The president just had the same type of audience today as he had with the CBC to address issues of Latinos in America. I couldn’t help but to acknowledge how different the language & tone was to the demands & needs of Latino Americans & some who are not even documented citizens. There was clearly a difference in tone to people with many of the same problems that they wanted addressed by OUR president. It is very disheartening in the fact that some things never change when it comes to respect & who, where & how it is granted. Why didn’t Potus tell them to stop complanin’ & start marching & working to get him re-elected to get the job done as he told the CBC- particularly when they want him to address & free many of their constituents from what is considered criminal behavior in an America that is supposed to take care of its citizens & enforce illegal immigration laws?

Many saw what I call more of the same as much to do about nothing, in just the fact that President Obama was fired up  and ready to go into another campaign year in his speech addressing the CBC. While I may somewhat agree that this is the usual media foolishness  & President Obama’s usual “get the heat off of me & put it on “them/we/us” campaign style , especially when addressing African-American audiences; I am tired of more of the same where someone as thorough & precise with his words & tone as President Obama is could not have possibly known that he was about to create the types of headlines he received – much like he did during his campaign in 08′ when the NYT headline read “Obama Sharply Assails Black Fathers“ on father’s day- knowing very well that Black men’s kryptonite,right or wrong, is taking away their sense of manhood in addressing them, simply because of America’s history.

President Obama is a crafty wordsmith & an excellent campaigner- so much so that I can’t help but to think this stereotypical Black Baptist type of preacher tone that he takes with Black people so they can know he speaks their language isn’t also reflected in the tone that allows certain sectors of White people to understand that he has his people in check, so they can feel safe that he also speaks their language- a side of Blackness that many of us who have worked in corporate America know all too well whether we have been on the giving or the receiving end. I guess some Black people have been disrespected for so long & kept at the bottom of everyone’s totem pole for so long in order to appease another, that we just don’t seem to know right from wrong in tone because of the way we freely address one another as bitches, niggas, ho’s & the so called “keeping it real mentality” when we are clearly afraid of handling the truth within, to a point when we don’t even know anymore when we are being disrespected, unless it is from a White face that addresses us directly as Niggers!

“When the going gets rough, beat up on the Blacks. That’s been a rule of American politics for many generations – so why should Barack Obama be any different? “Obama took his church voice to the Congressional Black Caucus annual awards dinner to very pointedly demand that Blacks stop bugging their president about the economic catastrophe that has befallen them, and his own role in it.” Duly chastised, the Black lawmakers accepted their assignment.” READ MORE

“If all you saw in the mainstream media about President Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference Saturday night was the AP story, then you are woefully misinformed as to what the President actually said. As soon as the AP story, “Obama Tells Blacks to ‘Stop Complainin’ and Fight” hit the wire, the narrative that the president “lectured” or “talked down to” black people emerged. In reality, the President delivered a fiery campaign style speech with the purpose of igniting his base of supporters who have been frustrated with the high levels of unemployment and overall dismal pace of economic growth. The first half of the speech addressed what the administration has been able to achieve so far, which is substantial and far surpassing his predecessors.” READ MORE

I knew it was going to be an interesting Sunday that would not be a rest day in the mind, body & soul of Blackness, when the first headlines of news I saw on the internet’s social media feeds & timelines as well as on the sunday television news media broadacasts were – “Obama Tells Blacks to ‘Stop Complainin’ and Fight” & “Funk legend Sly Stone homeless and living in a van in LA“.  We need to acknowledge that our biases for or against our president is hurting more than helping because “ALL Presidents”-Black, White or other have a bias toward one constituency  -which is money($) -no matter what part of the world your president is from. The persistent rule of thumb is the saying that “Money makes the world go round” & that is made very clear with the ludicrous amounts of fundraising money collected with little governance & the governmental favors & positions gained by those who are on the right side of the money train. It seems governments all over the world these days could careless about the people of their nation & their needs when it comes down to making money- be it in sending majorities of people into reprehensible poverty or environmental destruction in a world where most pledge to want to save, protect & preserve what is left for the future. Whether your president is a first, of your party, your tribe, skin color, gender etc., the global consensus is that they will eventually sell you out if needed to make ends meet, so don’t act surprised. From indigenous Bolivians being sold out by the first indigenous president , to indigenous Brazilians being sold out by their first woman president in exchange for so called progress that  seems clearly backwards in killing the environment & displacing people who thought they were finally getting change they could believe in with the progress of their nations who voted  to make a history of firsts in presidents that not only were to represent the physical change of newly progressive governments, but also change in mentality.

Sorry to break it to the lovers of Black Camelot, but as an African I have seen my fair share of Black presidents who at the end of the day did less than promised for their people & some who even left their people worse off than they started because the people went in with the blind faith of tribalism without questioning & demanding for better. President Obama is no different & unfortunately the same Black people who say he can’t just solely be expected to save Black people or even address Black issues because he is the president of all Americans & not just Black America, are the same ones who defend him unwaveringly solely because he’s Black.

It seems everyone but the Black Lobby (CBC included)  knows how to wield, deal & attain acknowledgment of their power in Washington. Jews wield , deal & attain the acknowledgment of their power from Washington to Israel with what the president told the UN Assembly is an “unwavering  support” no matter if they are in the right or wrong. Latinos – citizens &  undocumented illegals alike have been able to wield, deal & attain the acknowledgment of their power from Washington to Mexico with our president  being unwavering in expressing the importance of America’s relationship with Latinos from America to Mexico, Puerto Rico & all points in between & beyond. Gays have been able to wield, deal & attain the acknowledgment of their power from washington to the military with our president acknowledging right from wrong & the importance of gays to the fabric of Ameican lives. Banks & Corporations have also been able to weild , deal & attain acknowledgment of their importance to the fabric of America with our president giving stimulus, tax credits  & little to no new regulations attached to continue the farce that they are just too big to fail & that the rest of America must sacrifice to bare minimums  because our nation will somehow falter  or cease to exist if the 1%  who control  most of our wealth is made to feel uncomfortable, or pay like everyone else for their irresponsible actions & mistakes, even if the campaign rhetoric to solely blame Republican obstructionism to reform says otherwise.

We seem to be so off track in the tone of addressing our so called family affairs & much too often- we forget that we are owed & deserve love, respect & humanity as everyday people. It was sad  to see the usual uncivil discourse amongst Black people in discussing anything Obama related. At this point we are all used to the same ol’ same ol’ in our discourse, but I was surprised that many of my generation- older & younger -not only didn’t know that Sly Stone had hit hard times into homelessness, but  were actually surprised to find out that he is still alive & not dead. We fail to build the future when we do not acknowledge or honor the past. Whether it is President Obama speaking disrespectfully to those who paved the way- not only toward his senate membership, but also toward his presidency, or when we throw away the memory & legacy of our elders by reaping the benefits which they sowed without honor & preservation of them & their achievements toward building the future at home & abroad.

“With a Black man in the White House, the African American political class has all but abandoned solidarity with Haiti. “U.S. Blacks’ hard-earned moral authority continues to deteriorate as they continue to condone—by silence and inaction—the current violation of Haitian rights and sovereignty by the U.S. government.” By walking in lockstep with Barack Obama, African Americans are using up generations of international political capital and making themselves increasingly irrelevant to world developments. “Where once Black folk actively challenged U.S. imperialism, today some are more than happy to have a Black commander at the helm.” READ MORE

President Obama can not deny & brush off the CBC & African-Americans’ respect toward their right of agitation, criticism, mutual ground & demand granted to others as complainin’  without bringing the fight to their own interests anymore than he can deny that to any other special interest audience. I can not cosign & cheer the reprimanding tone of Potus ,which as most negative statistics in America falls disproportionately amongst African- Americans than any other minority &  special interest groups he speaks with. The same tone of being spoken to instead of being spoken with is never inflected when Potus speaks in the mid-west to majority poor white & middle class People/Unions who feel he has not addressed their needs enough or fulfilled his promises in getting their vote the first time around nor in demanding for him to show that actions speak louder than words to get their 2012 vote whether Democrat, Tea Party, Republican, LGBT Groups or AIPAC. Instead he blames the obstructionism of Republicans/Tea Party & shows other special interests groups the bridges, fulfilled legislation & things he has done & is trying to do for them in not only feeling their pain, but also coming to them in humility  & ready to work to fight specifically toward their  special Interests, as he did today in addressing the needs of Latinos & as he did on his mid-west bus tour. These are all the the same things “the Blacks” want.

