THE SONGWRITER (Another tale from the Life and times of Mark Bey)

All my life I have had a great love of music . That love transcends everything from Jay Z, Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane and Patsy Cline to many other diverse artist and forms of music. I have also had a great love for writing poetry, I remember in Junior high school my teacher given the class an assignment to write a poem and it was on that day that I discovered I had a knack for making words rhyme in crafty way, plus I really enjoyed it.



Anyway back around 1995 I was walking home from a girlfriends house one day when I spotted a friend of mine from college ( I didnt finish but he did) we were both happy to see each other and we ended up talking for about an hour in the warm summer evening. Eventually my friend ( also Mark) invited me in to a dinner of fried chicken he cooked and a game of chess which we both loved. The chicken was bad but the chess was fun. In fact over the next few months I made it a habbit of stopping by unannounced not because me and Mark were great friends but because we both loved chess and the games between us were something we enjoyed very much. I guesse at this time you could say I had a serious jones over chess and quite often I found myself at DuPont circle to in Washington DC playing chess out doors, winter, spring, summer and fall I mean thats how much chess excited me at that time.


One day after a game of chess my buddy played a song he had composed on an old out of tume piano in his house. He had no idea that I wrote poetry and songs so after he played that song for me I asked him if I could write some lyrics to the song and said yes. WE began working together as a partnership that day, that partnership would eventually include another very talented brotha named John who sang, played keyboard and produced music.



We ended up joining forces and forming a company called OVER THE WALL PRODUCTIONS or OTW for short, then we built a studio inside of Mark"s apartment were we could write and create music to our hearts content. With the blessing of modern technology we were able to produce radio quality music in our own studio without having to break our pockets. I was enthralled with the ability of my friends to take ideas, that we hummed or sang and replicate them on the keyboard. Notes, melody and harmony became something very enjoyable and spiritual to me along with writing lyrics to go along with those notes.


Soon after I got myself a keyboard and began my journey of trying to learn how to play/make music. Meanwhile OTW continued to record with local artist, attend local music conferences and develop our business plan and build up our catolog. During this process we also met with lots of producers, singers and other folks who were trying to break through in the industry, most of them were the same sized fish as us, some a little bigger some a little smaller.



The majority of people at our level were not able to earn enough money to work full time at music in fact most of us lost money and when that happens music is no more than a sophisticated hoby. One thing I can tell you folks is this, getting airplay and radio time has very little to do with who writes the best songs or who is the best singer and more to do with producing a commericial product that can sale in the markektplace. Anohter thing I can tell you from this expeirence is the songs and artist you here on the radio getting airplay arent neccessarily the best, in fact I have heard many songs (hip hop and R and B) created by independent producers that were far supperior to anything youll ever hear on the raidio.



Now dont get me wrong Im not saying that the folks out their making money in the industry arent talented because they are. But what I am saying is that the music industry like any other industry is a business and business number rule of of the game is return on investment.



Anyway having said all of that, isnt it funny how my love of chess allowed a friendship to develop, which allowed me the opurtunity to work and vibe with a lot of talented musicians. Being around those talented musicians inspired me to buy a keyboard, which lead to hours upon hours of intense practicing and study which lead to me finally being able to transpose ideas from my head into reality. I know for a fact that if we had not both loved chess I would not have been stopping and would have never began working with Mark, which also means I would never have been exposed to the keyboard. At this point in my life I cant imagine not having a keyboard around at all times.

Below is a sample of one of the songs I have written. This song is not complete I only was able to get a lead vocal down and backround vocals would have made it sound better, but nevertheless this piece called "Taking All My Cash" represents" my efforts as a musician and a songwriter on my own. This piece was written and dirived totally from my efforts, although I realize this is not of proffesional quality I do think some will enjoy it.

http://www.markbey.com/takingcash.mp3

SUPPORT THE FIGHT AGAINST HOT GHETTO MESS

Bronze Trinity has written a post about a current campaign to get the sponsors of HGM to pull their sponsorship of the show. Sponsors such as State Farm have started pulling their sponsorship of HGM. Bronze Trinity has illustrated what is going on in this post titled Stop BETs HOT GHETTO MESS Bronze Trinity has written a post about a current campaign to get the sponsors of BETs Hot Ghetto Mess (HGM) to pull their sponsorship of the show. This campaign is an excellent example of online activism practiced by activist bloggers such as Eddie Griffin and What about our Daughters who is really, really getting up in peoples hind parts, especially BETs. Bronze Trinity has illustrated what is going on in this post titled Stop BETs HOT GHETTO MESS.


I read this article about the upcoming TV show called Hot Ghetto Mess (HGM) yesterday and while I support the website I am appalled at the idea of the TV show because I think BET is trying to clown us for dollars. But the sistah who create the website stands to loose a lot of money over this because I’m sure she had a financial interest in having the show last as long as people will watch. So from her standpoint I can understand why she would want the show to continue and to be as successful as possible.


But even still I think BET had no business even trying to pull this foolishness. I think we gotta make them pay and it would be nice if the afrosphere bloggers/all black bloggers could link this to discussion on their blogs. Because there are email address and other contact information of the offending parties that has been provided by Bronze Trinity and What about our Daughters. Although I don’t get much traffic I am pretty confident that I can influence some people who come to my blog to sign petitions and make at least one call or send an email. Its time to turn up the heat on BET and Viacom. To quote HGM BET and Viacom Gotta do better.

I am going to post about the stop HGM campaign my blog regularly if everyone here who is against the show would post updates and ways your readers can assist What about our Daughters in putting more pressure on BET and Viacom to pull this show I think we make them feel our sore disfavor over this matter and force BET to stop their cooning. Please do not underestimate the power and impact that bloggers can have on public policy and other societal issues of great concern such as whether or not BETs coon move to force HGM on the public will be tolerated. Remember bloggers have taken down politicians please remember how they swift boated John Kerry in 04. So we can make BET take this Mess off of the airwaves but we can also make them stop their cooning.

Anyway if anyone has any suggestion on how to further go after BET and what we should we further request as our pound of flesh for their cooning please come over to THE SOLUTIONS BLOG and let us know. Eddie has left some good ideas over there and Bronze has linked to what about about our daughters and her is a quote from her explaining exactly what folks can do to help this battle.


“On July 25, 2007, “Hot Ghetto Mess” watch parties are being scheduled in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Austin, the District of Columbia and the list of locations keeps growing.
Those attending the watch parties will be recording which companies purchase advertisements during the show. The coalition then plans to target those businesses with possible boycotts or demonstrations.” http://solutionsforourpeople.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/stop-bets-hot-ghetto-mess/


I don’t think watching the July 25 episode of 2007 HGM and recording which advertisers are funding HGM is a difficult task for many of us who have cable and are at home during that time anyways. Once we collect info about who is sponsoring that show we can make the advertisers known to all afrosphere members who can blog about it and leave contact info on their blogs then we can really ram our Tim’s/heels up in Viacom/BET’s hind parts. Our intentions are not to make to close them down, go out of business or damage them financially but to re-educate BET in order that they stop cooning and trying to see cash while making the rest of us look bad.

Lets make them do better and lets kick their hind parts so bad that we can get them to fund an education and history website/blog that features tutorials, teach aids such as school house rock and other similar techniques along with advise and participation who are the best teachers of black youth in America. This website will be designed to promote history and education.


This they should have to do this as their pittance. They could drop our organization the funds and then let us create the blog/website, this website/blog which would have free tutorials audio/video and free downloads available to be used in ipods and a whole lot of other interactive features designed to help our kids learn and develop.

I mentioned these things because their are discussions of developing a really comprehensive and user friendly black history blog over at the afrosphere forum and this blog will be free to the public. This website could be funded by the settlement from BET for their cooning and it ain't just HGM they must pay pittance for those guys have been cooning for years some of their shows reflect pure coonery and they have the nerve to tell the black American public that we have to do better. Well the same goes for BET and we will force them to do better.

