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BETTYE AND MALCOLM X…Black History Month 2013
Well, since it is Black History Month maybe now would be a good time to post this blog which I started in 2009 but never, for some reason or other never came back to. Can’t remember what 
prompted me to begin it in the first place. Though I must say along with Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Coretta Scott King, Bernice Reagan, Merle Evers, Harriette Tubman, Sojourna Truth, my Mother, Grand-mothers, Great Grand-mother, Mrs. Parks, as in Rosa… and half a dozen others… if not more women I have always admired… I celebrate them all. And if I keep thinking I am sure that I can come up with a few more… like O. J. Simpson’s first wife.
You may asked why I have O. J.’s first ex-wife on my list… it is simply that I admired her for taking the high road in all that mess. Out of all of O. J.’s supposed friends and colleagues… judges and lawyers everybody went for the money. They sold O. J. out every which way they could sell him. That is to say everybody except for his first wife. She never took 1 dime or ever came out against him. Never wrote a book… never signed a book deal… and she denied almost every offer for an interview. Though I am sure that she could have had a lot to say… but she chose the high road… the side of ‘to do him no harm.’
So, women like that… or people like that I can admire without any level of hesitation. Because 
most people today will sell you down the river for a dime… a promotion… or whatever else is up for grabs. And I am not being cynical.
Relationships… family bonds… friendships… you name it and they can all be tossed to the wind if somebody comes in with the right price. And sometimes that prices doesn’t even necessarily have to even be actual money. It can be a position… a title… an automobile… property… status… and phoney friendship… whatever the other side is in need of or looking for.
This is one of biggest and most saddest things about the world and people who live in it today. Had Jesus still been alive today he might have had to worry about more than 1 Judas… but maybe 6… 8 or 11 of them.
Everybody loves you while there is something to be gained in their association of you. In the Bible it appears that Job was a very popular man until he lost everything including his health. So, I guess it can be said that people have been the same throughout history. Was it not Caesar who said ‘et tu, Butus?’
It was not a secret that Malcolm X was the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the founder and religious leader of the 
National of Islam, right-hand-man and 2nd in command. In fact, Malcolm had become the front man for the organization… he was the voice and the face of the organization at that time.
Malcolm X, Malcolm Little the name given to him by his mother, was such an eloquent speaker and possessed such great charisma that the Nation of Islam grew greatly under him. A thing that I am sure was 
celebrated in the beginning of their relationship between him and Mr. Muhammad… but later it became a source of contention between the 2 …as Mr. Muhammad saw Malcolm X’s power and authority growing among the ranks of the followers in his organization.
And then Malcolm went to Mecca and everything really changed between them. When I was in high school I recall buying a book called the “Autobiography of Malcolm X” …that book really intrigued me. I had not known anything about him until I read that book.
I guess I should invest more time in reading about our historical icons… and those who are little known. Their contributions were great and should not be overlooked… while we make millionaires of only writers of fiction.
I really cannot remember what prompted me to begin this blog… or why I entitled it ‘Bettye & Malcolm X?’
But there had to have been a reason. But since really I cannot at this time remember the reason… I have 
decided to just go ahead and post this blog anyway as a tribute to Black History Month 2013… I hope you enjoy it.
I celebrate all the heroic women and men who make up our 
history. Who endured, sacrificed… bleed… were spat upon… whooped… beat… stomped… dogs sicked upon… hit with forceful waters from water hydrants… who were made widowed or orphan… chained… tarred and feathered… and those who died. I celebrated them all… including those who felt it worthy to die over just being called a belittling word that started with that letter ‘N’ … that I might walk and sit… and eat and sleep… and live… and go to school etc… where I want to.
I will not forget… nor can I ever repay the debt by which they have endowed me… my family… my son… my nieces and nephews… our families… our history and our legacy for generations to come. Providing us with much pride… dignity… courage that must be passed on to all our children.
It is Black History Month… and I am happy to celebrate all of our she-ro’s and hero’s… and there are many many many many of them. And I thank God for each and every one of them.
http://www.malcolm-x.org/media/pic_01.htm
Well, God bless… it’s Wednesday and though it has not been very cold… it has been wet. Some light snow and thankfully rain (instead of snow).
am now regimented to using computers elsewhere to complete and write my blogs… a condition I hope to soon rectify. So, until then bare with me… I may be a little bit and might appear to not be on top of things… BUT it is not my fault.
wing media and its so-called voices are really ridiculous. They get all hot and bothered about everything the Obama’s do. Jealousy is a very sad thing… it hinders one from seeing clearly.
man… how they whooped and cried over that claiming that the Obama’s think they are some kind of super-stars… how they think they are better than what they are… how they have lowered the image of the White House… etc… etc.. 
everything the President or his wife does keeps their pay checks coming.
It is sad when you only get paid to find fault. Can’t imagine wanting to live that kind of life.Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2013
Add a comment March 1, 2013
COLLECTING THE MEMORIES of INAUGURATION 2013 President Barack Obama…
It may have been cold… but we showed up again to celebrate not 1 but 2 moments in our great history… both the 2nd inauguration of President Barack Obama… 
and of course, the birthday of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.
They say about a million people showed up this year to President Obama’s inaugural… but we all know that it was probably far more than that. They said only a few thousand for the Million Woman March in Philly… but nobody could tell me that. There had to have been a least a million plus women there… because when you looked out over that massive crowd of Black Women… all you could see were the top of heads for as far as you could any which way you looked.
They had 2,200 people marching in the parade… which included over 150 horses and about 50 dogs, trained to 
assist those disabled or otherwise encumbered yet living independent.
The Hawaiians showed up… our native American Indians showed up… Mexican dancers … drilled teams from high schools, Jr. Colleges and various college campuses including 
those Grambling University high-steppers… a 
gay band… military of all types… forest ranges… mounted patrols… Tuskegee Airmen…
50 floats… and I can’t remember it all. And President Obama waved and smiled all 
through it. It was wonderful… and full of all kinds of people… young and old… including 6 
buses of folks from New Hampshire with their band… who all came out to celebrate the commencement of
our President’s second term in the Oval Office.
God bless… hope you enjoy the rest of the week. It has gotten cold again… with a little more snow. But then… it is winter. 
And yes, we did it… And no devil from hell or all the money from hell could not stop us.
What a great day in American History… Monday, January 21, 2013.
Truly history to be savored forever…
And what makes it doubly so Obama made sure to include a lot of our history in it… including a traveling Bible that Dr. King used to carry with him during his travels from town to town during our Civil Rights struggle here in America.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/inauguration-day-2013-president-obamas-inaugural/story?id=18267094
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and 
all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2013
Add a comment January 22, 2013
God is Faithful… a praise report…
Truly the prayers of the righteous availeth much. I am just getting in after sitting in the emergency ward all night long. About 7 PM this evening my son called me and told me that 1 of my sisters wasn’t feeling well… and that she had said that she was going to the hospital.
Upon hearing this I quickly called my sister to find out what was going on. And she informed me that she had gone her doctor early this morning and he had her rushed to the hospital.
Then about an hour and half later my son called me crying. I could barely understand him…and I just k
new the worst. I thought that he was going to tell me that my sister had died. But when he finally became audible to me… he was telling me that he was wrapped around a tree and his car was totalled… and that he was trapped inside the car.
Because he had called me and sounded shaken up… I thought he was otherwise fine. But after a while when I didn’t hear anything else from him… a mother’s fear kicked in. And I began calling and calling… 
and calling… and calling him trying to reach him.
But to no avail.
I could not reach my son. Worried I called my aunt…and told her that my sister was down in the emergency ward with an enlarged heart. And that my son had just called saying his car had just been totaled and it was 
wrapped around a tree… and that he and 1 of my younger nephews could not get out.
And I told her that now I couldn’t reach him. I said Tee…I need you to call Barbara Jean…and tell her to start praying. Tell her… we have got to pray.