We need to stop co-signing the same ol’ same ol’ & change “OUR TONE” with one another for real progress. It’s no different if the “Tone Of Public Undress” comes from Smiley & West toward Potus or Potus toward his people, or whether when he says “we” it equates to Blackness, Americanness, or Global Africanness . We can’t keep ignoring the root existence & the need for civil discourse in equal parts civil & discourse & just expect everyone to fall in line in following the leader without a seat at the table. It is unfair & unreasonable for Potus to expect an automatic pass &  to produce concrete works for the gay lobby, the Jewish lobby & global bank lobbies where American stimulus gets injected in the eventual takeover of a Nigerian Bank without full disclosure to the people on either side of the Atlantic, who are expected &  told to pull themselves up from their bootstraps & take their complainin’ asses into a march to reelect their president based on the color of their skin & tribal makeup because they have no other choice in getting their specific interests met. If the president can be expected to produce major reform for gays, Latinos & Jews in their specific interests at home & abroad & the same corporations & banks that toppled into an actual bank problem, sold to the people as a global recession with a sanctioned money grab to somehow fix the problem so they can go back to business as usual, then  he can be expected to  stand up for the disproportionate police brutality, execution murders, unemployment , poverty ,racism & discrimination against the Black citizens of his nation.

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” Fredrick Douglas.

President Obama is not in synogues, churches or mosques amongst Jewish,Muslim or Christian organizations telling them to fall in line in following his lead, to stop being complainers or in the past to stop being absentee fathers &  show their hip-hop generation children by example to pull up their pants , to stop gravitating toward lives of crime as sons of war- participating in acts of terroism or acts of revolutionaries of chosen people where the ends justifies their means for the preservation of their people, depending on who tells the story. We have heard the same type of provocative words in presidential Ebonics to the CBC or in the pulpit of our churches in Sunday sermons before. Those campaign moments that all of a sudden allow Potus to be unafraid & unresistant to coming off as the so called  ”Obama’s boogeyman-The Angry Black Man”, who must be quelled in constant concessions to local & global leaders because anything otherwise would all but lose the votes of progressives, independents & sympathetic republicans, but somehow this “tone of face” should be acceptable for the leaders of Black communities nationally  & internationally because this is the language we speak & understand?  We have heard all of rhetoric before & concluded that it was the common responsibility of all, including our president-we need action not campaign rhetoric.

I don’t want to see us fall in line in not only getting the language right, but also the delivery of said language right, in setting a path for civil discourse.  The CBC & African -Americans with all respect should also be allowed their right & time to welcome the president to their territory & local constituency & expect that when millions are raised toward the president’s campaign using Harlem & their other constituencies as its back drop, then Harlemites & Black Americans elsewhere should also have their  issues addressed in actions of what has been done or is in the direct works to being done in exchange  for the same vote & chance to buy more time in the presidency to deliver for the people- not the tone of I hear you, I am one of you so just fall in line, follow me &  stop Complainin’ Bitches! It is sad that many of us were never taught or just plain don’t care  about the manner in which we exchange words & energy. No  woman nor man wants to be addressed in the spirit or tone that can possibly be taken to infer subjugation as anyone’s “Chastised Bitch”! The only universal language that truly binds & bonds us is our desire, need & demand for RESPECT!

As much as I was disappointed in the same old headlines & campaign rhetoric of our president, I was delighted by the reaction of our elders in the CBC who chose to take in the reigns in order not to fall into the sound bite of divide & conquer. Our government is one punch away from being its own reality show atmosphere that has become on Black America’s part our Smiley & West VS. Al Sharpton, Steve Harvey & Tom Joyner, along with our Basketball Wives, our Housewives of Atlanta & DC -the only one in the series to be cancelled. Perhaps the reality of DC got too close for comfort in the fact that government  & the white house in particular was shown to open its door to anyone whether through the front door or back door, just upon the illusion of being of wealth & power locally or globally- no matter who is in charge. The exact syndrome that has caused a new generation to take it to wall street in protest, the same syndrome that always calls to resurrect campaign finance reform  as a true sign of change we can all believe in & individually agree to in non-partisanship, in order to significantly change the relationship between governments & its people on a path to return to a time when democracy was defined & served as  ”a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal (and more or less direct) participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law. It can also encompass social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination….Read More

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” USA Constitution

I always indulge in my Sunday morning coffee with what used to be some great Sunday news mediums like “Meet The Press” &  what used to be the closest news source that we had to the idea of a global news channel-RIP CNN! So much for “keeping them honest” in the aftermath of Katrina, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt , Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Gaza etc. Anderson Cooper, who first brought  these issues to many people’s attention in America & beyond, has now left them hanging in the follow up  to continue the glamourization of  the new status quo news media world of obvious & covert distractions of scripted reality, tabloid worthy news & talk shows that are more based on reality tv design than the globally celebrated undeniable legacy of an Oprah Winfrey Show .

What would I do without Sunday family programs such as Like It is with Gil Noble, Tiempo & The Africa Channel mixed with Al Jazeera English finally coming in to connect my global world & how we are all fighting in a common struggle, no matter where we have our roots & enjoy & grow its fruits. I wonder  if Gil Noble & others have groomed anyone to carry on the legacy to keep the institutions & legacies of “Like It Is”  going when Gil Noble & others have reached their pinnacle & have to step down for reasons of health & just the natural progression of life ,while continuing the cycle of Life, History, Future & Legacy with the next generation. Walter Cronkite & Larry King will always be honored in their television  & news legacies & remembered as the men who paved the way & set up the blueprint of opportunity for a new generation of Dan Rathers & Pierce Morgans to continue, create & possibly surpass their legacy in honor & respect of the past by building the future.

“Two months after he suffered a severe stroke, the family of WABC/Ch. 7 legend says Gil Noble will no longer be able to host the long-running public affairs show “Like It Is.” Noble’s loved ones, along with his attorney, told WABC/Ch. 7 general manager David Davis last week that Noble would not return to the show. Noble, 79, continues to recuperate and “according to his family, is making progress.” Noble began at Ch. 7 in 1967. A year later he became host of “Like It Is,” which has become an important outlet for area viewers to get information on topics important to the African-American community. He’s focused only on “Like It Is” since 1986…” READ MORE

Who will be here to hold our American standards of news & journalism in the future when today, the type of American news & updates being fed in mass to the world  in its overt &  seemingly enthusiastic manner continues to define a hypocritical & less glamourous picture of the America painted to the world in the dream of our melting pot. The vision & view of  this type of America overfed to the people will eventually become the poison that the body eventually regurgitates in either perpetuating its inherent & contagious intolerant cancerous cells, or flushing it away for a taste of something more palatable in serving our collective mind, body & soul.  This is the exact picture  painted earlier this year by Secretary Clinton as what will be the takeover of American News  by Al Jeezera, much to its fruition.

Secretary Clinton spoke of how those who wanted to hear real news & were interested in what was going on in the world were already gravitating toward what was once considered an alternative  underground news source as their main source of news. Those people who care to be informed of locally global news dubbed “real news” maybe the modern representation of  the global freedom riders, worthy to be the offspring to carry on the legacy with a promise & responsibility to build the future of continued legacy on the words, the deeds, the backs, the tears, the sweat, the blood & spirits of those globally celebrated as Noble Laureates of Peace & progress, not only toward their local community but also their global community of human beings; whether by a globally recognized decree or by leaving a global legacy of rewards & honor through concrete actions.