Please share what our daughters ongoing battle with BET on your blog and please help her and others in their righteous fight to make BET stop cooning. Thanks for reading this folks.

THE SHIA/SUNNI CONFLICT

Last year during the Lebanese vs Israeli conflict I heard a Lebanese Sunni Muslim say he supported Hezbollah's (a militant shia organization) stance against Israel, but that the Shia were still fake Muslims. Now Id been hearing about the Sunni / Shia dispute over the last couple of years and I have been fascinated by some of the details Id been learning. To Someone like me who is committed to Anti-Religion ism and who views the misuse and abuse of religion as one of the greatest problems the world has ever seen, this type of attitude is offensive,neanderthalish and quite frankly retarded. Although I have no love for religion of any form I am a very spiritual person by nature and truth be told if not for religion(s) (which I consider a form of spirituality) something inside of me thinks that, this planet would be even more screwed up than it already is.

After all it is a fact that thousands of Christians missionaries all over the world are feeding and helping to care for sick people. Not to mention the thousands of hospitals all over the world started by christian, Muslim and Jewish people and organizations all over the world . Simply put the church and people inspired by religion are taking care of people 24x7 all over the world in the absolute worse conditions and without any fanfare. Those Christians and other religious folks (although I believe their religions are fairy tales) are often on the front lines of despair and poverty working to bring relief to the poor and suffering that's a fact.

The Sunni/Shea split started right after the the Prophet Muhammad died, one school of thought followed that the new leader of the Islamic world should be chosen by a committee of the most learned and respected Islamic scholars (Sunni), another school of thought was that the Prophet Muhammad had spiritual qualities that would be passed down through his children and descendants (Shea).

Ever since the death of Muhammad Islam has been split by philosophical, ethnic, clan and tribal differences that include the Shea and Sunni divide. Now before anyone goes off and starts Judging Islam please remember that little catholic/protestant conflict or that thousands of English settlers were driven to America (to steal other folks land) to get away from religious persecution or keep in mind the fact that it was not necessarily safe or cool to be a catholic in many parts of the southern united states of America during the early part of the 20th century.

So I am in no way suggesting that this behavior is reflective of what Islam as a whole is. This is what makes it hard to build a strong and self sufficient, modern and democratic society.. If you've got 30 tribes spread out over a land mass the size of say California with lands being separated by lakes, mountains deserts etc. When you add in a paternalistic culture and world view, then my folks, you've got a big ball of confusion and chaos because when members of one tribe/clan seek redress in court or are being held or sentenced under another tribes justice. What is justice to one tribe may be cause for jihad to another tribe/clan/nation, also many of these folks are ultra conservative and fundamentalist in their views of the world.


Over the centuries in the world of Islam their has always been tensions between Shea and Sunni but they have also lived together in peace for over a thousands years as well. After a thousand years of living together those divisions have been further split by clan, ethnic, race, country etc. This fundamentalist strain is found in most religions and most cultures and is still a problem even in America when you think about the Christians trying to force christian school prayer or their ridiculous theory of Intelligent Design on non believers of the christian faith it tells you exactly what is going on. Often times this fundamentalist ideology takes the most narrow and close minded view of religion which is never a good thing for the cause of tolerance and human advancement.


This is yet one more reason why I really dislike all religion, I mean Shea and Sunni have been living together, marrying each other and conducting business between one another for over 700 years in Lebanon but still Islam promotes a brand of religion so backwards that people who have lived together for ages are still referring to each other spiritual beliefs as fake.

Unbelievable, how backwards it is to follow any religion that promotes meaningless divisions when human beings by their nature are flawed and always looking to identify themselves based on the most obvious differences between ourselves. Especially when it comes to something as sensitive and controversial as spirituality. What a shame. What a shame.

CONCLUSION PART 2 IS THE BLACK CHURCH GUILTY OF CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

CONCLUSION PART 2 IS THE BLACK CHURCH GUILTY OF CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE


The First part of this post was a very harsh critique of the black churches leadership on the aids issue. In it I argue that the church is guilty of criminal negligence, although the dialog in the comment sections didnt adrees that. Anyway here is the conclussion I came up with as a result of my findng the black church guilty as well as some measures that should be adopted to remedy the prior abuse and hatred promoted by the black church.


The black church is guilty of criminal neglect on the issue of aids in the black america community because even after leading government experts were warning us about aids and exactly how it was spread they failed to lead and in fact promoted hatred against gays as well as fairy tales that aids was god cursing gay folks. They continued to do this long after magic johson, Eazy E and Authur Ashe came out and said they contracted aids from ways other than homosexual activity. The fact that the black church continued to promote this fairy tale after those brave brothas came out about their Hiv status goes WAYYYYYYYYYYY BEYOND unacceptable.

Instead of the black church leading on this issue and educating the black american population to protect themselves and their families. They choose to promote hatred and fairy tales without a single solitary shred of biblical evidence from the bible that god would curse homosexuals with aids. The church failed to refine themselves and their message sufficiently to allow themselves to grow, evolve and mature into higher truths and intellectual positions. Because of these prejudices and biases they choose to focus on the on a narrow interpretation of the bible which allowed them to blame aids on homosexuality and get away with it This narrow and ignorant interpretation had various negative and compounding effects, on the black american population including-


1) Fostering a climate which pressured gay men into pretending they were straight, which resulted in a certain amount of gay men getting married but still carrying on with men, which resulted in men bringing diseases home?
2) Fostering a climate where men and women who are gay feel ostracized, ridiculed and not taken seriously, or respected?
3) Allowed black people to continue to have unsafe sex in spite of the danger because after all aids is a curse on homosexuals by god isn’t it?
4) Totally marganilized a whole community of black people who were still a part of the black american family while promoting scorn and ridicule against the black american gay population.

This fairy tale amateurish interpretation of christianity was flawed from the beginning because it only focused on condemneding homosexuality which is not the only sin that people committ. People where having unprotected sex all the time and that is a sin as well but the preachers didn’t signify about that did they? Also children born out of wedlock has been a gigantic problem in the black community for a long time and we all know how that unmarried child thing is working out in the black community. . Still no robust policy of condom use and safe sex promotion amongst black churches targeted at all unmarried black people having sex. Starting with the people in their congregations.

Because of an extremely narrow interpretation of Christianity/spirituality they chose to vilify homosexuals while excusing/ignoring behavior that was resulting in a 70% out of wedlock birthrate for black children, an hiv death rate 13 times as high for black women as for white and the sad fact that black kids make up 60% of children with aids. The fact is the black church was warned exactly what was up with Hiv along with the rest of america many, many, many times over the last 25 years and they chose to present fairytale reasons for what was happening while black children were being born infected at much higher rates than all other children in america. I consider this pure bafoonery as condom use policy promotion by the church probably could have spared hundred, if not thousands of lives in the african american populaion.

The Black church is guilty of criminal neglect. No doubt about it.


What is to be done

Take the main points from this document and turn them into a debatle argument that is simple to understand yet thunderously hard hitting proving the churces negligence.

Force a debate with the black church in order to get them to renounce that aids is a curse by god against homo sexuality, make then renounce their bigotry against homosexuals and apologize to homosexuals and their families for endorsing and allowing a level of homophobia that has caused a lot of pain and suffering in the black community.


After we have proven in no uncertain terms that their actions on their matter have been beyond shameful then we should demand the church creates a united plan to fight, treat and test all of their members and the general black american public.

The church should also set up counseling and support programs for those people who test positive for Hiv.

The black church should apologize for misleading the entire black american population about aids.

Every black preacher in american should sign a creed of ethics and piousy, that would prohibit any black preacher (called by god) to recieve an income higher than that of the average black american from the coffers of the church. Every black preacher should sign a moral contract with black america.

IF GOD IS OUT THERE THEN WHY NO OBVIOUS SIGNS (S)?