Worried over my son I began crying and lifting up the name of the Lord… and calling on ‘Jesus.’
Hearing me my young niece got up and began weeping and praying with me. Then the phone started ringing. Don’t know how they knew but my other nieces began calling… and my sobbing into the phone poured fear into each of them. Anguish was tearing at me now… and I was wailing uncontrollably
A sister from the church who is like part of our family called and said I’m coming to come and get you to bring you down 
to the hospital. Then my sister who was down in the emergency ward called… saying they just wheeled my son and young nephew into the hospital. Because she was dealing with her own health issue my niece begged me not to tell her that her young son and my son had just been involved in a terrible car accident.
To make a long story short.. .by the time I got to the hospital I was met by half of my family all gathered there smiling and talking. My sister was still waiting to be seen and had been in emergency for over 12 hours now… my young nephew had been released and gone home with another family member. And when I 
went in to see my son he was smiling and talked to me about the accident… telling me how a car had run the light, and in trying to avoid being hit he swerved ending up wrapped around a tree while the other vehicle kept on going.
Nearly an hour later he was released with some stiffness to his neck… and now my sister’s hands began worrying her… becoming numb and losing feeling. After 11:30 PM I finally I got them to get her into the triage. The hospital medical staff began running tests on her ordering a CAT scan, x-rays… and put her upon a monitor to monitor her heart. And some time after 5:30 AM this morning she too was released and sent home.
The hospital medical staff had told her that her heart was fine and t
hey could find no other problems.
God truly is faithful… and there is no doubt about the power of prayer. God hears… and I thank Him so much that my son and neither my young nephew lost their lives in that accident. And that my sister went home feeling relieved… because 
whatever her personal doctor had seen early yesterday morning… in that he told her her heart was enlarged was gone.
God removed that condition and restored her heart to its normal size. And I cannot thank Him enough.
Truly…God is faithful. ……thank you, Lord… thank you, Lord… thank you… thank you, Lord…. thank you……. I cannot thank you enough, Lord. I truly love you. I really really do.
Well, God bless…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2011
Add a comment March 23, 2011
Land Court… Me… and the Judge… and God…
Today I had a court date in Land Court. Blessingly, God blessed me not to have to travel to our state capitol to have to do it.
By the time I got off the bus… jumped the train… then walked up the hill… I could barely walk into the courtroom the last time. In fact, I could hardly stand when they called my case before the judge.
Seeing that the judge suggested that we do our next court date by phone in order to make it easier on me. At first I was resistant to that idea because I felt I could better sway the judge… be more effective or otherwise do more and better for my case by standing before the judge than I could over the phone.
But I forgot 1 key factor.
It is not me… that I now depend upon when I walk into a courtroom…
or anywhere else for that matter… but the Lord.
I have come to know that if you truly trust Him… then you have to act like you trust Him. It is not about saying ‘I trust the Lord.’ But it is about putting that into action… showing it forth so that it may manifest to be so.
So, I longer study… or pour over anything pining or worrying about the outcome. I never try to even think about what it is that I am suppose to dred… because I do not think about. I do not let it interfere with my days or nights any longer… because God has said ‘cast our cares upon Him.’
And let me tell you… that when you do… you will not believe the outcome.
Truly… truly cast your cares upon Him.
Well, today when I got up… I went about my normal routine. I read a chapter in my Bible. But I decided not to eat anything… I just wanted to mediate on God and what was going to be ahead of me in a couple of hours… that court conference call.
For the first time I glanced over the documents that the lawyer representing the City had sent to me. Pulled out my calculator and started examining the figures for the past 4 years of property taxes owed. Trying to find some discrepancies… and when you are dealing with figures there will always be some somewhere.
Finally, the phone rang. It was the court.
As the judge began to speak to me she informed me that the lawyer for the City wasn’t feeling well. I’m thinking wow… it’s over there will be a postponement for another date… and it will give me some more time.
I knew I needed time because no matter which way it went I was going to have to come up with some money. So, I needed time in order to save up an amount that might be agreeable… since there was no issue that the property taxes due. And so…the issue would come down to how much can you pay now… if any… and work out some kind of payment arrangement.
So, I was happy to believe that the case was going to get pushed back again.
But then the judge said that the lawyer for the City has laryngitis and is having trouble speaking. But if you have any problems hearing or understanding just interrupt and I will have her repeat it.
When the lawyer talked I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. I turned up my phone and it was worst. But I decided to listen as closely as I could.
In order to try and save the voice of the City lawyer… the judge had me do most of the 
talking. In beginning I suddenly remembered our last court session and what questions I had posed about the total amount of taxes owed upon my parent’s property. There had been places in the statements from the City where the amount owed leaped 2 to 3 thousand dollars from 1 quarter to another. So, of course… I questioned this along with some other points I had found in the documents sent to me.
By the time our session was over the judge said send copies of what you have to the City lawyer, and I am sure that the 2 of you should be able to work out something. And if not the court is always here.
And then the judge said-
“And you can get those documents to her when you can. And send copies to the court.”
So, the judge did not schedule another court date and she left it up to me as to how soon I could send the documents in question.
No payment schedule was set.
No return court date.
Nothing.
And through it all the lawyer for the City never said anything… because she could not talk. She had laryngitis.
It is amazing. A few months ago the City lawyer had sent court notices to me and all my siblings that they were in possession of my parent’s house… and that we had 30 days to respond. And when I called the number and spoke with the man handling it… he demanded $2,000 now in order to stop the process.
And about 4 months later… that process has yet to see the light of day.
And the ultimate decision lays in the hands of the court… and the judge had just finished giving me some more time.
Wow…
God is truly something.
Some may say why do I give all the credit to God?
First, you would have to know when events are beyond your control there can only be ONE somebody who can turn them in your favor. And that somebody is God.
I write this blog for those of you going through something. Tons of people are going through foreclosure still and so many other things. And though it may seem bleak… or impossible for you to overcome… I implore you to just turn it over to Jesus and see for yourself … first hand just what I am talking about.
No lawyer… or doctor … or even judge… can beat God at what He does. And every lawyer…. doctor … and judge… and everybody in between have to submit to the will of God… like Pharaoh.
God hardened Pharaoh’s heart… until He decided to soften it. 
And when God softened Pharaoh’s heart… Pharaoh did as God desired him… he let God’s people go… the Israelites. But it was all God’s will… the hardening to not let the people… and the softening to let the people go.
And it was God’s will in land court today… what that man working for the City had said to me some months ago has not gone to naught. I did not have to pay him $2,000 …and that was back in January when he told me that. It is now March… and I am still here and nobody has a hammer over my head anymore… demanding anything from me by way of my parent’s property taxes… or other funds.
That is not to say… the taxes or anything else is not owed. But it is to say… that time is on my side… through the sheer grace and mercy of God. I yet have time to set my parent’s house in order. Thank you, Lord God…
Well, God bless…and hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. 
Sometime during the course of your day just take the time to look up and observe the beauty that God has planted up there for you to enjoy.
Oh, yeah… been sharing the house with 1 of my nieces. My sister put her out.
She is only 16 and has gone totally crazy over some boy.
Beautiful girl…smart and everything… and I do mean everything going fo
r herself. ‘A’ student… on the honor society at school… captain of the school soccer and volleyball team… And BAMB!
All of it down the toilet after meeting this boy. Who happens to be 17 and in the 10th grade. LOSER. And she has had sex with him… and now she is out in the streets with me… sharing the roof over my parent’s house.
I can’t wait until my sister gets over being mad. Noooo… but really I love my niece to death. She is not bad… totally not. But recently she has made some very bad choices.
So, currently she is in ‘in-house’ at school because she has skipped tons of classes. Her grades have dropped from the ‘A’s’ to ‘E’s.’
How do you do that?