The time & place where we honor & praise Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Stephen Bantu Biko, Ken Sarow-Wiwa ,Thomas Sankara,  President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,  President Paul Kagame-past & present future in the same vain of laureates of peace in a true honest & global sense of building peace &  true freedom; as we honor & praise those recorded in the world books of records such as Theodore Roosevelt, Ralph Bunche, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin, Mother Teresa, Wangari Muta Maathai & President Barack Obama -the only person of African decent to have received this honor since his fellow prize recipient whom he shares Kenyan roots & a hand shake to be the generation of leaders to lead global Africa forward in its financial & environmental health, through a mutual love & respect in a common universal goal in humanism.

Wangari Muta Maathai may have lost  her battle  with cancer,  but her work must go on with the generation which she left behind & those who walked with her in understanding that they too have to have a sense of duty to global Africa, in her connection to the world as the global image of birth mother in nature, nurture, heart, soul & environment- from her roots to her fruits. The CBC, President Obama & the rest of us should have spent Monday honoring a great woman who represented the best of us globally as a great warrior, humanist, environmentalist & womanist  who died as the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead of giving into the media fodder of endless infighting, we should have been showcasing our unity with the world by making sure that all of our children know her name- our girls as well as our boys- in understanding that the ways of love & respect as a people & as a nation starts from the root to its fruits because this generation will be the ones to continue  the dreams of the Pan-African/United States of Africa of Osageyfo Kwame Nkruamh, Gandhi’s resistance to tyranny by means of civil disobedience, Mother Teresa’s altruistic humanitarian work as an advocate  for the rights of the poor & helpless & Wangari Muta Maathai’s overstanding that there is no reason for anyone to be poor or helpless with the abundance that mother nature has granted us, no matter the color of our skin, our gender or social economic class.

“World leaders on Monday said Kenya had lost a courageous woman. South African Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu hailed the legacy of Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai, calling her a “true African heroine”….”We all knew her as a voice of reason, a lady who stood above our artificial divisions of race, tribe and region and championed the cause of humanity,”…Read More

The dream for freedom for many is unwavering, whether in the Arab Spring or in the new wind of change in Africa aiming to be its own master  in control of its own currency & resources in the new era scramble for Africa, where freedom & democracy should never again mean foreign control of banks & resources with a large population of its people seeking their daily bread on foreign shores. We need to get to the sprouting up  in a global movement consistent with what was once promised as the picture of the democracy of  creating “Democratic Spaces”. A democracy once championed  in a new world order based on a union of global populations creating the type of international standard in a dream sold to the world of what can be when given the opportunity in freedom to the pursuit of happiness in liberty, dignity & justice for all. The type of shared democracy consistent of a promised land & reaching the mountain top in a word forever embedded in a great freedom fighter’s speech, addressing the audible & visual image of what he saw denied  for so many locally & globally for many of the same reasons. The type of democracy  with a fair & shared seat at the table finally going from a dream deferred to becoming a dream realized! The type of democracy that we desperately need in America & around the world today despite where we lay our heads, what God we pray to, our gender, or social economic class.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere..”Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation and this means we must develop a world perspective..” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

President Theodore Roosevelt “took the  view that the President as a “steward of the people” should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution.” I did not usurp power,” he wrote, “but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power.” Read More

“If there is no struggle..there is no progress..those who profess to Favor Freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground…they want the ocean without the awful roar of it’s many waters..Power concedes nothing without demand…Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” Fredrick Douglas

I am hopeful that the CBC  in their  leadership’s concessions in good faith to continue the dialogue toward real progress will meet the same type of respect of compromise that the president would like the Republican majority of Congress to give  to him, with a fair seat at the negoatiationg table. The CBC as part of the minority interest in Congress has heard President Obama in conceding to equal parts of the blame that needs to be turned into equal parts of the progress for the good of the people. I can only hope that President Obama also offers the CBC a seat at the table with the same promise of unwavering support drenched in the president’s winning signature tone of being one with the people, feeling their pain & coming humbly to form a partnership in leadership, rather than just following the blueprint to make sure the same sector of society the world over is put in its usual subservient place -expected to fall in line in following a 1 chosen leader who continues to expect blind trust & faith- election after reign with no set time or date for promotions, hand overs or promises. There is way to much to be done globally for us to continue  not to accept that we must change the “Tone of Our Discourse” to one of “Complete Civility & Respect” from generation to generation because anything outside of that is a threat toward war! We must honor our civility  through respect whether as a Havard graduate, a streets of hard knocks graduate,  or a reality show star raising the future generation of global Africans, who should know,  be shown & overstand that the universal language whether in the animal or human kingdom is RESPECT!

The Elders of the CBC evoked the past honor in legacy of an organization of the people who laid a foundation in common ground amongst individually great leaders, legacy makers & orators who gave voice  & action to a people with shared goals locally & globally.

“A predecessor to the caucus was founded in January 1969 as a “Democratic Select Committee” by a group of black members of the House of Representatives, including Shirley Chisholm of New York, Louis Stokes of Ohio and William L. Clay of Missouri. Black representatives had begun to enter the House in increasing numbers during the 1960s, and they had a desire for a formal organization. The first chairman, Charles Diggs, served from 1969 to 1971 and landed on the master list of Nixon political opponents for his position. This organization was renamed the Congressional Black Caucus in February 1971 on the motion of Charles B. Rangel of New York. Founding members of the caucus were Shirley Chisholm, William L. Clay Sr., George W. Collins, John Conyers, Ronald Dellums, Augustus F. Hawkins, Ralph Metcalfe, Parren Mitchell, Robert Nix, Charles Rangel, Louis Stokes, and Washington D.C. Delegate Walter Fauntroy. …Read More

It is sad to hear the disrespect of  the CBC by many of my generation & younger in finding their  pass & example through our president, who would have many who don’t know any better thinking that these elder Black people have just been sitting idly in their bedroom slippers in Congress all these years before he came along to lead them to the fight for the rights & freedom of Black people. The CBC has fallen short in recent years in being effective in its role to act as the voice  &  to serve the needs of  everyday Black people instead of falling prey to the same money gods of many life long politicians. The majority of the CBC deserves applause  for changing the script & not giving more fodder  in sound bites to continue more headlines like “Obama Tells Blacks To “Stop Complainin’ and  Fight”, the types of headline stories of slow news , fast news or any news day. Who knows the difference anymore when how we adress one another publicly  comes in the same disrespectful tone whether it is from Basketball Wives, Atlanta Housewives sound bites or what was expressed  & dubbed by a facebook commentator as “Presidential Ebonics”- gifted from the voice at the mountain top, sanctioned by hip-hop,  enriched in the talented tenth & raised  within the walls of the White Mid-West  Christian values  & ideology of WWII  Veterans, with dreams of his father  lambasted in the lack of knowledge that his father too was of a legacy of heroes who contributed in the same war of the world which became the deadliest & most brutal war on record- mimicking the conditions of a time in the world much like today that defined an entire century.

“I’d arrived at an unspoken pact with my grandparents: I could live with them and they’d leave me alone so long as I kept my trouble out of sight.” President Obama Dreams of My Father”

Barack Obama, whose father left his duties as a parent to chase his own dreams amongst  his generation of Dr. Nkrumah & Dr. King Jr. , like many other absentee fathers- basically left another man to raise his son. This is the gap where many Pan-Africanist/Civil Rights Era generation failed to uphold their sense of honor & respect tin passing our global African legacy on to their sons & daughters. We’ve been through these cycles for awhile now &  I am just waiting to see how it will end up -crack epidemic /Reagonomics  or FDR,MLK, JFK,Nkrumah or presidents of today such as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva & President Paul Kagame who are revered by a great majority of their people as true Concrete change makers with betterment for a greater majority than a lesser minority.