Religion is and has been one of my favorite topics for a long time. Talking about religion is something I have always enjoyed and usually find intellectually and spiritually rewarding as well. What I would like to do with this post is to promote and expand understanding amongst open minded religious and non religious people about what spirituality (not religion) is really all about. I would also like to give people an opportunity to express why they love and have such faith in their creator as expressed through their religion.

I myself was raised a Christian, I even tried pretty hard to be a good one. At about the age of 15 I was influence by an older gentleman who was a devout believer in Jesus Christ. He told me that there had once been a time in his life when everything he touched fell apart and he was lost. He believed that he'd been rescued from his pain and suffering through the blessings of god.

This gentleman actually drove the bus that took us to school in the morning and so I got the chance to really get to know him and who he was. What a true gentlemen this man was. He was totally committed to his beliefs, he gave up women, liquor and several other things he considered vices all in an effort to walk in step with god. After talking about the scriptures with him for a time, I became motivated and inspired to find god. So I attempted to read the Bible in its entirety, my purpose wasn't just to read the scriptures for the sake of reading the scriptures I was trying to get closer to god. Even though my life was rough at the time I wasn't asking for help from god out of my situation I just wanted to do right by god and to be sure that I was doing right by god. Eventually I ended up spending about 3 months trying to read the bible.



One night while reading the scriptures, I began to get sleepy ( it was about 10:30 pm and I had school the next day). But I still wanted to get some more reading in , so I went to the bathroom were it was cold, hoping that would keep me awake so I could continue studying gods word. I again began to fall asleep. After a time I stopped reading and I attempted to speak directly to god.



"God if this is your word then please give me a sign, just let me know that this is the way to get closer to you" The reply I got back was silence I again asked god to show me a sign, and again I received the same reply which was silence. Shortly after this I then began to ask god questions that had been lingering in my mind for a while. Things such as God if you exist then how com?

Some folks (including innocent children) don't have enough food to eat while some rotten people get to live it up.

Some children don't have parents around to love, protect and guide them as they struggle to survive in a world that can be cruel.
So many good people have bad things happen to them including losing mothers and fathers who are actually providing for their children while some people who are rotten bastards get to live to ripe old ages mooching off of and using of others.

Once again folks, nothing but silence, in spite of the fact that I have spent a great deal of time and energy over the years agonizing over these questions. In spite of all that effort I had put into finding and knowing these answers, there wasn't and hasn't been any answers forthcoming from god about such questions for me.



I could never understand why the most unfortunate things happen to children through no fault of their own in a just world, underneath the supervision and authority of a god, who not only has the power to stop such things from happening but also knew these children would suffer long before they or their parents were even born.



Although I continued to be a christian for the next 3 or so years, that night in the bathroom when I asked for a sign from god and received nothing was the beginning of my eventual break from Christianity ( as well as my biased and sometimes hostile attitude towards all religions).

By the age of 20 my break with religion (Christianity) was complete and permanent. It was the most painful and disappointing thing I have ever gone through in my life. Since the, I have participated in lots of ( sometimes exasperating but enjoyable) conversations with Christians of all sects. I have also had similar conversations with people of different religions including Judaism and Islam. Eventually I have found, that if we debate long enough it always concludes with the religious folk saying something such as,



"well, we cant prove our religion's validity over another, we have our text and our beliefs and after that its a matter of faith and god will decide who one is correct",



to which I point out that millions of Muslims/Jew/Budhisht have faith in their religions validity, does that mean because they are not Christians and don't believe that Jesus Christ was the son of god or even if they don't believe in Jesus Christ at all they wont get to heaven when their "faith" has lead them to these beliefs. My thinking on this matter is, that type of logic is backwards and retarded so personally, I have always believed that spiritual/religious people need to come up with a better explanation to the questions I have posed other than its a matter of faith in the end and that determines whether or not folks get to paradise (heaven) or not.



I have never received anything close to a credible or logical answer from Christians or other religious folks when I have asked question such as these. The above questions still linger in my mind to this day in fact I have asked those same questions of Christians and people of other religious affiliations many times and in many different ways and I never received any answer to similar and obvious questions based on the logic that Christians and other religious folks use to explain the world and god. My other questions have been and are

If everything is written then how is it possible for any man or woman to have free will or control over their actions?
If god created everything in the universe including the devil and all of the evil inside of the devil wouldn't that make god responsible for everything that the devil has ever done to hurt mankind?
If god knew exactly what the devil was going to do to confuse and hurt his children wouldn't that also make god responsible for the devils actions especially when you factor in that god created all of the wickedness inside of the devil and human beings in the first place.?
If god put the capacity inside of man and the devil to harm innocent people (particularly children) and the world, then wouldn't that make god responsible for the harm to children and people caused by man and the devil?

If god loves man then why is there so much wickedness, murder, rape, mayhem and chaos going on in the world, especially around impressionable children and what about famines and other natural disasters that injure and kill scores of people every year if god can stop them and doesn't wouldn't that make him responsible for those disasters as well?

Every year millions of kids, die from starvation, debilitating, painful and disfiguring disease's. Millions of women and children are sexually abused, raped and made orphans by aids each year in Africa alone, let alone the rest of the world. Their are now 10 million orphans in Africa as a result of the Aids epidemic and my question to god and Christians is this, didn't god know that all of these catastrophes were gonna go down and how come he didn't stop them from happening at least to innocent children? The christian god I was raised on is an all powerful being indeed, how hard would it have been for him to step in and prevent terribly unfortunate incidents at least from happening to kids ?

When I have asked questions like these in the past Christians have responded with these types of answers " Read bible chapter such and such " ( insert appropriate biblical quote here) , My response is , exactly which of the over 20 different bibles should I read chapter such and such from after all their are over 20 different bibles. Ive also heard things such as well god has his own plan and whatever happens is gods will.

My response is this type of thinking is, those are profound sounding words but they wont put a single meal in the mouths of 1 of those 10 million orphans in Africa (or any other third world regions), those words wont heal any child in the world infected with aids by their mother nor will they heal any of the thousands of people in Liberia and Sierra Leone who have had their hands, feet and other body parts amputated by butchers.

Ive also heard things like, maybe god showed you a sign and you just didn't see it. My response to this is, why would god make a sign hard to see when I ( or anybody else) is asking him to reveal his word? Ive also heard things such as maybe kids are suffering for the sins of their parents. My reply to this is, If god is a just god then that doesn't make any sense to me, why should a kid suffer for actions of the parents which they have no control of.

Every year millions of kids are forced into into illegal/sinful activities such as child soldiers and prostitutes. If their is a god and a specific way humans are supposed to live then it makes zero sense why god would allow innocent children to be forced to live against his in my opinion.

Everyday we hear of stories of what immoral and harmful things are happening all over the world. Under a christian god, how is that right or just? Is it right that a child suffers for the choices an adult makes if god is the one who created all of the choices those adults make in the first place? Does that really make an iota of sense? I mean for real what's that all about?

If a child has absolutely no control over their parents and how their parents choose to live why must that child suffer in this world supposedly created by a loving all powerful and knowing god?

The kicker is this when I have asked christian folks questions such as these, they say things such as go pray and if you really pray to god and you are looking for answers they will be revealed to you. Or sometimes Ive heard, god works in mysterious ways and the message was their you just didn't see because it wasn't obvious.

To this type of logic my thinking is, what sense does it make for so wise and all knowing a being to be sending messages revealing his truths in way's that aren't crystal clear and easy for everyone to understand. Why would god put his messages and signs that lead to salvation in un obvious or hidden messages. Surely something as important as gods words and his works should be revealed in a more obvious and less confusing way shouldn't they?

The fact that there are several different religions claiming that all followers of other religions are going to hell for eternity proves quite easily that their is confusion about which religion is the actual word of god and will lead a soul to salvation. For instance we don't argue over whether or not the sun is yellow because everyone accepts the fact that the sun is what we know as yellow.