The spirit of lust. People have lost their homes and families… marriages… children… all of their friends etc… etc… all because lust caused them to do some ugly… and bad things.. say some things… and forced everyone who truly cares for them to turn away from them.. simply because the person cannot hear… nor can they see. They have eyes to see… but cannot see. And ears to hear …but cannot hear.
So, I thought she was going home Monday… But my niece slipped up again. She went missing for 4 hours while she was at school.
Of one thing I am sure… my niece wants to hurry and get out of here. Because her aunt is no joke. Sometimes you just gotta seem to meaner than you really are. And none of my nieces or nephews play with me. But… they love me the most if the truth be told. I know they do… and it is because I love them… I have become to be an enforcer. But I do it all in love… and I can laugh and have fun with them and still enforce.
Now my niece is counting the days when she can go back home… and I know they can’t come soon enough. It is all she can talk about-
“Auntie, do you think my mom this… and my mom that.”
Mom come and ge your daughter… she is driving me crazy.
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2011
Add a comment March 11, 2011
Rangel… Pelosi… Palin…
I am now back in business. For a while my internet service was out….but now it is back. And I am up and running.
Now, for all the things I have wanted to comment on and couldn’t…but now have the leisure and resources to now do so…namely electricity and a broadband internet line.
On to…Charlie Rangel. He got just what he deserved. A big fat slap across the face… with more to come…I hope.
How dare this man making all this money… as a supposed representative of the people of New York City… a real mover and shaker… property barron (being a part owner of 
the landmark Apollo Theater and I suspect having other property holdings as well outside of those subsidized apartments).
Yes, how dare Charlie Rangel sit around lounging in rent controlled apartments… 1 of 2 or 3 
that he owes in New York taking subsides and write-offs at the mercy of hardworking taxpaying people in New York. Many of whom who themselves can barely make it from day to day due the high cost of rent in the city. While Charlie Rangel has had his choice of places in which to lay his head and conduct business dealings all at considerable lower rates than the average New Yorker… and all in the name of his hardworking constituents.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101116/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_rangel_8
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101116/pl_nm/us_usa_congrss_rangel_3
Truthfully, I have been waiting on the hammer to be lowered on him since the news was
leaked about his double dealings a while ago.
It has always been a wonder to me as to why people who have money… why they are always trying to beat the system in ways that many of us would not think to do.
Being in New York… I often hear people talking about rent controlled apartments and how they wished they could get into one. After hearing the amounts that you could pay for rent in 1… there is little wonder why anyone wouldn’t want to move into 1.
Why not?
When you could pay anywhere from $300 to maybe $500 in rent for some really grand apartment space?
Compare that to paying $2200 which is currently what my apartment is going for. And to many that would seem cheap by New York City standards… and especially considering how beautiful my apartment is. But not to me. Paying that kind of money you really should be owning whatever it is that you are living in. Which is why I have made up my mind that the next time I move into something… I will be owning it. But in New York you can find people happily paying $10,000 a month in rent. Go figure that.
Before I would even consider paying that kind of money for anything… I would go and run for Charlie Rangel’s office in the Senate first.
Now on…to Palin. I am so sick of Palin.
Honestly, this is classically what God calls calling evil good and good evil. But in Palin’s case it is the ignorant calling her capable when clearly she is not. And she is a clear example of somebody on too many drugs and cough medicine… all thrown in together.
And I do mean all thrown in.
What is the intrigue?
She was neither the brightest nor smartest. When she was running for Vice President on the McCain ticket she was thought of as being just a touch above brain-dead… and quickly came to be little more than a laughing-stock to most people here in the States.
So, who could hope that any of that has changed?
It is not like she somehow managed to find the yellow brick road to Oz and got a chance to visit the wizard.
Somebody please tell me why is Palin trying to make herself look like some kind of powerful political broker following the recent elections?
It is absolutely ridiculous.
But I guess if you can pull off…then… Some people will fall for anything… and anybody.
There has only been 1 real Tea Party in this country and that was in 1777 when they stormed upon British ships in Boston and began throwing over barges of tea into the Boston Harbour .jpg)
yelling-
“No taxation without representation.”
Outside of that this new-found tea party is merely just a group of wacko extremist Republicans who will soon fall to their own demise. If for no other reason than the fact that they simply think that they are just tooooooooo big for their own breeches. I have heard them talk… and they all seem to be a bunch of power hungry monguls.
Yes, I am back. And it feels sooooooo good.
I have been holding all of this in for some time now. And it is just good to finally release some of it.
I am happy that the Democrats didn’t totally decide to jump ship and to kick Nancy Pelosi to the curb. I think that she has done a good job. She has handled her duties well. And she has done it as well as any man I have seen sit in that capacity.
Wounded maybe by some of the losses that they suffered during this past election period perhaps. But all in all the Democrats fared pretty well. In a an election season where it was thought that they would have been totally overthrown they were not.
Just goes to show that all that media hype was just that… just a bunch of hype. And then the ballots came in… and they set the record straight.
Personally, I feel that the Republicans need to stop gunning for President Barack Obama.
Since Obama walked into the White and took a seat at that desk in the Oval Office… I for 1 having been sleeping a lot better. There is no one on this planet who cannot say that there has not be a sense of calm and more peace of mind since Obama became President of the United States. Whereas ever second under George W. Bush there was some cause to fret… a red alert… a yellow alert… code red… enemy bombers on this plane and that airplane.
What ever happened to all of that?
Guess it all packed up and went back to Texas when George Bush went home.
How quickly we forget the horror we had while under the oppressive and highly dangerous… and lying thumb of George Bush.
It has been cloudy here. It rained a bit last night but not as much as they had forcasted.
I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving. And 1 of the things on my Thanksgiving list is a thankfullness to God for all that He has done… and continues to do for all of us.
Well, God bless…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em 
, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
Add a comment November 18, 2010
Venus and Serena always at the top…
Okay, I admit it. I have not been paying close attention to either Serena or Venus lately.
Okay…okay…maybe it was because I just can’t seem to agree with the skimpy clothes or skin-like almost naked look of Venus’ under garments of her tennis outfits. But that does not mean that they are not the best…or perhaps the greatest sister act to ever hit the World Tennis Courts.
And because I can’t always agree with their clothing choses does not mean that they are not ‘yet’ still beautiful young black or…African American young ladies.
So, then why did the Austrian Open fail to include their names. Venus and Serena Williams… in its list of ’the ten most beautiful women?’
Oversight?
Maybe…
If it was an oversight on the part of those who did the electing could it have been one 
due to color… as in their ‘skin color?’
Very possibly.
Beauty can be measured in a number of ways. But if you are looking at beauty as it pertains to women’s looks… then you certainly cannot overlook the Williams sisters. And they are more than just physically beautiful.
Some people even believe that a good mind is beautiful. And if you are one of those then… they are beautiful even in that.
Some people believe that having a good personality is beautiful. And if you are one
of those than you might even agree here. The William sisters are beautiful
Some believe that having height is beautiful. I love height. And if you think that being tall is a sign of beauty… then you can agree here. That the William sisters are beautiful.
Some people look at your skill and ability, and find beauty in that. Maybe, you are one of those. Certainly, it cannot be said that they… 
neither Venus nor Serena are lacking in either of those departments. In fact, they possess great skill and ability in all the things that they do… be it designing jewelry, or designing sets for television or video productions… or designing clothes …or slicing tennis balls straight down the court and making Aces.
Yes, the Williams sisters possess talent, skill, ability, smarts, intellect, height, charm, elegance… and everything else.
So, then why did they not get chosen …or at least 1 of
them for some ‘tennis most beautiful list?’
Well, you figure that one out. I have my own opinion on the matter already… and you probably know what it is.
All in all… whether they were picked or not for that list… what can you say except… they are still winners in everybody’s book. And very much still at the top of their game.