Martin Luther King Jr. made sure they got the same language right, whether he was amongst his people in Selma with many of today’s CBC members present, or when he walked into the White House by invite of Presidents Kennedy & Johnson to share a seat at the table to address the needs of Black America.

Separate Is Not Equal Phot Credit

WE THE PEOPLE
Music by Roger Kellaway
Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman

We the People, We the children of the dream.
We the people, We the ever flowing stream.
We the keepers Of a flame that we must pass from hand to hand
Across the land.
A land of forest green and meadow gold,
Of river young and mountain old,
From sea to shining sea.

We the People, We the hand upon the plow.
We the People, We the sweat upon the brow.
We the builders Of the bridges and the cities rising high
To scrape the sky.
A sky that knows the sound of eagle’s wings
And holds the promise that it brings.

Just as the Earth needs sun and rain to live,
Freedom needs all the love that we can give.
Guarding it ev’ry day, So we can safely say, No one will ever take it away.

We the People, We the singers of the song.
We the People, We the weak and We the strong.
We the hist’ry, We the tellers of the tales of legends past
And why they last.
And why their words are written on the walls
And echo down the hallowed halls.

It’s not the flag we raise.
It’s not the song of praise.
But it’s the hope for all our children
As they face tomorrow!

We the People, We the People, We the People!

The festering & expected tragedy of famine in Somalia that has now captured the world’s attention & caused the United Nations to declare a famine in two areas of southern Somalia as the region suffers the worst drought in more than half a century has brought me to think about Hip-Hop’s global legacy in world affairs & in being the voice of the people, since many in the Hip-Hop generation only know of Somalia because of global hip-hop artist K’naan & the world attention on its pirates or freedom fighters -depending on who is telling the story.

We have world aid organizations, celebrities & everyday people once again all pleading for money from governments & everyday people since the last famine hit Somalia in 1992, just to once again allegedly throw money at the problem without addressing the roots of the ever evolving problem with the world’s African Foreign Policy.

“Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since 1991, when the central government imploded. In 1992, the same elements of drought and war set off a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people and started a cycle of international intervention that, despite billions of dollars and more than a dozen transitional governments, has yet to stabilize the country.” READ MORE

“The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, said the response by many European and developed countries to the crisis in the Horn of Africa had been “derisory and dangerously inadequate”…”The fact that a famine has been declared shows just how grave the situation has become. It is time for the world to help,” he said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would provide an extra $28m in emergency aid to counter the famine. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was “not enough“…READ MORE

“With famine driving more Somalis to Kenyan refugee camps, social media users rally to financially support victims. But, are the donations really benefiting those in need?The Stream spoke to The Nation’s National Security Reporter Jeremy Scahill about the current situation and the possibility of alleged mismanagement within aide organisations. Almost 380,000 refugees have sought shelter in camps created to house 90,000 people. Those who are not admitted build huts with sticks and plastic bags in shanties outside the camps. Rioting and rape are common within the camps, and Scahill says some Somali refugees are starting to consider their famine-struck homeland safer than the refugee camps which he described as “abominitions.” On Tuesday’s episode of The Stream, we ask: How are organisations using foreign donations, and are Somali refugees seeing tangible evidence of aide?” READ MORE

If we are truly tired of seeing these images, then we need to attack the real problem of the slow genocide of people who have not been allowed to use their own waters/resources to make a living & to feed themselves because of corporate interests/profits & international governments whose so called aid comes with life & death sentences in deciding whether to do as they say or demand freedom to do as Somalis wish. Mother nature is not eating her young-the lack of humanity in humans are! If we want to help Somalia then we must give our voices in attacking the root issues because money can’t buy freedom & Somalia deserves its freedom out of sanctioned enslavement in their own land, just as much as Northern Sudan & all the African nations refighting for their Uhuru-Freedom! We all need to follow the money trail because our few donations will not stop these images of skeletal children that we constantly come together to fight for, but our voices might just give the future generation of Somalis a fighting chance. The Horn of Africa is blowing, who will finally listen?

“Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them. We face neither East nor West: We Face Forward” Dr. Nkrumah

As artists from Africa, the Middle East & all points in between like K’Naan, Shadia Mansour, Femi & Seun Kuti, Wanlov the Kubolor, The Narcicyst, Seu Jorge, Nneka, Morgan Heritage, Blitz The Ambassador, & Emmanuel Jal-a war child of Sudan who lived to bare witness to South Sudan being the newly minted 193rd country in a new world , along with so many other global hip-hop artists become the voice for the people of their nation, who often never get a chance to be heard on an international stage; America- the birthplace of the Hip-Hop we know today globally- is a divided nation with growing poverty, broken education system, police brutality & high unemployment most adversely effecting the Americans who birthed Hip-Hop,  yet all we seem to be doing is celebrating your favorite rapper & his favorite rapper- all talking about how gangsta they are, how much swag they have, how hip-hop’s survival depends on whether they decide to take the mic or not, how well they lay the pipe, how much money & material possessions they have, how they have 99 problems but a bitch ain’t 1, money pussy weed and how great they are at all that they do from the point of view of two hip-hop generations.  Yes, this maybe an element of hip-hop’s many evolutions & not all hip-hop from its inception had or has to have a political bend to it; However the legacy of hip-hop that captured the world is that it was the voice of the impoverished & disenfranchised people when they needed it the most. As the late great Fela Anikulapo Kuti said : ”Art is what is happening at the particular time of the people’s development or underdevelopment…people don’t have to smile in bad conditions…Music Is A Weapon!”

“Complex: In the Middle East and North Africa, music, especially rap music, has been used to voice the discontent of the people. As an artist, what are your thoughts?
Khaled M.: In Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya the whole message was anti-establishment. When you are going against the establishment it is hard to have your voice be hard by traditional media. The people learned how to gather, organize, and get information out using social media to circumvent the system. Music especially throughout North Africa has always been popular and accepted by the people because they are used to dealing with oppressive regimes. There are other artist like, Ibn Thabit, whose identity is unknown. He never shows his face in videos for security purposes, but he sends out strong messages about what’s going on in Libya. I think hip-hop is an avenue to inform people who normally would not be in tune with the situation.:”READ MORE

“When asking about their role as musicians in spreading a message, Dr. Das responded, “For us music has always been a potential vehicle for commentary, for criticism, for spreading information. It’s like broadcasting except we’re funkier than CNN. If you’re making some funky sounds, it’s a great opportunity to spread a little bit of information. And then it’s up to people, whether they take it further, whether they research it, whether they sign any petitions, whether they go on a march, or whether they just start talking.  ADF has definitely used their success as a platform for speaking up on issues that affect them and their surrounding communities. As stated by Pandit G., “You use your profile as a platform. We were on the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. You had to go in and it was like going to the airport security. They x-ray everything and check everything. But, to get on that to talk about Mumia and to talk about Satpal on the Voice of America, the leading propaganda organization of this country, I mean you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it, but you can’t substitute yourself for real campaigns that are happening. We’ve got a given opportunity to be able to do this and that’s what we use profile for.” Read More

The new Jay & Ye song “Otis “, which samples Otis Reddening’s “try a little tenderness” & Kelly Roland’s “Motivation”  featuring Lil Wayne songs are all I seem to hear about these days & as much as I may love & appreciate them on a strictly musical groove basis, I just can’t help but to look around me & have the desire  for an elevation in music that actually reflects the true soul & life of the fruits of Hip-Hop’s Roots. As Lauryn Hill said you can get the money u can get the power, keep your eyes on the final hour.

