress. She was born into the Hensley and Hensley Company fortune. Her late father Jim Hensley founded the company in 1955. Hensley and Hensley Company is one of the largest companies in Arizona selling brands of Anheuser-Busch beer.
Hensley was apparently into illicit hooch, horses and gambling and made a lot of his money bootlegging, post prohibition. A 1948 federal criminal indictment charged, the Hensley brothers made over 1,000 false entries concerning the sale of thousands of cases of liquor.. James and brutha Eugene Hensley were convicted on federal conspiracy charges "with the intent and design to hide and conceal from the United States of America, the names and addresses of the person or persons to whom the said distilled spirits were sent, and the prices obtained from the sale thereof."
Eugene was sentenced to one year in a federal prison and a $2,000 fine. James' sentence was suspended and he received one-year probation and a $2,000 fine. Apparently that did not seem to stem the flow of mad cash into the Hensley coffers. This is capitalism at it’s best and the American Way full throttle if you are an owner.
Cindy McCain said “I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you? If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country.” Honey, of course you don’t know about me. Your husband doesn’t either, so how can either of you represent me? Don’t you know it’s not that I have no pride in this country, and Michelle was not saying that either. When will you acknowledge some can afford to have more pride than others in a land where owners tend to be freer than fans on game day.
I n the wake of the Jena Six, the Japanese internment, the Rosewood Massacre in which an entire African American town was wiped off the map by mob justice, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Jim Crow laws and on and on one’s sense of pride surely in part depends on whether one is owner or fan.
Not only is our country still systemically, socially, rhetorically divided by race, by the “haves” and the “have nots” vis a vis class and color there is no solution in the immediate future because for many this is the way it should be. “Leave the elephant right there and pass the peanut butter please” some will say.
As the Democratic race heats up for Ohio I must rethink my initial conclusion that Hillary would be just as good as Obama. Can she really empathize with my love-hate relationship with this country and bring about change? Or will her change be business as usual for the fans of America?
For details and a spit on McCain and the liquor lobby check out the Phoenix New Times News, Haunted by Spirits by Amy Silverman and John Dougherty Contact John Dougherty (http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2000-02-17/news/haunted-by-spirits/full) at 602-229-8445 or at his online address: john.dougherty@newtimes.com
Contact Amy Silverman at 602-229-8443 or at her online address: amy.silverman@newtimes.com

Let's ask the Australians: Should the U.S. Government apologize for slavery?

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on behalf of the Australian government and people formally apologized for the mistreatment of the aborigines through the 1970’s. Probably to a person the aboriginal people felt it was long overdue. Many of them shed tears of joy both on the island and throughout the world.
An American can’t help but automatically wonder about an apology to Blacks in the U.S. Well at least this American can’t help but wonder.

On June 13, 2005, the United States Senate formally apologized for its failure in previous decades to enact a federal anti-lynching law. Prior to the vote, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu noted, "There may be no other injustice in American history for which the Senate so uniquely bears responsibility.”
Good start. Of the 4743 reported lynchings in the U.S., 3,446 or 72.6% were perpetrated against Blacks according to the archives at the Tuskegee Institute.
The resolution expresses "the deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets of the Senate to the descendants of victims of lynching, the ancestors of whom were deprived of life, human dignity and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States."

There are several pro and con arguments concerning an apology and reparations for slavery. A dispassionate eye can see merit on both sides. Of course the most popular reason not to apologize and make reparation from those who are ignorant of the facts and issues (and I do believe I am giving them more credit than they deserve) is, “Why should I apologize? I never owned any slaves.”

O.K., suppose we just call it “even,” on slavery and pick up on June 19, 1865? Many know this day as Juneteenth, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived on Galveston Island and enforce the emancipation proclamation, which had legally been in effect since January 1, 1863.

Can those Whites who claim to not have owned slaves claim to have not prospered from the institution and it’s aftermath? Slavery was not only forced labor but also the justification for a cruel system of slavery many knew was inherently wrong but financially and socially advantageous.
The law invariably turned its back on crimes against Blacks as in the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald (July 24, 1961 – March 20, 1981) who was picked at random by two Ku Klux Klan members in Mobil, Alabama. Local police dismissed it as a drug deal gone bad and put it to rest. It took a Jesse Jackson protest march (O.K. Jesse Jackson hasn’t always been a slouch) and a public demand for answers and FBI involvement from pressure by Michael and Thomas Figures, local activists to bring the culprits to justice two year later.