Now, how could your overlook that?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jewel-woods/venus-and-serena-williams_b_169927.html
http://msn.foxsports.com/tennis/story/US-Open-might-be-venus-williams-last-best-shot-090810
With regard to their clothes…
Who says that the under pants to Venus’ tennis outfits have to be only white?
Evidently, it is not in the rule book.
The other young ladies on the tennis court wear white under garments and nobody says that they are trying to give off the illusion of being naked…being that they are white. So, why then should we perceive that Venus is trying to give off an illusion of being naked… even though that might have been what she expressed when she was confronted by a bunch of foolish questions 
concerning the matter.
Can you believe that an article states that when Venus steps out on the court at the US Open this year…she will do so as the ‘under-dog?’
Clearly, many in the tennis hate the Williams sisters…and simply just wish that they would just disappear.
And once again Venus is causing a stirr…news articles saying ‘short and skimpy.’ You guess what they are talking about.
Well, hope that you enjoy your weekend 
this weekend. The kids are back at school here on Monday. Unlike when I was growing up you don’t really see parents out shopping for school clothes the way they used to. My son says that it is because kids wear uniforms now.
But still what happened to having to buy new shoes and socks, and other things for school?
Then today too… many kids have to supply themselves with their own notebooks, pens, pencils, and paper… etc…etc…etc…
They don’t even get to carry their school books home from schools any more.
And everybody is wondering why they kids are not getting the education that they should?
What tools are we giving them so they can?
Not every child has a computer at home… or at their immediate disposal. They do not all have the same resources.
So, why does the public school system feel that they do?
Where are all our tax dollars going?
When they started lotto in this state they said that the money… or a large portion of it was going to go towards education. I really do not see where any of has.
Today, the kids have no lockers in their schools to even hang up their coats… or to place their books in… if they were given any. They have to furnish their own pencil 
sharpeners… art supplies …everything. All of which were given to us when I was in school.
For every class I had… I had a corresponding textbook. These books were given to me as my personal possess for the year, and at the end of year I had to return them back into the possession of the school. But today’s kids don’t have anything like that. Their books can’t leave their classrooms. 
So, what happened to all that lotto money?
Why do kids have less in school today than we did yesterday?
And in this environment of less… how can we possibly expect or hope for them to do just as well or even better than we did yesterday?
I can’t see it happening. The sakes are higher today… and our kids should not be made to deal with less simply because the school system is not allocated its fair share.
Now, so much for me standing on top of my soap box.
Enjoy your weekend… and hopefully each and every one of our children… and they all are ours… will have a great and tremendous school year this year.
I have yet to launch my official and new website…but I must say that it looks great. And almost everything is working. Just needs some final tweaking.
Well, God bless…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
2 comments August 28, 2010
Some of what you may be waiting on…
You have been reading my writings… Well, some of them. You may have even watched my book trailer for my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.
Now, and I want to show you something that I started yesterday. It is the radio spot for my book. I added some visual material just so I could launch it over youtube…and you would have something to watch.
But if you have been wondering about me… I mean my voice. What I may or may not sound like.
I mean I would be curious about you… if I read some of your work. Most people flip over a book just to take a look at what the author looks like. And I have given you that chance in my actual book trailer, which I hav
e also included in this blog.
But I am so excited about my radio spot. Tell me what you think. And it is me speaking… but then I have told you that by profession I am a radio announcer.
And if you think my radio spot is something… which thanks to a software call ‘Motion’… it really looks greater than I could have imagined. Then ‘Final Cut’…was the software I used to put it all together. And the rest is… Well, you tell me…
And one other thing… I really wished you could see my website. If you went and checked out my initial site…which really wasn’t much to check out. Baby, you should see it now!
I just finished reading this story. There are things that touch me…and things that make me mad. This story did both.
This is the kind of case you wished Johnny Cochran was still around for.
How in the world could the LA police arrest a young woman mentally challenged, hold her for a few days then release her without her pocketbook, money, or any way to get home. And seeing that the young woman was obviously distressed in some way.
How could they have done that to her?
It was a scenario set for doom.
If they had set it up the LA police could not have done a better job in aiding in the murder of this young woman. The moment this young woman was released the chances of her making it home safely without something happening…in LA?
It was slim at the very best. And the worst part of it…. her loving and caring mother tried her best to keep anything from happening to her daughter.
I feel for this family.
My goodness…what a terrible story. I cannot imagine the hell or the evil that Matrice was thrown in or the fate that she had to endure. What a terrible story. No amount of money or law suit can compensate the injustice which was done here.
I restrain myself from speaking on the Fantasia story. To some degree I 
feel for her though.
There is something that I am so sure about.
“The devil desires to steal your life.”
And if you let him he will.
There was once a time when I thought about suicide. But thank God, He only let it be just a fleeing thought.
Matters of the heart can make people do foolish things.
But the one thing about life is this…
There is always tomorrow. And usually it is a much better day.
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12956553
I just finished talking to friend of mine who reminded me that Fantasia is illiterate. It has been so long that I had forgotten it. How she told the story of how she had to learn the songs for American Idol by having to
have someone read her the words so that she could remember them.
Can you imagine that?
For her to do that… Fantasia in fact must be brilliant. And if she had learned to read and perhaps all those other basic things that we all pretty much take for granted… she might have well been further ahead today since having won American Idol a few years ago.
There is no doubt that education is essential for success. And true success cannot be had or maintained without it.
You know to know how to read, write, add and subtract. Without these basic skills all of us would find it difficult to survive.
Now with computers and with texting… who doesn’t need to know how to read or type… or write? And it doesn’t matter whether you can type with 1 finger or with all 10… but without being
familiar with the alphabet or without knowing how to read you would be lost… totally out of the loop.
Then she got caught up with a married man.
Then there was something about her a ‘sex tape.’
Could it be a need for some attention?
That is what my son says.
Or is it that Fantasia like some many other ‘so-called’ stars when they fall out of the glimmer of all the light… they reach out to do some desperate or stupid things just to get catapulted back into the spot light?
Attempting to commit suicide is illegal. But I hear that Fantasia is due to
release a new CD and sometime this week she begins making the rounds to various TV shows. Perhaps it was… just something to give her something to talk about while she sat down for those rounds of TV interviews. Or perhaps it was all for her to grab the attention of Oprah and others to add her to their guest lists in the wake of her ordeal… and increase CD sales.
Who knows…
http://www.dvercity.com/drumbeats_fantasia.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/12/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main6766379.shtml
Hope you enjoy your weekend. Summer will soon be coming to an end. In many places school has already begun again.
Well, God bless…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale. You can CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.
2 comments August 20, 2010
Busy…but not forgotten…
Yes, I have been busy…but I have not forgotten you.
Often, in fact, I formulated blogs in my head. It is just that they have not quite made it to the printed form. And soon those thoughts faded away… lost forever in the recesses of my mind.
It gets like that…getting busy, I mean. You get so caught up in something else that everything else… Well, almost everything else falls by the wayside.
Then just this pass weekend 1 of my sisters had a heart attack. Well, needless to say that can really send you into a tailspin…if you weren’t already into one. So, I have been busy…and now I’m into a tailspin too.
There is something about having to deal with one’s mortality that will
force you to view your own…your purpose… life… things done …and things yet hoping to get done. Then there are those things which we don’t want to do but somehow feel lead to do. And to tell you the truth that is what for the pass couple of days I have been wrestling with the most now that all of this has happened.
For a while now I have had a feeling that I am been lead to preach… as in ‘Preacher.’ So, I began to not only read my Bible but I also started to study it. You know that scripture that says…
“Study to show thou self approved…”
So, for the pass I don’t know what…over 2 years or so… I have been studying. And recently I began videotaping a television program for Public Access…a series about learning to study your Bible.
But when my sister suffered her heart attack it now seems that I have just been stalling…trying to put off the enviable.
It is not that I don’t want to do it. No, not that…though that is kind of it 
too. But I lack the confidence to do it. I can’t remember scripture…though I do believe that as the Bible says…
“He will bring it back to our remembrance.”