“Come on baby, light my fire
Everything you drop is so tired
Music is supposed to inspire
How come we ain’t getting no higher? Now tell me your philosophy On exactly what an artist should be,Should they be someone with prosperity, And no concept of reality? Now, who you know without any flaws. That lives above the spiritual laws, And does anything they feel just because There’s always someone there who’ll applaud..” Lauryn Hill -Superstar

“A snippet of Redding’s 1966 soul classic “Try a Little Tenderness” kicks it off and Jay-Z and West then get busy trading verses about how incredibly large they’re living. “I invented swag, poppin’ bottles, puttin’ supermodels in a cab,” Jay-Z declares. “I guess I got my swagga back.”..West scores points for dropping in a reference to Greek mythology (or is he nodding to the French design house?): “Luxury rap/The Hermes of verses/Sophisticated ignorance/Write my curses in cursive.”…But the references to luxury cars and private jets quickly lose their escapist luster, grossly out of step with a summer in which joblessness and foreclosure are becoming all too common for many Americans…” READ MORE

“ Otis Redding was one of the great American soul singers, who, although only enjoying a short career due to his early death in a plane crash at the age of 26, has been described as the embodiment of soul and one of the most important cultural icons of the civil rights movement. Before his death in 1967, Redding released 40 singles including: “These Arms of Mine” (1962), “Respect” (1965), “Try a Little Tenderness” (1966), and his only number one hit, “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” released posthumously in 1968. In addition he would release 14 albums, among them “Otis Blue” (1965), “The Soul Man” (1966), and “The Dock of the Bay” (1968). Although Redding earned over $600,000 in the last year of his life and owned a 300 acre ranch in central Georgia and a private plane, he remained connected with his Southern roots, helping to establish local scholarship funds and participating actively in the Stax “Stay in School” project.” READ MORE

If we want to celebrate Otis Redding’s legacy through hip-hop, then let’s stop sitting at the dock of the bay wasting time & try a little tenderness because we have dreams to remember as we watch the throne. All the bravado in the world means nothing if a warrior does not move his nation forward. Otis Redding was amongst the influential artists of the civil rights era. A time when the children of Plessy vs. Ferguson inherited Jim Crow’s “separate but equal”  & has become our modern day no child left behind, charter schools pinned against disastrous public schools in specific areas of the nation, mom’s getting arrested for taking a by any means necessary approach in giving their children a fighting chance with the tools of a stellar education -which is not granted in the separated districts where they live, questionable direction in education systems that deny education & even a seat on a airplane to young people because of their hair styles & fashion choices, a heightened time where police brutality is expected with a home trained right of passage as to how to handle it when it is your turn, a time where many would rather take their own lives than face deterioration under abject poverty &  unemployment, a time when the fear of what is to come and hopelessness in the lack of freedom is coupled with a racially polarized political climate dividing & hurting the people of the nation with a national election up ahead, a time reflective of our history & legacy past, when the people needed the music to give them a voice, hope & motivation & the artists whose legacies remain for a lifetime delivered.

“People define themselves by a region with which they connect. But, does the region to which they were born define each person? Not necessarily; this connection can be made through birth in a certain geographical region, but it is also more than that. It is finding commonalities in the values, lifestyle, image, and in regards to music, sound of that region. Otis Redding defined himself by the South. Redding identified himself as Southern not just for his geographical birth, but also by connecting with the many characteristics of the South, including the ever-growing Southern sound. He became a symbol of the South, being a role model for its values, aiding in the uniting of whites and blacks, and influencing numerous artists over the years. The South, often known as Dixie, is characterized by a history of racial tensions. From the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, one could identify two Souths, white and black. Together, white and black Southerners developed their own culture, valuing religion, music, and food, as well as having a strong pride of place. However, when it came to the history of the South, whites and blacks didn’t see eye to eye. White Southerners were making their own history. Black Southerners were forced to follow the lead of their white counterparts. Because of its adherence to segregation, the South was often ridiculed for being racist, uneducated, and lazy. The 1960’s, however, marked a big change in the South. The beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and the passing of the Civil Rights Act occurred during this time. Southern music began its journey to desegregation as well. The distinct sounds of the South and the story-telling lyrics that joined served as a voice for the feelings and thoughts of individuals during the change occurring throughout the South in the 1960’s. To endure these changing times, black Southerners turned to the music of the South. As music itself started the desegregation process, white Southerners also found themselves drawn to this Southern sound. The bluesy and deep soul searching sound the South was known for provided an outlet for racial tension and a connection to one’s inner feelings. The music of Otis Redding fulfilled those very needs, as he was known as one who “exemplified to many listeners the power of Southern ‘deep soul…”This is a power that touched its listener’s core, setting aside issues of race and emphasizing Southern culture. ” READ MORE

“Born in Macon, Georgia, Otis began singing as a youth when he kept winning local talent competitions. It was a time when racial segregation was strictly enforced, so white people were not allowed to attend. But unbeknownst to Otis, he had two white fans who parked their cars outside the theater and tuned in on their car radios. They later became his managers. They were spurned by the white community as “N-Lovers,” while the blacks accused Otis of being a “White Man’s N.”
Otis tragically died at 26 when his private jet crashed into a Wisconsin lake. He had just recorded his famous Dock of the Bay which was released after his death. I’m sorry Otis Redding died so young. And I’m sorry he did not live to see the changes the Civil Rights Movement brought. But he left behind a legacy of beautiful, haunting songs. And he sang those songs with feeling and passion from deep within his soul.” Read More

“Music is Art…Courage is the most important of all the virtues, Without Courage u can’t practice any other virtues constantly…You can Be anything Erratically…It’s been my blessing to have had some impact -Dr. Maya Angelou/Godmother of American Hip-Hop-Bridging the Gap/ Building the Future! Still We Rise!

CLICK HERE FOR ENGLISH TRANSLATION

“We are living today, in a truly intense time in human history because people have become so exposed to what the world is & how the world works…this means that now people see clearly & vividly all of the tragedies of the world…none of us can hide from knowing the world’s pain as a result more than ever we need real reasons for hope…The Closer We stand 2 one another.. the more we r able 2 realize…that all of our separate individual struggles…in fact belongs 2 1 Singular Struggle !

I can’t help but to feel a heavy sense of disappointment & to just let out a loud inner HMMM..as I watch Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s video championing the right of unions not to be taken away by government & promising that if this issue came up if he was chosen as president-he would be sure that workers knew he was on their side & he would even put on his comfortable shoes to march right along with the people. Well judgement day is here & workers don’t only deserve to know that he is on their side, they deserve to see the reality of those promises that got him their vote.

Our government’s behavior has become as vile , unproductive , undemocratic & un-American as the antithesis of everything we preach for & against in the world, to the point where Americans are learning from the world of the oppressed how to fight for & attain their basic civil rights & freedom. This situation with unions is very UN-American & everyday citizens in America need to understand that the only reason many still have jobs, healthcare & an honest living wage is because of unions. When trillions in bailout money was being shelled out to the very same Wall Street corporations, banks & even the auto industry every excuse was made by both Democrats & Republicans of the necessity to reward those who destroyed the American economy & have still not paid the money back nor changed their destructive behaviors to the tune of record bonuses & profits; yet somehow Americans are convinced that everyday working people (teachers, policeman, fireman, hotel workers etc.) are the cause of our deficit. We the people are a bunch of idiots for allowing politicians who have only corporate interests at heart to divide & conquer the middle class into extinction.

If we allow this to happen instead of waking up to fight together for that which is ours by demanding that our elected officials fight for our interests just as hard or even harder than corporations who line the pockets of both parties equally, while our taxpayer dollars allow the system to continue to run with little benefit to our quality of life-then we deserve what we get because as the saying goes “you reap what you sow”.  17 states are on a rampage to bust up unions. Unions have made every concession possible to meet our government more than half way, yet the goal is to dismantle them completely & that is just not right & un-American. Trillions were allocated to the same banks & wall street coporations who dismantled the global eceomony without the least bit rules of conduct & stipulation in paying back the money or how it was to be used & most of our elected officials had no issue with that yet they have made the wages & collective bargaining of everyday people which often doesn’t even come to a 1/4 of  the bonuses & profits paid out to coporations & their employees a national issue that is dividing the nation-WTF? This is far from the way America will ever win the future because if we destroy the livelihoods of workers & leave this nation for the wealthy then who is going to do the work that keeps this nation running? We don’t have to worry about immigration laws for too long because America is on such a destructive path & war against its own working class people that many in the world do not see America as the land of opportunity & the whole idea of the American Dream has faded for not only Americans but for most of the world which was envied & cherished the possibility of such an ideal sense of freedom in opportunity.