Even amongst billions of people who look different, speak different languages, practice different religions and live in different parts of the world the sun is considered yellow. God could break his word down this simple if he wanted or chose to. Wouldn't that make more sense and breed a lot less confusion? After all Christians do not agree with each other on some fundamental points of christian doctrine so if one is a non believer searching for god which way are they to roll, Catholicism, Baptist, or Jehovah Witness, Islam/Judaism ?

Ive thought long and hard about these matters and I believe that if god does exist as presented by the bible (and Christians) then he would make it clear to all that the bible was his first, last and only word it would also be presented in such a way that no one could argue or be confused about it. If Christianity (or any other religion) was the only way to attain spiritual salvation I believe that god would have made that fact crystal clear a long time ago, with such overwhelming evidence that all would be able to universally agree on it the same way we all agree that the sun is yellow. That makes sense to me, not all of these mysterious reasons for gods actions or all of these signs that are hard to find and see and confusing to even will meaning Christians or other spiritual people. Peace

A CLOWN PRINCE AMONGST HYPOCRITS I WOULD LIKE TO STRANGLE THIS GUY

Back in the early 1990's when I was in college (I never made it out) I was a very politically active young fellow. Their were several protest I participated in over my short lived career as an activist.

During this time I was reading books about the struggle and my taste went from books about the panthers, Malcolm X as well as dozens of autobiographies of black historical figures (many of them jazz or blues musicians). I studied historians such as Dr. Ben Jochanan, Dr. John Henrik Clarke and Ivan Van Sertima as part of my quest for knowledge from a black perspective.


Anyway during one of the protest I participated in, me and some other activist took over the board room in the building housing the presidents office. This would have been on a Friday during that Friday and all throughout the weekend many officials from the government of Washington DC were sent to meet, negotiate with us and then to end our protest and get us out of the Board of Trustees meeting room.


The 2 main negotiators from our side was a young brotha on his way to becoming a mid level activist and a young sistah who was only a campus activist and would not go on to make that her career/life's work. In all, Id say there were about ten of us who were protesting, during that weekend, us band of merry protesters really got to know each other well during that campaign, we recited poetry, we talked about music along with fellowshiping in general.

What became clear quite early during our protest is that the two negotiators didn't get along with each other whatsoever. Actually (we'll call the guy John and well call the lady Kimberly) during one of the meetings with city officials John who was the leader was interrupted by Kimberly who felt like John wasn't emphasizing things she thought should be emphasized.

This sent John into a silent rage as he spun around in his chair enraged but saying nothing. After the city official left the boardroom John and Kimberly got into a nasty argument which eventually led to John stating that we were to keep that bitch away from him. Although I knew John had an out of control ego, him calling Kimberly a bitch in public like that was a few levels over the top, I didn't know he would disrespect black women is such a public way. Especially considering the fact that John was supposed to be conscious and pro black, this consciousness included showing utmost respect for black women.

Anyway fast forward to the end of the protest, eventually we would go on to reject all of the offers made by the city officials ( I forget what offers were made) and by Sunday the President and Board of Trustees (fed up with us) had instructed the city police to remove us from the building in order to have school as regularly scheduled the next day. We knew the police were coming and we knew when, as we stood looking at the window some of our conscious friends stood outside looking up at us from the plaza. As we gave black powerful salutes to our friends the police flashed black power salutes back at us protesters (what assholes) anyway shortly after that the police stormed the meeting room and we were evicted from the boardroom without being arrested (the president and board didn't want arrested they just wanted us gone).

After being evicted from the school administration building, we then caught a cab over to one of the protesters apartment. In the cab was John and Kimberly, myself and about 3 others out of the ten protesters. As the cab pulled up to our destination, me John and a brotha named Craig got out of the cab, then everyone. As we were standing in front of our destination John then threatened to "destroy" Kimberly for undermining him during the protest and began to move towards her in a violent way. At that point I approached John and told him that his behavior 100% unacceptable and a complete contradiction to the consciousness we were engaged in and trying to promote amongst black folks.

Me, Craig and John then spent the next 2 hours walking along the damp streets of the city as I yelled at him and begged him to open his mind to the fact that if we (black men) continued to disrespect and hurt black women the all of this consciousness/black stuff didn't mean a thing. By the time I finished with him there is no way on this earth he could ever say that he didn't understand where I was coming from. In fact he admitted to me that he needed to change but that it would take time, to which I told him again that putting his hands on a black woman was profane and not acceptable.

Fast forward again to recent and current times, now John has had a radio program on one of Cathy Hughes radio stations for about ten years now as well as an African name (Matsumala or something like that). John is a mid level activist doing what mid level activists do. If a famous activist like Dick Gregory or Jessie Jackson show up in town he is always in the crowd wearing the Dashiki's or Kente cloth spewing the rhetoric. The problem is along with always being around activist and protest on the behalf of the American black population this brotha has long record during that time of abusing women.

A lady who Ive known for years, who is active in Washington DC activist circles mentioned Johns abuse of black women without me saying anything about that night he tried to beat up Kimberly. Then about 3 weeks ago I was taking a walk with my mentor and she mentioned it along with the fact that John had actually been arrested for beating up women.

Brotha's like John make me sick to my stomach because for some reason they cannot seem to process the fact that all of their talk against the system/man means absolutely nothing if we don't treat each other with the utmost respect. Putting your hand on a woman (especially a black woman) knowing all they have been through in this society is a sin in my book.

Now that I think about it I should have whooped Johns as# that night because cats like him cannot be talked out of abusing/beating up woman, all the talking in the world would never do any good. As profound, intelligent and deep as brothas like John are they fail to understand that revolution just doesn't extend to getting the system/man up off of us but revolution also includes taking our (black men's) game to another level to cover the areas of cheating on your wife/girlfriend then acting like its OK, not talking down to them and definitely never, ever putting your hands on them.

But when you have a supposedly conscious brotha, who is also a leader and has access to the public airwaves his abusive behavior towards sisters is utterly sickening. Brotha John has indeed earned himself the title of CLOWN PRINCE AMONGST HYPOCRITES because it is nothing but pure hypocrisy raising hell about how awful America is, when you have been beating up black women for the last ten years at night but during the day on your radio show your spewing black power rhetoric.

This cat is and has been turd for a long time now.

CAN MASTER P PULL THIS OFF

A few months ago a blog friend of mine called NATIVE SON wrote a piece about Master P going clean that is how I first got wind of this story. In his post was a link to letter that Master P had wrote in response to some ignorant a@s comments Fitty cent had made.

In the letter Master P took apart Fitty referring to him as Curtis Jackson and pointing out that he had been the one to finance fittys first tour. Here is a statement from Fitty and Master P's response courtesy of my man the NATIVE SON .

"Well Master P doesn’t sell CDs anymore,” 50 said calmly, which caused the room full of reporters to burst out laughing. “You can tell him I said it. Cameras is rollin’ right? …‘Curtis,’ June 26.”

Master P Responds to 50 Cent in an Open Letter

"There are four things that differentiate me from artists like Curtis Jackson.

One, I can honestly admit that I was once part of the problem.

Two, I don’t want my son to grow up and be like me. I want him to be better and do better - and that is why he is taking the time to pursue a college degree.

Three, money don’t make me, I make money. My goal is to educate our people in building generational wealth and knowing how important it is to own real estate.

Four, I’m a TRUE entrepreneur; my boss is God not Jimmy Iovine. From one brother to another, if you misunderstand my purpose you could always pick up the phone or talk to me in person. I’m trying to be part of the solution not the problem. The media thrives on entertaining, especially the negativity no matter what the cost. I’m praying for the brothers that are lost out there."

Then tonight I came across this NPR STORY FEATURING MASTER P. P was spitting some truly profound game. This brotha needs to be acknowledged and supported. Major, Major kudos to Master P he just might change the world. He could possibly blow up to baby Oprah status.