Yes, I do believe that. And He has shown me that He does and will do it. But it is just that… I don’t really want to preach.
I mean I have been in radio, introduces acts at concerts, promoted different events… But…but this is different.
So, as busy as I claim that I have been… Well, I haven’t been all that 
busy. I have just been laying around…low key…thinking about what it is that God is asking me to go out and do. And down deep inside…I really don’t want to do it.
But I feel I must. And then again I am afraid if I don’t… Well, I’m afraid of what God may do to me… or my family. And that is what I think my sister’s heart attack was all about.
I don’t think it was about her at all. But that it was about me …and what I am not doing.
How can you be instant in and out of season if you really lack what you think you need?
I know that God would not send any of us out without fully equipping us
to fulfill His need. But yet I can’t bring myself to want to go out into the streets and just start preaching.
How can some people do that?
All of my life I think I have been prepared for where God wants me to be. Somehow He trusts in me. But I have no trust in myself… or maybe in Him as I should.
Pray my strength in the Lord that I decide to walk in the steps that God has ordered for me.
Yes… I have been busy. And maybe later I will tell you all about it…but now I am going through something.
God bless…
If you want to read some excerpts from my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, you can go to my website…. www.bsmith101.com . But before you do just let me tell you that the site is very much under construction. So, it is a long ways from being complete or anywhere near what I want… not even close to it at this time. But slowly…but surely I know it will be something that will meet all our expectations.
So, if you would please bear with me…I would appreciate it very much. But you can at least read some excerpts from my book there. And if you desire to order my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, please do so here in my blog…as I can’t get that link to work.
My book is also available via authorhouse.com, barnes&nobles.com, amazon.com, filedby.com and a variety of other outlets…including ordering it through your local bookstore.
I have not officially launched the sale of my book yet. But while I was down in Charlotte for AIM, our church convention…guess who purchased my book?
Dorinda Clark Cole.
Yes, that is right. ‘THE’ Dorinda…of the Clark Sisters…the COGIC gospel singing sentations.
I still can’t believe it. Dorinda bought my book!
I was trying to give her a copy of my book to give to her sister, 
Twinkie…and Dorinda said to me…
“No, I ain’t going to give Twinkie nothing. If 
Twinkie wants your book she is just going to have to come and get it for herself. But I’ll buy your book. I support people of the Kingdom.”
Yes, that is exactly what Dorinda said to me. Amazing.
I only sold 1 book at A.I.M. and it was to Dorinda Clark Cole. Amazing.
Here is my book trailer that I created last summer… Now you get a chance to hear my voice and to see a bit of me as well. And please keep in mind…that by profession… I am a radio announcer…and a filmmaker. It does make a difference.
I’ll tell you more about AIM in another blog…and I do have lots to say. It was 
so inspiring and fantastic listening and watching all the women and men of God… and speaking with many of them of as well.
THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale. And remember you can read a few excerpts from my book by going to …. www.bsmith101.com …Thank you.
I am just hearing that Walter Hawkins passed while we were down in Charlotte. I never heard anything about it while I was at AIM, a Church of God in Christ conference. He had been battling cancer my son informed me.
It is hard to believe. I never knew him or met him…but I was quite familiar with his music and that of his brother and ex-wife. Who in
the gospel world is not familiar with them?
His brother, Edwin Hawkins and his ex-wife, Tramaine Hawkins…both gospel giants in their own rights as well. 
What a great lost to this Kingdom on earth with a the lost of such a tremendously marvelous
and anointed voice as Walter Hawkins.
Walter and Tramaine Hawkins, his ex-wife, had 2 children and also some grand-children from their union together
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/07/gospel-great-walter-hawkins-di.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306089.html
What a great lost.
Luckily my sister realized that there was something wrong. I later found out that she drove herself to the hospital where upon checking her out…she was informed that had she not come she would have died.
Her heart was in such bad shape and she did not know it. In fact, just last weekend we were all happily in Philly for a large family gathering celebrating the life of the matriarch of our family ‘at large’… our Great Aunt Kate. But who would have guessed that in the midst of my sister’s chest a time bomb was ticking.
If you would like to know some symptoms of an on-coming heart attack CLICK these LINKS below.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/actintime/haws/women.htm
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/healthmedical/a/womensami.htm
Be safe and keep yourself monitored by getting regular check-ups… and don’t forget to tell your doctor…
“What about my heart?”
It seems they check almost everything else but that when it comes to women. And more 
and more of us are dying from it.
My mother did. So, if heart failure runs in your family it is never too soon to start having it check.
And lets all start eating a little bit healtier.
Well, God bless…again.
UPDATE: July 29, 2010… My brother just mentioned this to me in passing. I was not aware that the current Musical Director of the Church of God in 
Christ International Choir, Judith McAllister was even married…or much less that her husband had been indicted for fraud.
One could say that when it rains it pours… Since becoming the head of the international musical department of the Church of God in Christ Dr. McAllister has been faced with one problem after another.
http://www.1800gospel.com/2010/05/husband-of-judith-mcallister-indicted-for-fraud/
There was the issue of Kim Burrell wanting to go secular… and also I think the issue that the music department has lack a certain level of spiritual direction that it once had under it former leaders. None of the songs seem to connect any more. There seems to be a lost in ‘the anointing’ that had 
long been a marker… a brand specific almost to the COGIC church which it had since its founding, some 103 years ago… being the largest and one of the oldest Pentecostal Churchs in the world.
Last year when I sat in on a workshop held by the COGIC scholars at AIM…my brother spoke on the topic of spirituality in the music. It was something that 
he said Bishop Mason was very particular about.
In the part of his dissertation, my brother wrote that Bishop Mason, the founder of the Church of God in Christ, wanted the music to come alive and be felt deep down within the soul of the people. That is something that under Judith McAllister the National COGIC Choir seems to have lost. The songs had no depth… no feeling …no emotions… nothing that brings tears to your eyes… or moves you as the songs once had.
I don’t know but someone came up on this site saying that Dr. McAllister has decided to step down from her post as the International Director of the COGIC 
Choir..though they said ‘removed’. I guess all of this might be following the allegations surrounding her husband… his arrest and indictment. He 
was a Special Agent employed by the FBI and stationed in Nashville, TN… who I guess you could say ’decided he wanted more out of life and decided to take it.’
I do not know if it is true or not…that she has stepped down but if so… Her husband is facing 19 counts of fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud etc…etc… which all totals more than 340 years in federal prison. To that…all I can say is I really did not see what was wrong with the COGIC International music Department as it already was anyways.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/tne/pr/2010/May/McAllister%20Press%20Release.htm
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
Add a comment July 29, 2010
It’s not all about me… or you… Good & Evil… Pastor Sheryl Brady’s new home… women in ministry…
Pop culture I guess has its place but in glancing back at some of the title of 
blogs I have written…it strikes me that most of them are s
heer junk.
What do I care about Mary J’s hair styles?
Or whether or not Venus wants to show her behind off during the recent tennis tournament in Paris?
Can’t even think of it’s name now…that’s how much it really matters to me.
Or what about this…
Why should I care whether or not Gary Coleman was murdered or not?
Because… Well, because I guess way down deep there is a part of me that does care. Though recently I was called non-caring… selfish… self-centered… and not kind. Now, that really hurt. 
I’m not kind?
I’M NOT KIND???????
How dare anybody tell me that I am not kind. All the money I have spent. All the things I have done. And they say-
“I’m not kind?”
This has been eating at me since I heard it. Which was roughly about 3 weeks ago at 
my brother’s graduation. But I have just been trying to play it off…like it didn’t bother me. But somewhere back there in the far crevices of my mind it has lingered. Periodically it would pop up and I would push it back out of my mind. And I would just refuse to acknowledge it…or that it even really mattered to me to have heard that.
But it did.