Laws, which helped enforce a kind of degradation and psychic humiliation that was not much better than slavery, replaced legal slavery.
In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as unconstitutional. Said civil rights act pronounced: "That all persons ... shall be entitled to full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement."
Okay then in light of this rendering of the law maybe there should be an apology for the Rosewood Massacre??

“On December 22, 1993, historians from Florida State University, Florida A&M University, and the University of Florida delivered a 100-page accounting (with 400 pages of attached documentation) of the Rosewood massacre after interviewing both black and white survivors of the incident entitled, "Documented History of the Incident which Occurred at Rosewood, Florida in January 1923" to the Florida Board of Regents. The report provided support for a compensation bill to the survivors, a bill that proponents fought to get passed. Lobbyists began to receive hate mail, some from the Ku Klux Klan, and one legislator remarked that the public opposition received was an unprecedented 10 to 1.
Officially, six blacks and two whites are the recorded death toll of the first week of January 1923. Historians, however, disagree about this number, recognizing that many survivors fled in different directions, never to return.” No one was ever prosecuted.
I guarantee that no one of color benefited from the drop in market competition by the destruction of an entire town.
Maybe the U.S., should apologize for the almost universal attitude that made this and several other Black massacres possible?

Maybe the U.S. should apologize for Redlining- Lending institutions have been shown to treat black mortgage applicants differently when they are buying homes in white neighborhoods than when buying homes in black neighborhoods, thus preserving segregated living patterns for blacks and whites in the United States. I know, I know some of you are thinking, “so what’s your point?”

Racial profiling.

How about an apology for a legal and a prison system that determines sentencing based on race? A study found that in the 25-29 age group, 8.1 percent of black men -- about 1 in 13 -- are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men. The figures are not much different among women. By the end of 2005, black women were more than twice as likely as Hispanics and more than three times as likely as white women to be in prison.

For comparison South Africa under Apartheid incarcerated (1993), Black males: 851 per 100,000
• U.S. under George Bush (2006), Black males: 4,789 per 100,000. This means that America incarceration rate for Black males is 5.8 times higher than the formerly Apartheid South African, once the most openly racist country on the planet.

2001 study by David Mustard, of the University of Georgia, called “Racial, Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Sentencing: Evidence from the US Federal Courts” shows that “bank robbery and drug trafficking exhibit the largest black-white differentials.
Blacks receive 9.4 and 10.5 months longer than whites in bank robbery and drug trafficking, respectively. The percentage difference is greatest for those convicted of drug trafficking, where blacks are assigned sentences 13.7 percent longer than whites. The aggregate Hispanic-white difference is driven primarily by those convicted of drug trafficking and firearm possession/trafficking, the only two crimes with significant Hispanic coefficients. For these two crimes, Hispanics receive 6.1 and 3.7 additional months compared to whites, or 8.0 percent and 7.0 percent longer in percentage terms.”


The record is clear, not obscure, nor occult. The government is made up of people like the ones who never owned slaves who demonstrated a desire to exploit and dominate another people. It is the darkest hour of American history…. No double entendre intended.
Much darker that the Japanese internment camps for which the government apologized and made reparation.
Worse than the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, for which the U.S. apologized.

Worse than the FBI mistake that landed Brandon Mayfield in jail for two weeks for which the FBI apologized. The apology came hours after a judge dismissed the case against Brandon Mayfield, who had been held as a material witness in the Madrid bombings case, which killed 191 people and injured about 2,000 others.”

The U.S. government Bureau of Indian Affairs apologized to the Native American.

Let me be clear. The principal of the thing goes well beyond an apology being owed. Don’t apologize! Believe me I will Gloria Gaynor survive and more. However, with an apology would come an expulsion of the Elephant in the corner bloated and full of magnolia blossoms … and that that strange fruit stain that just won’t come out. It would be good for your soul to confess. White guilt would probably disappear.

As far as apologizes that would make me feel good..