THOUSANDS OF NEW AND VERY GIFTED BLACK WRITERS ARE BEING DEVELOPED

About 13 years ago was the first time I became acquainted with online communicating. I was introduced to it by a friend of mine who shared a lot of the same interest that I had. To be honest she was a lot smarter and more experienced than I was and her knowledge and skill helped me out of a serious financial jam. I mean if it had not been for her I would have suffered the loss of over 1000 thousand deceased presidents, which is a clear example of how knowledge and wisdom can save one's BUTTOCKS from serious pain and harm should one choose to use that wisdom and knowledge.

Anyway about 7 years later I use to see a coworker who was a good friend communicating on chat rooms and he would tell me that he spent a lot time at home in chat rooms. Now this brotha was a typical young cat hip hop style and dress that's what he rocked in his car on the way to work, that's what he rocked on his way home. Now this brotha wasn't a brotha who read books or newspaper and before he started using chat rooms he didn't write that much either. But I noticed that the brotha could type fast as you know what even though he didn't take any typing lessons because of how much he typed when chatting online. However it hadn't occurred to me that this brotha who was only having casual conversations, was also learning the craft of writing in the process and writing is a timeless form of communication.

Now fast forward to the current times and blogging. Because blogging I know for a fact that I am doing 90% more writing than I use to do and have grown as a writer in countless ways. This is not purely because of a desire to write,(although I do love writing) I think it has more to do with the fact the blogging is fun, a powerful teaching and communication tool and just plain old addictive..

What really excites me about this blogging thing is this, since it is a communication tool that is fun, addictive as well as well as a practical training tool for writers of all levels. Their are tens of thousands of African American writers being trained in the craft of writing, all on account of the blogging revolution. Their are hardcore ghettofied brothers and sister writing and thinking everyday in ways they normally would not be doing.

Since I believe that black people are amongst the most creative people on the planet, I believe it is just a matter of time before some black writers who are truly, truly brilliant are developed in part because of the skills they will learn through blogging. Plus blogging will offer all people (including ghettofied black people who blog) the chance to publish and sell some brilliant material online. This will later lead to book deals. I predict that in 10 years the quality of writing of all black writers will be lifted by this blogging revolution, by default this means that material, scripts and screenplays produced by black authors will be so much better. Which means their should be much higher quality material for black actors and actresses to perform in.

Whenever I am on the train or bus and I see a blue collar brotha reading a novel it feels me with great joy. I am predicting that some hardcore ex thug type and blue collars brothas who have a natural gift for writing but were never in a nurturing environment to grow and develop the skill of writing will grow into best selling authors. When that starts happening it will be a glorious and revolutionary day indeed and all because blogging is addictive and fun.

IF PARENTS CANT CONTROL THEIR KIDS HOW CAN WE EXPECT TEACHERS TO TEACH THEM SUCESSFULLY?

I have a question to the African American population. If way too many black men are going to jail, if the out of wedlock birthrate of african americans is over 60%, if our people/kids are out of control way too often. If black kids/men especially are often put into special Ed because of behavior problems, if way too many black parents do not support and fully participate in their childrens education then HOW CAN WE EXPECT TEACHERS GET PRODUCTIVE RESULTS FROM THOSE CHILDREN?

I ask this question because when I hear or read about discussions in the black community about education reform, you hear about not having enough money, not having enough good teachers, some folks claim that our children our failing because of low self esteem caused by not having an Afrocentric curricilum, or other various reasons blaming the system or this racist country we live in. This racist country has produced a system that is designed to lead our children failure in education and life blah, blah, blah you know the drill.

Now Im not discounting any of these factors completely but what annoys the hell out of me is when folks get all nusanced and can figure out all of the external factors leading to black accademic failure but they refused to assign any responsibility where it rightfully belongs and that is on some black parents who could give a damm about their childrens education. Or the black community in general that is constantly dumbing just about everything down and promoting/excussing regressive and ignorant behavior all too often, behavior such as making people trying to study, or people who read books feel very uncomfortable.

So one more time HOW CAN WE EXPECT TEACHERS TO HAVE SUCCESS WITH OUR KIDS WE CANT CONTROL THEM OURSELVES?

BROTHA DID A GOOD DEED

This morning I was running late for work. Because of this when got off the train at L'Enfant Plaza to transfer to the next one I quickly went up the escalator and sprinted to catch the train waiting at the platform going to Virginia from dc. Although I manage to catch the train, as I was running ten bucks fell out of my pocket. Fortunately for me their was a brotha who was running right behind me as I sprinted to catch the train who called out to me and then returned the ten dollars to me. I really appreciated this act of kindness from a stranger.

Now over the years I have lost money on various occasions and very rarely have I had it returned except one time when I was in a club and some bills fell out of my pocket and hit the floor. Likewise I have always returned money to folks who dropped it if I knew who dropped it. One time a gentlemen dropped 100 dollars (also on the subway) and since I saw who dropped it, I returned the money.

A few years later while filling up my truck at a gas station I found 40 dollars, I looked around to see if I could see who may have dropped the money but their was only one other person at the gas station and they pulled in after I was already their. Not seeing who the money belonged to I decided to wait at the gas station, after waiting for about 30 minutes and seeing no one come back to the gas station looking for the money I went ahead and drove home 40 dollars richer that night. When I told my co-workers this the next day they thought I was silly to have waited around but I explained to them that, the forty dollars I found could have been the last of that persons money and could have been drawn out of a bank account now empty.

Anyway I like to believe in Karma and perhaps my good deeds in the area of finding money and returning it over the years perhaps swayed the cosmic balance of the universe in my favor this time but I don't know. Ill tell you this I don't really believe in what goes around comes around simply because of all of the innocent people suffering because of the selfish and bad decisions made by others. But I am grateful to the brotha who returned my cash this morning and it was a nice way to start the day off. Have a great day folks.

DANG I HATE COMMENT MODERATION

Hello folks this post is about nothing important. Just a post lamenting my severe annoyance and distaste about comment moderation. I have found that comment moderation kills any kind of debate one may try to engage in. You see a nice juicy vulnerable comment that you would like to address you type in your comment and then the comment moderation label comes up and says this comment is waiting for moderation from the owner of the blog. The reason why I hate comment moderation is because if a comment is over the top or goes againt the blog owners comment policy the owner of the blog can always delete any offensive comment later on. So instead of limiting free speach why not just delete comments you dont like later on that day? Please people turn the comment moderation off!

THE BATTLE OF KRUGER

OK folks I found this you tube video of an incredible battle between buffalo, lion and crocodiles. First buffalo come down to the lake for nice cool drink of water, where they are spotted by some hungry lion who then chase the herd and manage to knock a baby into the lake. As the lion are attempting to pull the buffalo out of the lake a crocodile grabs hold of the buffalo. After a short battle the lions manage to pull the buffalo up onto the bank. As the lions attempt to feed the buffalo is still crying, the crying buffalo alerts and brings the herd to the rescue. Eventually the buffalo manage to save their baby and put a smack down on those lions. I hope you enjoyed the you tube. Peace.

WHY ALL OF THE MEANINGLESS DIVISIONS?

I was listening to NPR a few days back. Their was a story about Ruth Graham the late wife of the Reverend billy graham. Ruth Graham was born in 1920, in china to parents who were medical missionaries from the Presbyterian church.



Mrs Graham remained a Presbyterian even though she was married to one of the worlds most influential baptist of all time. Now what I cant understand is this, why didn't Mrs. Graham convert to being a baptist if it doesn't matter which sect you are as it relates to getting to heaven. Whats so important about the individuals sects that a woman married to one of the most famous baptist in the world couldn't switch sects to his sect especially if it made no difference in getting to heaven.