Any everyday American whether union or not who does not see that taking away the right of collective bargaining is wrong, needs to seriously get their head examined or take it back to basics & just imagine yourself working somewhere where no matter how long or hard you work, you will never have a right to a pay raise or any change in your work conditions unless your boss feels like doing you that favor. Sounds more like slavery or better yet indentured servitude to me since slaves never got paid. The biggest power that any union has in protection of its members is the right of collective bargaining, so if you take away that right then you destroy the power of the union & that is WRONG!

“Labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and police. Activity by labor unions in the United States today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for their membership and on representing their members if management attempts to violate contract provisions. Although much smaller compared to their peak membership in the 1950s, American unions also remain an important political factor, both through mobilization of their own memberships and through coalitions with like-minded activist organizations around issues such as immigrant rights, trade policy, health care, and living wage campaigns….”READ MORE

“The term “collective bargaining” was first used in 1891 by Beatrice Webb. However, collective negotiations and agreements had existed since the progressive decriminalisation of trade unions during the nineteenth century. Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements which regulate working conditions. Collective agreements usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs. The union may negotiate with a single employer (who is typically representing a company’s shareholders) or may negotiate with a federation of businesses, depending on the country, to reach an industry wide agreement. A collective agreement functions as a labor contract between an employer and one or more unions. Collective bargaining consists of the process of negotiation between representatives of a union and employers (generally represented by management, in some countries by an employers’ organization) in respect of the terms and conditions of employment of employees, such as wages, hours of work, working conditions and grievance-procedures, and about the rights and responsibilities of trade unions. The parties often refer to the result of the negotiation as a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or as acollective employment agreement (CEA)…” READ MORE

“Collective Bargaining” is not a favor, it is a right & what the foundation of America’s basic idea of Democracy & freedom was founded on. America is going down a very dangerous path of becoming everything that we say we are against in autocracies & dictatorships around the world that many are revolting against. We are quickly losing our footing around the world because of our hypocrisy & we need to stand up & recognize what a beautiful , welcoming & globally representative this nation has been & can be again if We they people give a damn enough not to only do it for ourselves but also for the future of our children. If this nation falls we all fall with it & we are quickly sinking!

We are not just losing the war on information, but now America is looking to the world to learn how to fight for its rights & freedoms!

“I wanna B Free from all these yeah yeah politics, I wanna B free from all these yeah yeah politicians, I wanna B free from all these corrupt monsters…” a song of freedom being sung globally ..all around the world same song #WorldwideRevolutions

Very Interesting Lyrics for the times- Born right here in the USA ..looked on 2 the whole world as a refugee-We must not allow our nation to broken.If America burns we all burn with it

Lil Wayne Feat Robin Thicke – Tie My

[Robin Thicke talking]

We are at war with the universe, the sky is falling
And the only thing that can save us now
Is sensitivity and compassion

[Singing]
Daa da da, da da da daa da da
Daa da da, da da da daa da da

[Talking]
But I know one thing’s for sure
I’m gonna get my kicks before it all burns down

[Lil Wayne]
Yeah
Some say tragedy’s hard to get over
But sometimes that tragedy means it’s over
Soldier, from the academy league of rollers
I deny being down though they seem to hold us
My, shoulders are strong I prove ‘em wrong
I ain’t doing nothing but moving on
Let the truth be known
But they talked that freedom at us
And didn’t even leave a ladder, damn

[Robin Thicke]
I work at the corner store
We all got problems, problems
No one’s gonna fly down low
No one’s gonna save us now
How you feel you’re not alone
We’re all just jealous, jealous
We don’t reach the sky no more
We just can’t overcome, no

[Chorus: Robin Thicke]
You tie my hands what am I gonna be?
What have I done so bad?
What is my destiny?
You tie my hands what I am I suppose to see?
What have I done so bad?
What am I gonna be?

[Lil Wayne]
I, knock on the door, hope isn’t home
Fate’s not around the lucks all gone
Don’t ask me what’s wrong ask me what’s right
And I’ma tell you what’s life, and did you know?
I lost everything, but I ain’t the only the one
First came the hurricane, then the morning sun
Excuse me if I’m on one
And don’t trip if I light one, I walk a tight one
They try tell me keep my eyes open
My whole city underwater, some people still floatin’
And they wonder why black people still voting
‘Cause your president still choking
Take away the football team, the basketball team
And all we got is me to represent New Orleans, shit
No governor, no help from the mayor
Just a steady beating heart and a wish and a prayer

[Robin Thicke]
These friends they come and go
But I got family, family
These kids so fast they grow
They learn so quickly now
That there’s nowhere to go
That there’s no future, future
Don’t make this here so low
And we can’t overcome, no

[Chorus]

[Lil Wayne]
And if you come from under that water then there’s fresh air
Just breathe baby God’s got a blessing to spare
Yes I know the process is so much stress
But it’s the progress that feels the best
‘Cause I came from the projects straight to success and you’re next
So try they can’t steal your pride it’s inside
Then find it and keep on grinding
‘Cause in every dark cloud there’s a silver lining
I know…

[Lil Wayne talking outro]
Yeah, yeah, yeah
See right now we just riding on love
A shot in the dark
We ain’t tryin to do nothing but hit the heart
We need love
That’s all y’all, that’s all

[Chorus x2]

Yeah, Born right here in the USA
But, due to tragedy looked on by the whole world as a refugee
So accept my emotion
Do not take it as an offensive gesture
It’s just the epitome of my soul
And I must be me
We got spirit y’all, we got spirit
We got soul y’all, we got soul
They don’t want us to see, but we already know

Today is a glorious day of remembrance in Global Black History, celebrating the lives of those who showed us how to live with our heads high as kings & queens. Today we celebrate drum majors that changed the world perspective of the greatness of our Global Blackness. Today we celeberate the birth of Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) & First Lady of the United States of America Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964). Today we celebrate the life, lessons, martyrdom, death, greatness & honor of two of the greatest Global Pan-African leaders of all time: Patrice Émery Lumumba (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Many may have heard of the infamous “Rumble in the Jungle” between Muhammad Ali & George Foreman which culminated into showing global Africans about a time “When We Were Kings“, one of the first filmed pilgrimages in the spirit of Sankofa to reunite the ancestors of enslaved Africans back to the homeland & continent that they were taken from, hosted by a nation then called Zaire AKA Congo which had one of the most prolific, intelligent, visionary freedom fighters of  global Africans, a man we call Patrice Lumumba.  Global Africans should mark this day 2011 on their calender & remember that all who we celebrate today were about service, upliftment, freedom, equality & showcasing a type of class & pride in global Black power that is unbossed & unbought!

“Between 1961 and 1973, six African independence leaders were assassinated by their ex-colonial rulers, including Patrice Lumumba of Congo, who was killed 50 years ago today“….READ MORE

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

“And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us – no matter what our age or background or walk of life – each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation..One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am. .”-Michelle Obama

“Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation and this means we must develop a world perspective…We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools” Martin Luther King Jr.