I would like an apology:
For the “A Black Man Did It Defense” such as perpetrated by Susan Smith of South Carolina and Charles “Chuck” Stuart of Boston. For The Black guy “always” “getting it” first and worse in action adventure and horror movies. For Praising Black folk for being articulate. For The Pat Boone Version of Tutti Frutti. For White folks being oblivious to their sense of entitlement and privilege.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
UNITED STATES PUBLIC LAW 103-150 103d Congress Joint Resolution 19
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5053007/
http://www.georgemeegan.com/US-apology-document.html

10 to the 7 to the 5. 10 Defining Moments. 5 Pivitol People. 7 Critical Choices part TWO

I "got saved" when I was seven years old. That means that I recognized Jesus as God in the flesh and that he died and rose from the dead to deliver me from sin and the penalty of sin.
Did I know exactly what that meant? I think I had a big, big clue. In church I usually sat on the front row with my eyes on the preacher. Dad was a deacon.
I was pretty much a good kid and when I was acting out I rarely got caught.
However, later in the year that I accepted Christ as my Savior I was staying after school for a detention. I was in detention with my head on my desk when I put my head up and there was Jesus in the air. He was just kind of there and he was telling me to go home.
The first thing I would ask me if I were hearing this is what did He look like. I don't really remember. I think though He was of the blue eyed, straight brown hair variety since that is the image I had been fed. It still feels like He was there and not there and I could feel and know He was there more than I could see.
Well I got up and left lollygagging and meandering my way home with not a care in the world.
I grew up a latchkey kid which was the norm in the 60's when kids weren't seemingly getting abducted every 7 minutes. All I had to worry about was bullies, gangs and winos. Having said that to me it was a fairly safe neighborhood. I wore my key around my neck and I was lowering my fat face and "husky" body down to insert the key when out of the corner of my eye I saw pink. The pink turned in to a pink hood with tires and then a pink Cadillac. It was Mrs. Mercy, my second grade teacher! In a flash of enlightenment it hit me that I shouldn't have just left detention. When is the last time you know of that a teacher came to a student's house for screwing up? I jumped off of the back stoop and tore around to the back, to the opposite side of the house but it was too late. My chubby self couldn't get over the four foot fence in time, so I just pasted myself to the side of the house with arms outstretched at shoulder level againgst the side of the house.
I don't remember what happened in between the time Mrs. Mercer caught me and when my dad finally got home. I do remember that my school teacher mom got home first. I probably went through a few anguished choruses of the "wait 'till your father gets home" blues. Sometimes mom would tear me up first. Sometimes even a close neighbor would get me. Back then we got "whoopin's." Mom was "off the hook" and would flail in anger. "Didn't... (Smack)... I... (Smack!) tell...(smack!) you?!" Dad was calm and would talk to you. I think he wanted to save his breath so as not to get winded for maximum effect while "whoopin."
He would usually take me in the bathroom. It was so tiny. There was barely enough room for two people to stand in there let alone dance to the syncopated rhythm of belt smacks. Later on I learned that I could feel little pain on my legs. I would scream, "Daddy please don't hit me on my legs!" and of course that is right where he would aim.
As the clock ticked down to contact time with my Father, time seemed to stop, but then suddenly there he was coming into my room. Mom told him what happened again and then left . He asked me why I left.... "Now what do I say?" I thought. "I saw a vision!?" Before I could stop myself that is exactly what came out of my mouth. "I saw a vision and Jesus was telling me to go home so I did." My father looked at me. I don't remember what he said. I don't remember the look he gave me. All I can remember is that there was no punishment! I thought about that for a long time, especially when I got in trouble. I thought it could be my ace in the hole.... Break a window?... Jesus made me do it. Get another detention? "See what had happened was Jesus and this other guy...
I never did that and was never really tempted to. In fact beyond the time of the vision the thought to do that never crossed my mind. It is an incident that I will probably always remember. Since then I have had the voice of God talk to me in a literal voice on one occasion in the '80's. I said, "God if that was you say it again." I heard nothing.
Now a days I am learning to develop listening skills by which I hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit within. I am learning to combine that with God "speaking" through circumstance. I have learned that in addition God can have a special word just for me by illuminating scriptures and incidents. I know that I need to take a good look and give a good listen and then pray and compare what I hear to the word of God. I have learned to look for a confirmation in my spirit that it is God. I have learned that even if an angel appears and gives me a word that it has to agree with the Bible and that if I don't have a witness (confirmation) in my soul, in my spirit then I shouldn't follow that voice or angel or preacher... abaout which way my life should go.
Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice," and I can become one with Christ by loving Him. The cool metaphysical aspect of this is that this is literal and that to love Christ is to watch over his commandments to perform them, believe them and become one with them. What are His commandments you ask? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and to love your neighbor as yourself.
I have wondered about this in times past. I know so many self-destructive people whom I believe don't love themselves. I have been there and so I think, "how did I get from there to here?" God brought me the entire way. He has put in all of us a seed of faith with which to recognize the truth when we hear it... when we see it. No matter how noisy our society is. No matter how "off the hook" our lives are. No matter the turmoil we can all hear that still small voice that leaps from our bosom when we hear the Word of God calling us. In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God and the Word was God so listen up everybody. Listen up. Paul said Christ is the Author and Finisher of or faith. He will finish what he starts and he will refine what he starts.