Are the differences in sect not important and if they aren't important why didn't Mrs. Graham switch her sect to that of baptist. If it is important, then how come she didn't try to get the Reverend Graham to switch to being a Presbyterian. How come she didn't insist that her children be raised Presbyterian if remaining a Presbyterian was important to matters of the getting to the after life.



Now I know back in the day,the various different sects believed that all of the other group(s) were going to hell except their particular group. This is part of the reason why the Klan also harassed Catholics as well as blacks because they didn't see them or blacks as humans it is also the reason that Americans were apprehensive about voting for the CATHOLIC John Kennedy because mistrust and fear had been massaged into the American phyche and it all stems from that clause in religion that says YOU ARE GOING TO HELL IF YOU DON'T BUY WHAT I AM SAYING. After all if your going to spend eternity in hell you cant be a human being can you?


When you say someone isn't going to heaven because of their sect you really are saying they are not human beings. This thought process has led to more misery, rape, killing and pain than any other reason in human history. In the name of (insert your religion) you are allowed to do unspeakable acts as long as you were turning infidels/non believers to the TRUE word of god and you could do this because they weren't human beings and they aren't going heaven.


So using the simple but ridiculous logic of THE CLAUSE, vast swaths of humanity are labeled non human beings by various branches of religion. Different sects of Christians even label each other non human beings (claiming all others except their sect are going to hell). This is the main reason why the black church and the nation of Islam didn't work together much earlier and in a more substantive way. What if the Nation of Islam could have influenced the majority of black churches to adopt their powerful and revolutionary business and self determination programs. What if the Nation of Islam could have influenced the people in the church to get out their and hit the streets like they did in order to save black folks. How many more lost brothas and sistas could have been saved over the last 40 years. So the black community misses out on all of that enterprise that could have been developed and focused on healing our people because of mistrust between the nation of Islam and the black church essentially because of the clause. Because of the clause and the superficial but visceral divisions THE CLAUSE inspires power christian and Islamic leaders didn't work together on the behalf of black American liberty until way too much precious time had expired.



All of this finally brings me back to the point I was attempting to get at in the first place. If believersof various different sects can get to heaven then why the ridiculous clause and why the different sects that promote division . Of course you could add Islam and Judaism into the mix. When you factor all of this in you have got so many different divisions and interpretations going on it is truly sad and confusing. It is because of all of these divisions that the clause in most religions that claim only people of their sect/faith are going to heaven (are human beings) should be denounced as backwards . If I am too ever take religion seriously again this clause has to be renounced because it is backwards.


I think it is time for the clause to go the way of the dinosaurs as it is an extremely backwards and retarded and divisive way of thinking. I know Ruth and Billy Graham expected to see each other in the promise land in spite of some retarded clause that says only my brand of spirituality will get you to heaven. Peace.

THIS GUY IS A CERTIFIED JERK/PRICK

A while back I heard a story on the news about a Washington dc African American judge suing a dry cleaning business for millions of dollars because the dry cleaners lost his favorite pair of paints. The dry cleaner which has signs up stating satisfaction guaranteed first offered to replace Judge Roy Pearson pants, an offer which Pearson refused, the dry cleaners then offered Pearson $12,000 to settle ($12,000 for a pair of lost pants mind you) again Pearson refused this offer from the business owners to settle.

Pearson felt so slighted that for some strange reason he thought he had a right to waste the public coin and time by suing a dry cleaning business for 50 million plus dollars over a pair of pants. This d@ck head actually felt like he had time to frivolously and spitefully waste suing business owners who were clearly sorry about the inconvenience caused to their customer and tried to within in reason to make things right. With all of these young black men growing up in shady circumstances this guy has time to pursue obviously backwards and retarded law suits instead of doing things that will bring about a positive difference in the lives of this seriously at risk population. What a bozo.

FURTHER CONFIRMATION THAT ELLA IS THE GREATEST SINGER OF ALL TIME

Quincy Jones “ I worked with the best singers in the business and everyone thought Ella was the best their was.”

That is a quote from a show about Ella Fitzgerald that came on PBS about a week ago. Of course since Quincy is 0ne of the greatest producers of all time it carries weight. Please remember that Quincy Jones worked with Ray Charles, Dinah Washington and Michael Jackson.

So Quincy knows a little something about singing and musicianship Ill take his word over most. But of course it still all depends on ones opinion and what day it is as well. Anyway like I said Lady Day is my favorite and I have dropped more coin on her than all other singers. Anyway I through talking about this Ill let you decide for yourself. Here are some quotes from famous singers about Ella :

Quotes About Ella Fitzgerald
"The one radio voice that I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. There was a quality to her voice that fascinated me, and I'd sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words."-- Doris Day
"Ella's voice becomes the orchestra's richest and most versatile sound." -- Arthur Fiedler
"She has been more famous, over a longer time span, than any other female singer." -- Leonard Feather
"Man, woman or child, Ella is the greatest of them all."-- Bing Crosby
"The best way to start any musical evening is with this girl. It don't get better than this." -- Frank Sinatra
"Music comes out of her. When she walks down the street, she leaves notes." -- Jimmy Rowles
"She has been one of my all-time favorite singers for many years and still is - she's terrific." -- Perry Como
"She was the best. She was the best there ever was. Amongst all of us who sing, she was the best."-- Johnny Mathis
"Every other singer, male or female, if they're lucky, they listen to Ella." -- Pat Boone
"I call her the High Priestess of Song." -- Mel Torme
"I was there from the beginning, and it was obvious from the start what she had that night at the Apollo. My goodness, what she's done with it." -- Benny Carter
"Whatever she does to my songs, she always makes them sound better."-- Richard Rodgers
"There is no voice like that lady. She has it all. She's complete."-- Louie Bellson
"Ella is simply the greatest singer of them all."-- Pearly Bailey
"Ella's musicianship is just incredible. Playing with her is like playing with a full orchestra."-- Ed Thigpen
"Ella's amazing! My daughter says that every time she makes a mistake, it becomes a hit record."-- Lucille Ball
"If you want to learn how to sing, listen to Ella Fitzgerald."-- Vincente Minnelli
"Ella is the boss lady. That's all." -- Billy Strayhorn
"She brings out the best in everybody, making everyone work that much harder to keep up with her."-- Andy Williams
"It is so much fun to sing with Ella. It is so nice to sing with someone who does more than make a pretty noise." -- Jo Stafford
"She is the most thorough professional I have worked with, every working moment was pure joy."-- Richard Perry
" She is amazingly creative, bringing so much more to a song than just a singer. She is a first-class musician and the most gracious person in the world."-- Marty Paich
"She always encouraged me to create and take my turn in our duets, never playing the star."-- Joe Pass

I wont even say anymore Ill let Ella speak for herself. And oh after listening please don't hate. If I have finally managed to convince you please give Ella her due as the greatest singer of all time. Enjoy and have a great day.

THE DO OVER (DISCLAIMER THIS IS A WILD POST IT IS ABOUT NEITHER SOCIAL ISSUE, RELIGION OR EDUCATION OR ANYTHING ELSE WHOLESOME)

A while back, me and my buddy created this hypothetical scenario. Here's how it works for whatever reason you can commit any act you want and if you clap your hands twice within thirty seconds of the incident and say do over the incident is erased and you are transported back to the time and place you were, just before you went buck wild.


This is the scenario my buddy came up with. If given this power one day just for spoofing, he would to go work butterball naked save for nothing but flip flops and a purple head ban with the words I WONT TAKE IT ANYMORE stithced on it. Upon arrival at work he would barge into his bosses office and demand a raise of ten times the amount of money he was previously making as well as 2 more weeks of vacation and2 extra weeks of sick leave, while his boss looks at him (lets call the boss Phil) in complete astonishment.

Anyway after Phil runs out of the his office to get security and the cops my friend would be running right behind him, find his way down to the parking lot jack Phil's car, kidnap Phil then lead the police on a movie like car chase through the city of Washington DC (or your particular favorite city).