My weapon against it came to mind from Biblical text… how the Bible says that they will call evil good …and good evil.
Well, why not?
It seemed to fit… and fit perfectly. I after all I do not consider myself to be a bad …mean …or even an evil person.
Yes, I have had to do some things. But never without cause or justification. Some I didn’t want to do… but I did it thinking I was forced to. 
So, then too as many people as I have given to… poured out myself to …gave to when I didn’t have it to give… Then so… how is it that I should be considered ‘not the kind one?’
Well, if you give from the heart you do not walk around talking about your giving. You just give.
You give because you see that somebody needs. You give because you are compelled to… and you respond to the force which compels you to do so. You give without expecting anything in return. You give not seeking a slap on 
the back or a pat on the hand. You just give… because- Well, because there was something you saw… you sensed… you witnessed… and your heart opened up …and you just gave.
It could have been a word… that is what they call ‘a kind word.’ Or it could have been financial. Or it could have been of your time …or a token of your wisdom… if you have some. But you gave it to meet a need in someone else.
And so, at the end of the day you do it without seeking fame or glory.
So, yes. From time to time you are bound to be not called ‘the nice one’ or ‘the kind one.’ Because you gave while no one was looking …and you weren’t looking for them to be so… being you sought not recognition. You just gave…and it made somebody’s day… and probably your’s too.
So, it’s not all about me …or you either. It is about others.
And who cares whether others recognize your giving …or your caring …or your kindness …or the level of outpouring you share with and to others.
But God knows. And in the end that is all that matters.
God bless… and do what you can… for others. And forget about what is …or is not being said about you.
It really doesn’t matter. It truly doesn’t. And now that I have said all of that… I don’t know why it bothered me so much …not being called ‘the nice one.’ Or was it ’the kind one?’
I really can’t even remember now. But boy did it eat at me. But now God has spoken into my spirit …and after writing this …releasing all those feelings of self-evaluation and trying to figure out why I was not being called ’the nice one’ …or was it ‘the…-’
Oh, never mind.
I am just going to work to be better …and increase my caring and giving. And give from my heart and not expect anything back, including somebody calling me ‘the nice one’ …or is it ‘the…-’
It is truly not important. And I thank you for listening while I sorted this all out. Because it really really isn’t about me.
Who knew that Wanda Sykes was this short?
And I do mean shorrrrrrt.
When she is not going on and on with all that foul language she can be pretty funny. But she and Sade were quite adorable in that little skit don’t you think?
Now, on to this.
I fell to sleep messing around with my son’s laptop computer last night and 
woke up listening to Pastor Sheryl Brady preaching on the Word Network, a religious television channel. I guess it was her excitement that woke me up. She was bubbling over with glee about having moved to 
Texas, and becoming part of Bishop T.D. Jakes’ ministry as pastors under him, she and her husband, of a North campus addition of the Potter’s House.
As I listened to her it struck me as being odd. Because I could not understand. Was she saying that she had left her own church… as in deserting it… and them…those people who had joined her church, the River Church, down there in Durham, North Carolina?
And was she saying that she was now in Texas serving up under Jakes?
Yes, it struck me as odd, indeed.
Because for 1 I just could not… and do not understand what could have precipitated such a drastic decision or move?
http://blogs.bet.com/ontv/thegospelaccordingto/2010/04/following-up-sheryl-brady-eric-mcdaniel/
Having heard Paula White on several occasions call T.D. Jakes her spiritual father… who played a great role in bringing her onto the national scene via his used to be annual event called ‘Woman Thou Art Loose.’ No where as near well known or as popular on the higher national church preaching plain… one has to wonder if the switch to come up under Bishop Jake was due to a desire on the part of Pastor Sheryl Brady, to emerge on a higher level of the national urban religious scene… if you care to call them that. Or more simply state… preachers that appeal to the vast numbers of African American worshippers.
While in this exchange Bishop Jakes also adds to his cross-over appeal by appointing Brady and her husband, who are white, as the head of one of 
his churches. With Allen, TX as the place where they are now currently ministering… having a population of about 83,000, whose income is for the most part upward to $188,000/per year and beyond. Which might answer why he offered the Brady’s that location as opposed to opening up a Potter’s House extension in North Carolina, where they came from…or somewhere in ‘the hood,’ meaning where more black folks are.
Speaking of which… ‘Woman Thou Art Loose’ that is. I was privy to being at the last one to be held in Houston, TX, 2003. It was the one where Juanita Bynum came and got down on her knees apologizing to both Bishop Jakes and his wife regarding her falling out with them… which had ended up with her going into court against him claiming that ‘Woman Thou Art Loose’ was her brain child, and I guess some other things as well.
I do not know how the law thing worked out. As at the time I was not saved or following such things, and I knew nothing about either of them really. Nor was I following anything religious at that time… far from it. Thank God…I can say differently today.
But I enjoyed that conference very much that September of 2003 in Houston. I was quite impressed by the entire operation… and boy was it well organized. I sat though it taking all kinds of mental notes… from the camera layouts…to how the camera jibs swinging high in the air above the crowd grabbed all the great shots. It was crowded in that arena… packed in fact…and it was not a small place with its retracting roof.
It was loaded with women…upstairs…down stairs…all aound…from corner to corner… and all on the main floor… all hotels had been solidly booked and sold out. Women
had travelled from all over the world to be there…Africa… Germany… France… LA… Boston… and Brooklyn… etc…etc… And many of them were annual re-turners… women who organized their schedules year in and out just to be in the midst of ‘Woman Thou Art Loose.’
And it was worth doing so.
I was amazed… even down to the short-circuit tv cameras beaming the servic
es out to women in prison… and giving us an occasional view of them cuddled around tv screens watching us and listening to the mighty women who walked and talked upon that stage.
It really was something. And if they had not moved the event to Atlanta and mixing it with the men …and children …I would have certainly considered returning again and again to Houston myself.
But what I really recall is how I listened and watched Juanita 
Bynum preach about how big-headed she had become… and how she blamed it all upon listening to others. While I watched it I knew I had become a part of something special.
How many people go back and get before a packed out arena to cry and declare ‘I was wrong and out of order.’
When she got through there was not a dry eye in the house. And I was crying 
right along with all the rest of them. T.D. Jakes was crying… his wife was
crying… Paula White was crying… her husband was crying… Everybody in the place… and all on that platform was crying. And yet I wondered if what I was watching was real?
And no sooner had T.D. Jakes poured that oil and anointed her, Juanita got up and quickly proclaimed to every woman who had a checkbook to write 
a check for $100.
So, I wondered how could she go from crying and begging forgiveness to so quickly switching gears and start demeaning money?
And did those women do exactly what she told them to do. They got on the 
elevators… ran down several flights of staircases and swarmed the arena floor rushing the stage with their checks in hand.
And what a mad rush it was. With checks waving all in the air. Checkbooks
open… running…weeping women… charging forward… women running towards that stage and trying to fill out their checks all at the same time, while trying to not get knocked down by the droves of other women doing e
xactly the same thing.
So, I have no doubt that the fame …and glory of it had a lot to do with it. With the Brady’s quick departure from North Carolina to the green lawns and fresh humid Texas air in Allen.
Now, that I think about it… it might have been a $1000 that Juanita told them
to bring and lay it upon the altar. I can still hear her saying-
“Come now! I don’t care where you are come now!”
And they came. While I on the other hand was going in the opposite direction.
Well, I better get off this computer. I’ve got a studio shoot tomorrow… and I do not know about you… But for some reason there just never seems to be enough time in my schedule any more. Time is truly flying by us. We go from one week into another without any real lapse of time it seems. Before I know it…it is Friday again… then Monday and the week is done. Just like that.
I may well be at the Book Festival with my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, this year as I just got my invitation from them. And also from the LA Book Festival… it 
seems that I just might get around to doing some book touring this year after all.