Be Encoraged Oh My Soul

One day recently I was feeling very overwhelmed. I had an end of the year report due which I had barely started; a five year budget proposal and an upset boss, six or seven phone calls to make before five, emails had flooded in demanding answers and my cell phone rang so much with messages it sounded like a doorbell.. Ding-dong, ding-dong! Ding-dong ding dong!
I told my soul in so many words that I should bless the Lord. I should just stop and focus on God and what he had done for me just recently. I started to share this with friends and ended up prophesying. It went something like this:

I'm at the library mixing work with finding quarters to live and such. I'm trying to fill my commitments and obligations. I just got caught up in being overwhelmed, trapped, and scared. I'm behind in many things and may miss the mark on some important assignments and obligations this week. Sometimes I get it in gear and sometimes not. Sometimes I have my wits and will and sometimes not.

I stopped a minute and remembered that all things work to the good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
I thought about how I miss the mark on really important things... not that family, work and friends are not important but they are not eternal. God has more than proved himself strong and faithful in my life especially over the last 2 or 3 years. Through all of the pain much of which came about by being confronted with who I am, God has never let me go. I have more that survived. I have overcome. What was meant for harm God has meant for good. God has made me to prosper in the valley of the shadow of death and is raising me up. Even though I am more Jonah that Elijah, More Samson than David, more Peter than Solomon God tells me.
Oy! God is telling us,
"Satan has desire to sift you as wheat, but don't worry you have a High Priest in my Son and he is ever before my throne making intercession for you all. There is no need for anymore sacrifice but the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Praise me like Paul when I ordained that he be imprisoned and I will tear your prisons asunder and bring you closer to me. Do what you know to do and repent when you do not, always knowing from whence comes your salvation. When the enemy comes in know that like a tsunami I have already raised a standard against him.
You are mine dear children and the depth of my love for you is. The depth of my love for you is. I Am is causing a new thing to happen. Be thankful. I need you to.... I desire for my thoughts to be your thoughts and my ways to be your ways. Those things that come against you are not as heavy as they appear unless you take them. But take me. Take my burden and see what I am doing.
Look to me. Look at me. Look to me. Look for me. Hunt, seek, excavate, dig for me. It's not that I don't want you to find me. It is that you need a single eye to enter in and find me in ALL of my glory. Look for me like a lost child in a crowded mall looking for its mother or father and know that I will be revealed arms out stretched and running toward you. Dig for me like a diamond miner or a gold miner with a lamp at night seeking fortune and despising what is not worthy of being found. See me in all things and I am there. See me in all outcomes. I reign supreme. I am sovereign. Nothing nothing nothing happens that I do no see, that I do not work to my good pleasure for my children."

I can through Christ who gives me strength do all things. I can be cast down and without as well as I can be lifted up and prosper. I can hit all of my earthly marks or miss them and be allowed to suffer the consequences. He is there.
I r rebuke the spirit of fear and despair because I have not been given a spirit of fear but of love and power and of a sound mind. My God reigns and will not allow me to be torn asunder!
He knows the work he has begun in me and in us and he is faithful who promised. Thank God it depends on Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rofi, and Jehova Sidkinu El Shaddai the Author and the Finisher of my faith. I come against that feeling of being overwhelmed and lost and tear down anything that would raise itself up against the Word of God.
With purpose, thought and in the power of the Holy Spirit I put on the whole armor of God. I will through grace and mercy, faith do all and STAND. If God is for me who can be against? I realize to those called to life everything is spiritual. If some of these things that have come against me come against you realize it is a spiritual battle against principalities and powers of darkness but that the gates of hell will not prevail against the onslaught of the Kingdom of God, the Army of God, and to the Family of God to which many of us belong.
I'm better now! So now to answer those phone calls!
Praise the name of Jesus!
If you are receiving this email I just took time out to pray for you. I love all of you in Christ.