After a wild scene of racing through the city at 100 mph plus speeds, driving onto the sidewalks and into oncoming traffic, eventually my buddy pulls out a gun and starts shooting out of the back of the window during the speed chase, he empties the gun reloads and continues to poor fire at the cops. Now please remember that this guy was naked so where the heck he stashed a gun and ammo at, is beyond me.

Of course when I pointed this out to my buddy about how the gun and reloading the gun didn't make any sense on account of him being naked and having no place to stash a gun, his response was , this is my adventure If I want a gun and lots of ammo then I get to have a gun and lots of ammo and besides magic do overs don't exactly make sense either. Anyway in my friends tale the car eventually crashes and he runs out of ammo as the cops are closing in on him he sprints into the woods yelling incoherent insults at the cops. When the cops finally do catch up with him, he claps his hands twice, says do over and is instantaneously transported back to his house 30 minutes before work begins.

He dresses, drives to work and during that evening he is just as nice to Phil as you could want. Of course if I had that kind of power I would only use it for good but what about the rest of you guys. If you could have a do over what type of escapades would you victimize or bless the world with?
Peace.

A SMILE GOES ALONG WAY

A long, long time ago, during the early 1990's I found myself walking down the road on my way to a job interview. I had just gotten off the subway and If I remember correctly I was running late. Anyway I needed to get to the interview and I didn't know if I had enough time to walk or if I needed to pick up the pace, so as I walked down the hill towards my destination I saw several people passing me on their way to the subway.

I needed to find out what time it was as I continued on my journey I passed several ladies but declined to ask them the time because I though they may have assumed I was trying to run game on them and get the digits which wasn't the case all (of course if one of them had offered the digits I may have accepted but I digress). Eventually I happened upon a serious and tough looking dude and for some reason I decided to ask that brotha the time. Based on the look on his face I kinda thought he would scowl or ignore me all together. Turns out he did neither the brotha smiled one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen in my life, pleasantly told me what time it was and continued on his way.

As I walked away I felt a lot better and actually my faith in humanity was reassured because that incident was a positive one when I wasn't expecting it. So remember folks a smile shared with another human being especially when that human being may be feeling down and in agony can influence an individual to have a terrific day.

This just goes to show that in the end its all about positivity. Have a great day folks.

The Best that ever did it. Mark Bey

I started watching football back in the early eighties. Back then, Walter Payton was the man. I remember watching him break the great Jim Brown's all time rushing record. I remember his last play against the redskins. Over the years I have heard people debate who was the greatest of all time. Some say Jim Brown, some say Walter Payton and many believe it was Barry Sanders.

Well I too am in the Barry Sanders Camp. Now I know many will disagree those who think it is Walter Payton in my opinion are homers who are usually from Chi-Town or they are older people. The people who think Jim Brown is the Greatest of all time are usually old timers as well but they are reminiscing about the good old days.

In my opinion the fact the Barry Sanders is the greatest running back of all time is just as obvious as Micheal Jordan being the greatest basketball player of all time. However Barry Sanders does not get the majority consensus that Jordan does as to being the greatest. Also another reason why Barry Sanders has not gotten a majority consensus on being the greatest running back of all time is because theirs not much separating #s 1 and 2 or even 3 for that matter. think

Now no doubt Walter Payton and Jim brown are probably two and three on the all time list with Jim Brown holding down the 2 spot and Walter Payton the third. Walter Payton are probably amongst the top 3 with of course Barry Sanders being # 1. The fact that all three of these great running backs at their prime were heads and shoulders above all other running backs then playing is also a factor in blurring the debate. But where Payton falls off the list is the fact that his productivity had drastically falling during his later years this is not the case with Jim brown or Barry sanders. Which leaves us Barry Sanders and Jim Brown.


Here are 3 reasons in my opinion that clearly qualifies Barry Sanders as the greatest running back of all time.

1)They both averaged over 5 yards a carry and they both averaged over 100 Yards per game with Barry Sanders averaging 100.6 Rushing yards/game and Jim Brown at 104.3. One may argue that Jim Brown averaged more yards per game than Barry Sanders, my response to that would be this, the level of competition was much higher during Barry Sanders time. It is a fact that today's players are faster, bigger and quicker at every position than during Jim Browns time.


2) The anticipation and excitement factor. Much like Michael Jordan , Barry Sanders was a baller who was liable to do something breathtaking every time he touched the ball. Simply put you couldn't take your eyes off of him.

3) Lastly there is the fact that at times Barry Sanders literally toyed with defenses in ways and on a level which had never been seen and he did it his whole career even during his final year.


It is for these reasons and a few others that I have now pulled out the anointing oil and crown Barry Sanders the Greatest running back of all time. If you don't think so then just take a look for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPbEpt619do

REASON WHATEVER EVER WHY I HATE RELIGION

OK if you read my blog enough then you know I have this huge antagonism towards all religion's of the world. One thing that irks me, is the proclamation that all people are going to hell except the followers of that particular religion. What makes my antagonism flow into the hatred side of things (at times) in particular is this. Black people 90% of whom admit to being Christians make up roughly 13% of the population but make up.

• 67 percent of all HIV cases amongst children.


• black women make up 7% percent of the total population but are 70% of all new HIV cases in certain areas of the country.


• Over 70% of all black kids are born out of wedlock.


• Roughly half of all black kids are raised by single mothers with no help from the fathers(this has been going on for a long time)


• A very high percentage of black homicide victims were raised in single parent homes.


• A very high percentage of black men incarcerated were raised in single parent homes.

These statistics are not new information to the general black community most of us are aware of these sad statistics. Many of us grew up in homes and environments that lead straight to these negative statistics. If I know this, then so do the preachers, many of whom are brilliant individuals. But its not just because of those facts listed above that I am enraged at the black church.

I am also sore over the fact that black preachers are capable of motivating their flock to heights of emotionalism that other preachers aren't able to do. Its a gift that god has blessed us (black folk) with in my opinion. Also black church services are 70% longer than white church services but the preachers in our churches do not emphasize education, saving money, financial literacy, father hood specifically (but better parenting practices in the black community generally), community service to clean up the neighborhoods the churches are located in (where millions of black youth all over the country live and suffer in), debate and conflict resolution classes as much as they emphasize music which is less important than those other things I mentioned. Their are dozens of other progressive programs that the black church in general should be implementing 24x7 365 days of the year in the cause of progress for the African American community.

I am also furious at the black church for pushing fairy tales about aids being a curse by god against homosexuals when the bible absolutely doesn't state or imply this and Magic Johnson, Eazy E and author ashe all contracted it from ways other than homosexual activity over ten years ago. I am also furious at the thousands of brilliant and educated black church members who allow the preachers to high jack the spirituality of Christianity to push a retarded close minded agenda that has more to do with stroking the preachers vanity and signifying than helping and healing a sick and spiritually injured black American population. I cant understand why some of the more progressive members in every church don't confront the preachers on their BS and demand the church (preachers) demonstrate leadership in some of these areas where a good portion of the African American population are taking it on the chin.

Lastly I cannot for the life of me understand why the black church has not started advising blacks from the pulpit to use condoms when they know we are having premarital sex(which most folks do). They are all well aware of the fallout the black American population has suffered behind the birth of all of these kids to parents who were not ready a lot of whom who had no intention of modifying their behavior to become proactive and good parents. They are also aware of the fact that the majority of people of all races in America do not wait until they are married to have sex. In fact many black preachers come from backgrounds where they were once playboys and way too many of them have been caught in adulterous affairs or have had children out of wedlock but still they dont advise from the pulpit to use condoms if folks arent married.

The shenanigans of way too many black clergy is not something mysterious or unknown amongst the American black population.We all know what a lot of preachers did and are still doing, all's you gotta do is ask some of the ladies in the congregations of these Church's about the behavior of some of the preachers. Now I ain't saying that all black preachers and churches are crooked but folks in the black community know that our preachers are not puritans or pious in any way shape or form. All of us in the black community know that some of these preachers are involved in affairs and are well familiar with premarital sex on a personal level.