It is not like I haven’t been planning for it. But it is like I said time is flying. And all my other obligations are definitely keeping me busy. Maybe by this weekend at least an ‘in construction page’ may be up on my website page. And hopefully the links will work.
I am working on it. Because I have noticed that some of you have started looking for it. So, let me assure you that it is sooooon coming, praise the Lord.
Well, God bless…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale…CLICK the photo to my book for the LINK to purchase my book. Thank you.
Add a comment June 17, 2010
Alicia Keyes baby-mama drama …and everything that glitters…
Somehow I thought Alicia Keyes was smarter… maybe even a bit wiser.
When I was growing up I never thought to look outside of my home for my role models. But the kids today like to pattern themselves after 
everything and everybody they see.
Their whole attire is based upon watching people in music videos. That whole thing that they do with fingers…like we used to throw up the peace sign. It’s from watching the guys on the videos. Grinding and grabbing at their stuff…its from…
Well, you get the point.
I have read a couple stories on this romantic little couple…Keyes and her hubby to be.
But how does that happen?
He’s in divorce court…not even un-married yet dropping sperm all over the place while hanging a ring around her neck. Well, I mean on her finger.
He is on the verge of having 3 sets of kids…children from 3 separate
women… 4 in total whenever Alicia gives birth to hers.
Here is a guy where all you have to do is look at his track record and that should give you reason to ease back from him. What kind of man is he that has 2 children with the woman who has him in divorce court, and before settling that matter he impregnates another woman and says-
“Lets get married.”
And I thought I was disappointed in Vivica Fox when she hooked up with 50¢. I 
thought she was too classy for him…just what I thought about Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown at first. Though I still think that Whitney had more going for her than Bobby Brown, and over a period of time I began to see where neither Whitney or Vivica were quite what I had thought.
Which goes to my point that you should never idolize people who you do not personally know. If you don’t really know them then you do not a true perspective as to who they really are. And that old saying really is quite true-
“All that glitters is not gold.”
Meaning though they may shine…be famous…popular…or whatever but what you see and believe to be good may… Well, it may be something totally different from you think you see. And I am starting to think that about Alicia Keyes.
The guy doesn’t even look like anything to me. But from the articles Alicia is totally smitten by him. And she has to be to want to…or to have allowed herself to fall into the predicament she is in. Pregnant with child by a guy who already has 3 children by 2 different women…and is currently still married.
I hate to say it…but it sounds so ‘ghetto.’ And I say that knowing that many people who live in the ‘ghetto’ do not all act ‘ghetto.’ That is to 
say that they come out of what is called a ‘ghetto,’ but they do not act or behave in a manner that reflects the negatives of that environment…or the stigma we have come to associate with certain elements within ‘ghettos’ or poorer neighborhoods…such as the character played so realistically by Mo’que in the movie ‘Precious.’
Within ‘the hood’ baby-mama/baby-daddy drama is something well documented…whether you witnessed it on the street or happen to hear someone conversing over a cell phone. You know it when you hear it. It is in the tone of the 
conversation…the shouting…the emotions…and usually the cussing and swearing.
Amazingly, just like Alicia and this guy, Swizz Beatz. The name alone gives you a clue that there is nothing there. But going back to my initial statement…a few months into a fresh new romance everyone looks as in love as Alicia and this guy in this picture. But then comes the drama.
And I have no doubt that it is going to come…if history has anything to say about it.
And we all know that history as a way of repeating itself…and clearly the guy’s history speaks for itself.
The mere fact that he had no respect for Alicia by at least waiting until he finalized his divorce to impregnate her and to set a ring upon her finger…speaks loud and clear. And it ain’t saying ‘love.’
Oh, you may say-
“Oh, he is just trying to do the right thing.”
The right thing?
The right thing was to respect the mother of his 2 children whom he is
currently attempting to divorce before dropping a ring on somebody else…and making the other woman pregnant. And Keyes is definitely the other woman in this scenario.
If one went back in time it is possible that the woman who this currently his wife…may have at the time found herself on the other side of the table. And had been the other woman in that scenario 
between him and the mother of his first child.
It is a know fact that if you meet up with someone this kind of way…where you take them from some else… Well, sooner or later you will find yourself in the same predicament. While the person moves on to the next one.
This guy strikes me as someone who likes to fraternized with women who have made it or are their way to making it. Hint…hint… All gold digger are not female.
The ex-wife to be is a singer too…somebody named Mashonda. Since I do not
listen to R&B any more…or rapp…or anything much outside of gospel music…I 
have never heard of her…or him. But in watching a music video or 2 of his… he definitely has to hook up with someone. Because his talent, if you want to call it that…is not nothing. You might consider him to be another…uhm… Bobby Brown.
So, he was in dire need to go to the next level. And I guess you can say he did just that when he somehow managed to rope Alicia into his web of romance.
At first glance Alicia struck me as clean cut…intelligent…gifted…and a young woman of high standards and morals. But she seems to have believed the hype and sunk 
into the life of supposed stardom… rapp culture… and whatever else. She seems to have lost 
some of that style… innocence… and intuitiveness I thought she had.
So, how come she didn’t see this guy coming?
How could she have fallen so deeply under his spell?
Her style changed… her talk changed …she changed. She started showing more…and leaving less to your imagination.
Maybe it was a desire to become more like…say a Beyoncé. And for a while I 
had thought that it was going to Alicia and whatever Beyoncé’s husband is named.
Then I had thought it was going to be Alicia and Common. But Serena Williams tied that up.
But personally she looks smart enough to be a lawyer’s wife… or some doctor’s wife. 
But somebody with a brain seemed to be what I would have thought Alicia would have wanted. Somebody like a Barack and not a Swizz Beatz.
But maybe like Vivica…Alicia wanted a thug. Just somebody able to throw her down and sex her all night long. But I would have thought that she would’ve wanted far more than that.
Maybe someone she could converse with. Somebody who could do more than flash and throw his hands up in the air… or spin a couple of turntables. 
Somebody who knew something about responsibility. Somebody who could really love and respect her. Somebody who felt so deeply about her that he would not dare pull her into a mess.
But then what about Alicia?
What happened to her common sense?
Why would she want somebody who would pull her down?
Didn’t she see what happened between Janet and her ex-husband?
How about how far Whitney fell messing around with Bobby?
Is she oblivious to what has been going on around her concerning messing with married men…and baby-daddies?
Doesn’t she realize that depending upon what state they live in that his children could pull a piece of her earnings too?
Yes, that is right. Once his way of life increases under the influence of Alicia’s money… she could be forced by the court to aid him in supporting his other children due to her income.
So, then what would possess Alicia Keyes to want to tie herself down to a man who already has 2 set of children?
I know that it is hard to find men today who do not have any children… but there are some. Some fine decent men waiting on a fine decent woman. Who work and are more than capable of support his queen to be.
What happened to choosing one of them?
I see Alicia carries expensive bags… which cost thousands of dollar, like Chanel, Veneta, Louis Vuitton etc…etc… then why go bottom shelf when it comes to choosing a mate?
And she wouldn’t take a bag that somebody else owned. So, why do that when it comes to a man?
Why would Alicia Keyes want to let herself in for all the baby-mama drama that 
is sure to come out of her relationship with this guy, Swizz Beatz?
I don’t really know Alicia’s background but I have heard an interview or 2 where she has talked about her schooling and music classes. And it never struck me that she came from the ‘ghetto.’
But one thing is for sure… she is beginning to act like it.
And let me just state this…that ‘ghetto’ is more a state of mind than being. Because I know people who live in a variety of places including what would be called the ‘ghetto.’ But they do not possess a ‘ghetto’ state of mind.
No respectable woman would set herself up for failure…except perhaps the woman Ruby Giuliani 
married after he finally divorced his wife. What a mess that was… the guy had no respect.
How do you bring your mistress into Gracie Mansion, the Mayor’s mansion in New York City, where your wife and young son live to do your thing with her?