“…Our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our memory. We have known harassing work, exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us…Dead, living, free, or in prison on the orders of the colonialists, it is not I who counts. It is the Congo, it is our people for whom independence has been transformed into a cage where we are regarded from the outside… History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington, or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets… a history of glory and dignity.” Patrice Émery Lumumba

“Brussels, Belgium – Hundreds of nationals from DR Congo on Sunday attended a march in Brussels to demand the trial of the murderers of the country’s prime minister Patrice Lumumba, who was killed on 17 January 1961. The march was held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Lumumba, who was Prime Minister of the first government following the country’s independence on 30 June 1960…”READ MORE

Sometimes only a man can dress a woman & most of the time a gay man does it best. For all of you heteros who wonder why so many women love & covet their gay male friends …well it’s for the fashion dahhhhling-LOL! Here are three men who fit the description in the genius way they create wearable artistic fashion for women, which allow us to be classy fun sirens from day to night! We heart the genius of  our global fusion of designers who serve our womanly royalty right from Europe to America to Africa! The Global Fusion Fashion Spotlight Salutes: Alexander Mcqueen, Tom Ford & David Tlale!

Photo:Vogue.com

Photo: AlexanderMcqueen.com

Photo:onenigerianboy.blogspot.com

Here’s to my personal artistic man who always shows his fashionable love for me as a woman- The designer extraordinaire Onyx Noiz!

You may think President Sirleaf & Kandi Burruss would never be associated on the same written page, but our greatness as women, Black women, mothers, sisters, daughters ,wives, girlfriends, etc. comes from many & all places.

It seems revolutionary women are taking back the leadership  of the global  & national home front. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a powerhouse, making history as Hillary Clinton wanted to make & was denied & as her fellow revolutionary  Dilma Rousseff just became victorious in the nation of the fastest growing economy. President Sirleaf as one of the first women presidents of a continent & an emerging nation that in recent history had to rise like the phoenix out from the ashes is ready to be the change that she wants to see.

Many of the men who run & have run our nations should take a script from President Sirleaf’s book in knowing how to stand tall in power in order to make the tough decisions that  nations need their leaders to make in order to move individual people & their nations forward in the right direction. She has set her sights on doing right by  not falling to the downfall of Haiti in in unpaid debt  which does not allow a nation to proposer  in freedom because of vulture funds. President Sirleaf is  determined to stamp out the global stereotypical stain on Liberia & Africa’s cloth, by stamping out corruption & cleaning house thoroughly in order to start off  from a clean slate for which she can build & decorate her house according to her set standards.  Learning the lessons from the fire & leaving a legacy for future leaders &  women leaders in particular, to have a set foundation to build on & to live off of is exactly the path that President Sirleaf has set in her determination to be a Re-Newed Africa type of president-Where accountability matters & “It Be So” is never heard because she was Born to be Great!

“What has been described as a very unprecedented move was announced Wednesday in Monrovia, when President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf asked all senior level Cabinet Ministers to take administrative leave effective immediately. Many political pundits, who spoke to this paper, said it was the first of its kind for a President of the country to ask the entire cabinet to take an administrative leave. One source said this should have happened during the Charles Taylor regime, but was never implemented....”READ MORE

“President Johnson-Sirleaf told the ministers that the reason for demanding their mass administrative leave is that this administration is entering a critical stretch and this would afford her the opportunity to start with a fresh slate going forward,” according to the release…”The President further announced that a cabinet restructuring will be made in the shortest possible time and that several ministers could be reappointed.” READ MORE

Now Kandi – yes the one from one of my favorite groups Xscape ..yeah yeah the one with Tiny,TI’s wife…LOL-You know that was what you were thinking? Well Kandi is back with the “what I need is understanding“ , “who can I run to“ & my all time favorite “you’ll always be my baby” type of vibe with her new single “Leave U”. Yup fellas! It Really doesn’t take much more than effort to make it work.. if you used to do it…then you gotta double up on doing it to keep the passion, fire & desire burning! I am loving Kandi as a single mother holding her own on Real Housewives of Atlanta without falling into the trap of buffoonery & foolishness while opening up her world to a life that many can relate to & learn from. She is far from anyone’s typical single Black mother, if there ever was or could be such a thing in or global diversity. Kandi is a self made women, who does not deny her child’s father access to be a part of their child’s life no matter their personal differences; Kandi is a woman who will help out a friend over her desire to make money & not let it come between them; Kandi is a woman of honor whose been through some things & has decided to be celibate waiting on the right one while being open to speak about the joys of sex until she can get back to it-LOL! These are the things I learned about Kandi watching her on the RHOA which has given her new wings & a stage to make her music that much more meaningful &  relatable to a whole new generation & audience in that open up about life with your girlfriends kind of vibe that Xscape used to give.

Positivity breeds Positivity just as negativity breeds negativity. This is basic behavioral science  said in basic terms. We all complain about the amount of negativity particularly about Black men globally that is reinforced in the media, but do most of us even bother to take the time to find the plethora of positive stories that exist dormantly waiting for their shine out of the shadow of negative stereotypes in order to pass this knowledge on to one another & our youth AKA future leaders?

With more black millionaires & billionaires in our world  & a Black president who touts a platform with its major focus being finding alternative energy sources, I find it sad & pathetic to hear stories like Lonnie Johnson & other great Black minds who are unable to attain the proper funding/investment to live out their dreams while changing the world in the process. This man can’t find a matter of a few million to possibly power major cities in a clean & effcient way & perhaps change our world for the better while many of our Black millionaires & billionaires will spend that kind of money easily on frivolous lavish wardrobes & cars within months-REALLY? We have truly lost our priorities, but people like Mr. Johnson & so many others of his caliber inspire me to keep pushing for my dreams because eventually people will get it & if it never happens, as Mr. Johnson says “It won’t be for lack of trying”!

This is “Change We Can Believe In” & the type of living “Yes We Can” attitude that we should be teaching young & old alike in our communities globally. The Black community globally is not just full of rappers, athletes, entertainers, men who abandon their responsibilities to their children & family & men in jail. We have & have always had a plethora of great men amongst us, but the world at large & we ourselves must prove that we want to know about  them more than the other frivoulous & negative stereotypes that we aid & abet in pushing as we have national debates about why black women are not getting married, angry black man sydrome, incarceration statistics & all of the negativity that plague us without a balance of the positive & all the good things that we are doing right.  I commend facebook pages like Positive Black Stories. By Heru G. Duenas & Celebrating Progress Africa who choose to be the balance instead of complaining about the imbalance of the telling of our stories. I urge all of you who read this to urge BET, The Africa Channel & other stations locally & globally who target Global Africans to look deep within & realize that they need to green light these ideas into the types of shows that we all yearn to see. We need more positive stories like to be be told about Black men if we are going to break the cycle of stereotypes, negativity & constantly being told a one sided story. Let’s celebrate our greatness while recognizing & correcting what plagues us. Get to know  our men of honor, power, revolution & evolution!

Yes Mr. Whiteman Africans do speak English-we were colonized & enslaved by the English after all-SMH-LOL! But yes Jelani does speak English poetically! Super Eagle Rising!

From the tradgey that was Eartha Mae Keith rose a pheonix, a vixen, a cat women with an intoxicatingly alluring purr in the small frame of a powerhouse known to the world as Eartha Kitt. The more I read & hear about Eartha Kitt, the more I become fascinated with her as an entertainer, as a human being, as a survivor of great tragedy & as a triumphant woman who chose & used the power of confidence & sensuality to make sure that her personal tragedy would never elude her happiness nor define her life! Eartha Kitt is the epitome of  the saying “Big things come in small packages”! Eartha Kitt’s presence & life was beautifully & incomparably grand!

“She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit Christmas song “Santa Baby”. Orson Welles once called her the “most exciting woman in the world.”She took over the role of Catwoman for the third season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable for the final season…” READ MORE

It’s unfortunate that we often celebrate & recognize the greatness of our heroes/sheroes after they are no longer with us in the flesh to embrace our praises. We shouldn’t have to wait for Black History Month, Women’s History month, or any special month or day set aside for recognition to scream out the praises of those who inspire us to fight the good fight, to follow our dreams & to be the best person that we can be by living up to the greatness of our potential, past any seen or unseen limitations! Eartha Kitt, today & everyday I honor your courage to defy the odds & to live your life your way without fear, I admire your beauty, I am captivated by your unapologetic ownership & brazen realization & embrace of your sex appeal & I am empowered by your victorious triumph over a life that you didn’t allow for its final chapter to be written in tragedy! Eartha Kitt, We Salute You Today & Everyday!