In spite of the fact that no one living can offer any single solitary shred of proof that the bible is accurate against all other religions, their is no proof that any of those folks in the bible waited until they were married to have sex ( in fact the bible is full of tales of adultery and other lust inspired stories) in spite of the bible's proclamation that having sex before marriage is a sin reality that I have always seen is that most people have no intention of waiting until marraige to have sex. The black preachers are insisting that the black American population stay true to an ideal of waiting until marriage to have sex when reality says that 90% of all Americans do not wait until marriage to have sex. Inspite of black people dying of aids in unacceptable #s a the church wont stand up and recommend strongly that black Americans use condoms if not married. They wont recomend condom use amongst unmarried black people when they know full well what is going on.

This I cannot understand, I really wish some christian, church member or black preacher would explain to me why the church has not advocated a policy of endorsing condom use amongst black Americans from the pulpit especially when they are fully aware of all of the suffering the black community is doing because of unplanned kids resulting from unprotected sex. I cannot understand why the black church and too many black Christians are allowed to get away with retarded behavior and ignoring the aids issue.

I really wish a christian or preacher would enlighten me on this topic.

BLOGGERS I LIKE

I have been blogging for slightly over a year know. In that time I have learned a lot about people and human nature. Although I am on the net to enlighten myself and to network with like minded folks I have found that some folks are only interesting in spreading propaganda.

The propaganda comes in various forms some of it is racist, some of it is black men and women bashing each other, some of it is to blame the system/man/racism for every single dysfunction and problem experienced by the black community and absolve folks (black) harming the black community of all responsibility for the harm they are doing.

What I cant understand about the folks who CLAIM to believe that the American government is responsible for every last dysfunction in the black community is this, why aren't these folks spending every dropped of energy they have:

• Creating jobs for black men who are at risk of being arrested and thrown in jail.
• Creating business that serve the black community based on the spending habits and needs of black people.
• Totally divesting themselves from the American economy as much as possible and creating a model that other activist can use in order to hoard our resources for the good of black America but also not enrich a government folks claim is killing black people.

The apologist for the Neanderthal behavior currently going on in too much of the black community make me want to strangle them at times. I have come to the believe that blaming the system (or some other boogie man) is a religion with some of these folks. At some point and time adults must look into the mirror and tell themselves the truth and the truth is this even if the man/system is responsible for all of the dysfunctions going on in the black community black Americans ( and those of the entire diaspora) will have to change the way we are doing things others wise what is going on will only get worse. But of course this type of thinking makes too much sense to people who want to do nothing but cry, cry, cry about the man without actually doing anything to prevent the man killing us as the apologist claim the man is doing.

It is for these reasons that when I come across thoughtful bloggers it makes me want to scream with joy. After debating the apologist and then seeing them act like I am speaking a foreign language when you run into folks who have common sense in their heads it is a great feeling.

For these reasons when I come across folks like Field Negro, JMW, DC, Native Son and James Manning who are thoughtful, reasonable and serious about changing the mentality of the America black population it gives me renewed hope and inspiration that their are enough warriors out their in black America who are willing to be honest and fight for what they know is right. Also I just happen to like really like these guys because of the positive and progressive energy they radiate. Now their are thousands of others bloggers who fall into this category and if I didn't include you don't take it personally and know that I value all of the positive all truthful bloggers out their searching for the truth.

Thank you for reading this post.

THE LAV LADY HAS STRUCK AGAIN

The Tunne Inn

OK folks I blogged about this activist citizen before. Now she has struck again with this you tube video of an inexcusably dirty bath room. The offending bathroom is located in a Restaurant called Tunes Inn.

This restaurant is located in the Capitol hill section of Washington DC about a 5 minute bike ride from where I sit blogging this. Although this Lady hasn't been blogging very long the potential impact of this form of activism she is using is an effective, simple and power tool to bring change on local levels all over the country.

For all of my blog friends in the Washington DC metro area here is the telephone # to the The Tune Inn331 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC 202-543-2725. Feel free to call this establishment and let them know that the citizens of the Nations Capitol would like for them to clean up their bathroom.

HOW BLACK PEOPLE CAN FUND A CURE FOR AIDS(REPOST)

I believe that we black folk can fund a cure for aids or at least move the process along a whole lot quicker than it is currently moving. I have no idea how long it will take but it cant hurt to think on such ideas and if they are workable, start planning them. I also believe that such an initiative could bear fruit that could save millions and millions of black peoples lives and protect the health of those currently at risk of being infected. Many of the people who will die are themselves parents so if they are saved or even kept alive longer this means life would be at least a little better millions of children.

Now imagine this, what if some progressive and creative thinking folks and organizations got together to educate black people on the aids issue. How its spread, exactly what to do to prevent it and how to properly treat ones self if infected. No more fairy tales about aids being a curse by god against gays pushed by the church. No more denial, stigma or prejudice against those who have aids and serious counseling services for those infected should be provided by the church.

I believe these things can be accomplished and brought into existence in a way that will begin to influence behavioral changes in the black community on a large scale. As far as the past goes that cant be changed but from here on forward we should work together to promote safe life style choices that will protect ourselves and children.

I think we should engage in a mass treatment and training program targeted at the black community, organized and conducted by the churches and our other social institutions like the NAACP, Urban League etc. This training program would include what type of medicine that is needed, how and where to get it and the proper way to take and administer the medication.

Another idea I have been thinking on is a Lou Rawls inspired telethon targeted at improving the health of black people. Once again the churches and all of our other social organizations can promote this project and spread the word and info about it. We would have a 2 hour telethon called the black health day telethon. This telethon would be used to raise money to fund an initiative designed to stimulate research leading to a cure for aids. Institutions such as Bill Clintons and the Gates foundation could advise on which studies and projects to fund using the money we have raised.


Now in a perfect world magic Johnson would host this telethon, we could have a line up of twelve known artist people such as.

• L.L Cool J

• Erica Badu

• Jill Scott

• Lauryn Hill
  

• Common

• MosDef
  

• Jay Z
  

• Nas
  

• Stevie Wonder
  

• OutKast
  

• Alisha Keys
  

• Prince

The performers would perform and then say something inspirational, then Magic and the artist could stand their and tell everyone to please pledge as much as they could and that the money was going to an organization that does nothing but promote research in the areas of curing aids. This organization should be on the cutting edge treatment and research as far aids goes. We could have an independent organization investigate all of our financial transactions then later publish that information to assure our donors that we are transparent and efficient in our use of funds. The transparency point could be something that Magic could emphasize when hosting the telethon.

Last idea on this matter we could manufacture and sell very simple but perpetually needed products like tissue, napkins, soap deodorant, etc. Try to get Folks to buy as much of our goods as possible with all of the profits going to finding a cure for aids. For instance if every black person were to buy tissue or soap from this potential supplier instead of their local grocery store think how much money could be generated and added to the search for a cure. I guess the "Newman"s Own" brand would be a prime example of the type of operation I am talking about or at least one that could be tailored to this project. I’m thinking billions of dollars a year could be generated by simply rerouted the buying habits of black Americans.

All of that money could be used on research for finding a cure for aids and I’m talking about a Manhattan Project type of effort or some of that John Kennedy " America will put a man on the moon in ten years type action with resources to back it up. I guess this could represent the African Americans population's own version's of those mandates. One of the progressive things that would come out of a project such as this one is, we would have a working, living model of action on how to effectively get after crippling social issues. Most the African American population would be empowered.

We could have this started in the next 2 years in my opinion. Perhaps if we are good enough at raising money and promoting the right climate for something like this, we could get everyone in America on treatment who needs it thus keeping millions of Americans alive until a cure is finally discovered and made available to all in need.