“I had the most amazing mother. She was not afraid of dying. She was in pain, but funny right to the end. One of the last things she said when I was talking loudly to her – like you do to a sick person – was: ‘I’m dying. I’m not losing my hearing! And she said, ‘There won’t be a burial. I’ll be cremated. I don’t want to take up space. My mother had no regrets. She said: ‘I have lived an amazing life. I did everything I ever dreamed of.’ I was truly, truly blessed to have landed in her lap…”READ MORE

“Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American actress, singer and cabaret star….Kitt was born on a cotton plantation in the town of North, South Carolina, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina. Kitt’s mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent and her father of German or Dutch descent. Kitt was conceived by rape. Kitt was raised by Anna Mae Riley, an African-American woman whom she believed to be her mother. Anna Mae went to live with a black man when Eartha was 8. He refused to accept Kitt because of her relatively pale complexion. Kitt lived with another family until Riley’s death. She was then sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt, who she learned was her biological mother; she had no knowledge of her father, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was supposedly a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born. Newspaper obituaries state that her white father was “a poor cotton farmer….” READ MORE

“A man has always wanted to lay me down but he never wanted to pick me up.”

“I Fall In Love With Myself, and I Want Someone To Share It With Me. I Want Someone To Share Me With Me.”

Maybe calling the miscarriage of justice, the defamation of a great woman of American history & the deliberate vilification of yet another African-American in the Obama Administration a massacre is going too far, but that’s the way the right-wing ultra conservative radical numb-nuts of America operate –  in their unabashed out for blood massacre formations where they shoot to kill & ask questions later. It seems the rest of America, even those that we would assume should know better are following their lead.

“After the Shirley Sherrod episode, there’s no longer any need to mince words: A cynical right-wing propaganda machine is peddling the poisonous fiction that when African Americans or other minorities reach positions of power, they seek some kind of revenge against whites. The Sherrod case has fully exposed the right-wing campaign to use racial fear to destroy Obama’s presidency, and I hope the effect is to finally stiffen some spines in the administration. The way to deal with bullies is to confront them, not run away. Yet Sherrod was fired before even being allowed to tell her side of the story. She said the official who carried out the execution explained that she had to resign immediately because the story was going to be on Glenn Beck’s show that evening. Ironically, Beck was the only Fox host who, upon hearing the rest of Sherrod’s speech, promptly called for her to be reinstated. On Wednesday, Vilsack offered to rehire her. Shirley Sherrod stuck to her principles and stood her ground. I hope the White House learns a lesson.” READ MORE

I commend Ms. Sherrod for  being unbought & unbossed by choosing to speak up, to be heard & to tell the truth about her experience & all involved without fear of any backlash from Black or White leadership. I am actually thankful that this teachable moment happened not only to expose Fox & its faux journalists, who are more about shock & awe tabloid stories rather than actual fact seeking & giving news reporting, but more so to call out the Obama Administration, the Democratic Party who seem to always take for granted or forget their base until they are up for elections, President Obama on his so called being the president who will open America to a real dialogue on race relations & Black American leadership in general on our lack of overall unity & going to bat for one another by giving one another the benefit of the doubt- instead of following suit with the teachings of the America which holds many African-Americans “guilty until proven innocent”, which we conveniently condemn when it suits our personal agenda then quickly seem to forget when it comes to protecting our personal power & progress in that same system which we condemn.

Despite what Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his press conference apology to Ms. Sherrod about President Obama not having anything to do with Ms. Sherrod’s firing as he verbally danced around & carefully chose his words filled with many pauses of contrition & contradiction, & despite secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack taking full responsibility & saying the buck stops with him- I chose to believe Ms. Sherrod when she says the orders for her forced resignation came from the White House because thus far she has been the only one telling the truth & the so called White House of full transparency has shown itself to be far from it in many instances of politricks as usual. Tom Vilsack in his shamefully forced firing & subsequent rehiring of Ms. Sherrod with a consolation prize of a higher position, which she should have already probably had to begin with just gives Fox & others new ammunition to play this new position out in the media as some sort of affirmative action hiring.  Unfortunately like Van Jones, I feel Ms. Sherrod will be more appreciated & able to do more for the people of America outside of this administration instead of being part of it. Whatever decision Ms. Sherrod makes will have my full support along with so many other Americans who she has shown the light of  the current state of our union.

We all want to know who is really running this country? It seems the Democrats & the Obama administration even with their overwhelming majority in the Congress are still running scared, looking over their shoulders at every turn in extreme insecurity & fear as the Republican party & right wing organizations continue to be their puppet masters. Chris Matthews made a great analogy in comparing Ms. Sherrod’s case to “To Kill A Mocking Bird- which is by far one of the most teachable moments of race relations in America & in its 50th anniversary year & in the 50th anniversary of the fight for Civil Rights in America, it’s unfortunate that these same issues still have the same relevance in tarnishing our society & America’s forward movement in true freedom, equality & democracy.

Ms. Sherrod’s case to me is a teachable moment for Black America in our continued lack of unity & readiness to often believe the worst in our own selves so quickly that we are quick to throw one another under the bus if it means gaining white favor & protecting our own asses. I was more disgusted by Ben Jealous & the Obama Administration in their handling of Ms. Sherrod than I was by Fox or Andrew Breitbart because I expected them to know better than to play into the politricks as usual that I have grown to expect from the likes of Fox & Andrew Breitbart. Mr. Jealous is the leader of the NAACP, the same organization who invited Ms. Sherrod to speak & the same organization who should have known better about Ms. Sherrod’s history before they condemned her based on false allegations & had the audacity to blame their idiocy on the perpetrators of the false allegations when they were the keepers of the original video in question that had been edited & sensationalized in the first place. All I can say to Mr. Jealous is -way to pick your face off the ground & come out of this disaster of all around ignorant knee-jerked reactions with little accountability & grace.

“With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias,” said Jealous. “Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans. The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech,” he continued. “They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.” READ MORE

I am so sick & tired of President Obama’s kowtowing to everyone in hopes of coming out unscathed in order to push the same “hope we can believe in” message for a second term under the guise of trying to be bi-partisan. It is all politricks as usual & the only ones who lose are the American people particularly the poor, who are being hoodwinked, bamboozled & snookered into bringing the fight to one another instead of the actual perpetrators on capital hill, big business & media who need us to play the fool in order to keep their wealth & racket going. Who lost the most when Fox & the same Andrew Breitbart pulled this same false story telling video editing the last time against ACORN, where they managed to dismantle the organization which was found of no wrong doing in a federal investigation, yet scared off the entire Democratic party out of funding an organization that has been empowering & helping poor people since 1970?

“ACORN- a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues.ACORN’s priorities have included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, and other social justice issues.” READ MORE

Who lost the most when the same Fox Network went for a witch hunt against Van Jones, a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean-energy economy, who is by far one of the most forward thinking & prolific leaders when it comes to American environmental advocacy, particularly in areas effecting the poor & disenfranchised in America? Perhaps if President Obama had stuck by him instead of just accepting his resignation because of Fox & right-wing pressure, the people of the Gulf Coast would have someone to give them “Hope that they could believe in”.

I guess the Obama Administration can give the benefit of the doubt to A.I.G, banks & big business to at least take a couple of days to know what they are talking about before they speak, but those rules do not apply for all. Where was this President Obama or is there a double standard in the White House?

Better yet where is this President Obama or does he only defend his friends from Harvard because he surely didn’t defend Helen Thomas who probably thought she was his friend & could have used him coming to her defense in her time of injustice that was played out publically.

Don’t Forget Your Promise to America : We the people need to be ALL of our brothers & sisters keepers.