What kind of woman was she?
I guess Giuliani was just too cheap to get a hotel. But he did not impregnate her… least ways not that we know. And just prior to his attempted run for the White House, he married her.
As to whether they are happy or not… I can’t answer that. But I do not believe any woman can can sleep peacefully at night knowing that have hooked up with someone with a wandering eye. If it wandered 1 time…it can and usually wanders 2 or 3 times. And in Alicia’s case maybe 4… if someone steps up to the plate with more money and appeal.
Because that is clearly the kind of guy this guy strikes me as. Otherwise, Alicia
wouldn’t be pregnant right now. And he probably worked hard at that… he needed to seal that deal.
And he did.
I do not wish Alicia ill… but I just do not see it working out. History always repeats itself, and someone’s nature is their nature. But God…only if God steps in and changes them. And this guy has z history that is speaking loud and very clearly
.
But going on to my initial point regarding role models. Like Serena and Venus… I had thought Alicia as a good and decent role model. But this thing about being out-of-wedlock, pregnant and messing with a married man has definitely put a dimmer on that.
The problem is …is that because Alicia is in the public eye she does bear a certain level of responsibility. I have no doubt that she realizes that there are many young girls and young ladies who follow her closely. And for them she sets a kind 
of standard of excellence and determination.
Her lifestyle and choices like that of many celebrities gets digested, and incorporated into the being of those who follow them. Becoming pregnant by a married man…
Well, it is something most people do not brag about. It shows a level of insecurity… carelessness… and a balant disregard for the other woman on the other side.
This scenario is weighted in history. Its outcomes can be read in newspapers time and time again, due to all kinds of crazy acts of revenge… hatred… threats… kidnappings and murder plots. It is not a pretty situation …and under it no one can truly find happiness.
Because what started wrong in the first place …can’t help but end up wrong too.
Then that is not to say that errors or lapses in judgment can’t happen. But never compound a mistake.
Okay, Alicia may be pregnant…but should she really marry the guy?
No. She made a mistake. But she does not need to make another mistake… by marrying the wrong person.
Sure she is pregnant with his child. But if he was worth anything that would not be the case.
Clearly, Swizz Beatz lacks certain morals. I know that sounds like a foreign word to some. But morals stand for something. And anyone without them…
Well, would you really want to trust them with your heart?
Apparently, 2 others did. And you can see what was the outcome.
Why should the 3rd…Alicia’s relationship with him be any different?
And don’t say-
“Oh, he might really love her.”
Might is the operative word. He might …and then again he might not. She might just be another trophy to him. Might be just another target for his ego …and something for him to laugh about while chatting with his boys.
As is often in this kind of case… the man walks out on the other woman eventually…leaving her for the next one. It is an endless cycle for those who have no moral consciousness going from 1 woman or young girl to the other.
I pray that women wake up.
In the Biblical story in the Book of Genesis… Leah eventually did…wake up…but it was not until after she had bore Jacob 5 sons. She kept hoping child after child that Jacob would love her.
Today, we this scenario still plays itself out over and over again. In the story of Leah and Jacob …you can assume that Leah did not love herself very much. The text said that she had a tender eye… whereas Rachel was beautiful. And she could clearly see how much Jacob loved her.
It had to be painful.
Hence, any woman…or girl who loves herself is not going to just allow someone to use them with the hope of winning them over. Or baring a child for them with the hope that this will tie a person to them.
I had a Jamaican cousin who passed last year. Since I really didn’t know her I was informed by 1 of her sisters-
“I don’t know what happened to Marva. She was never ever like that before she met him.”
Before my cousin Marva ‘met him,’ my other cousin shared with me…she was happy and carefree. She loved life… and was always playing practical jokes. But then she ‘met him.’ She loss the essence of who she was.
He did not love her… but he kept stringing her along. Because he knew he had her. She gave him a child… but yet she could not keep him. There were other women in his life …but she refused to let go. Then he married another woman… 
and my cousin’s life caved in on her.
Suddenly, nothing mattered. Not even her own child. Her thoughts were consumed with him. Her desires were all for him. Then he shun her… cursed her …and stopped seeing her as regular.
And she began attempting suicide.
She succeeded last year when she finally turned a bottle of bleach up to her mouth. This time there was no doctor that could help her.
They could not pump her stomach. It burnt up her insides. And they could do nothing to help her but watch her suffer…for days… my aunt (her mother), her husband (her father) and her other sisters.
But at the funeral they realized that she was now at peace. But what a sad way to go. And what a horrible way of trying to find peace.
What could possess someone to love someone so much…more than than they do themself… or her child… to attempt on several occasions… and then to final succeed in killing themselves?
Could anyone on this planet be worth all that?
No. Not at all.
His life went on. But her’s ended…and ended horribly.
It had been compounded by 1 error after another.
There are some people not worth being bothered with. And particularly if they can somehow manage to cloud up how you feel about you.
I was once so in love. I do know how it feels.
I loved this person so much. She had me. And when it was other… I spun into my own web of depression… remorse …loss …and pity. It came across my mind…that thought of suicide. 
Everywhere I turned I saw couples. Everywhere I looked I saw people walking hand in hand. Spring was in the air… and so was love. And I had no one…I was alone.
The one I cared for had cast me off. And I was floating …drifting in my mind. Reality was lapsing from me. I saw that which I wish I had. And it was all around me. Happiness …chatter… the glee of being with someone you loved.
But there I was alone.
And yes… it came to me. To kill myself … and to bring it all to an end.
But instead it was overcome by another thought.
I began thinking that maybe ‘the life’ wasn’t for me.
I began thinking that being in ‘the life’…meaning ‘in a gay lifestyle’ was not some place where I could be happy. And maybe I needed to try the other way?
I tried it.
But I didn’t like it.
But I emerged from it pregnant.
I thought of abortion.
So, I called the hotline. But when they started talking about ‘partial anesthesia’ or ‘full anesthesia’… I knew that either way it was going to hurt.
So, I just decided to go through with the pregnancy. Truly, that was my thought process. And that is why I now have a son… who I must say is a far better person than his mother.
And my goodness… what would this world be like if my son were not upon it?
I made the right choice. And it is God’s desire that we have freedom of choice… so we can exercise our right to make ‘the right choice.’
And I am glad that I made another choice.
It took me years to get here. But I made the choice to walk in liberty …and to come out of darkness. And I am so happy that I did.
Oh, well… I have got to end now. Because I am really supposed to have watched a movie… and now I’ll be up and working on a legal paper.
So, I really must get moving. Enjoy your day tomorrow.
In closing let me say 1 more thing… Alicia at 29 years of age should be wiser. I say all of this because I have no doubt that a lot people will read this blog. And I would just be wrong if I did not speak truth…with the hope that someone might hear. Or that it might help someone…including Alicia.
God bless.
THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
You have got to watch the BELOW video.
1 comment June 1, 2010
Racism in America is alive and well… and growing… Beck in the dog house…
Who in the world is Glen Beck?
I had never heard of him before until coming across this internet article on him during his radio program imitating the President’s daughter.
Upon listening to the radio program in question…as it is included in the article… all I could think of was the black face comic skits that white people 
used to do of black people. They would mimmick 
our voices making us sound as dumb and as ignorant as possible…while having covered their faces with some kind of black oily face paint. And then they would paint on their faces some excessively big lips.
All of this they did in stupid attempts at making fun of not only how we talk, pretending to think and reason like us aloud…and, of course, supposedly depicting what our facial features look like. It was all done to belittle us as a group of people, and also to make Black folks feel unequal, backwards and ignorant people. All of which was and is a lie…then and now.
The fact that Barack Obama may well be the most intelligent man to hit the White House… which maybe the root to this whole problem.
The 2nd problem for some of these back in the Dark Ages back woods ignorant racists…is that President Obama may also prove to be a 
greater President than Franklin Dalano Roosevelt. Oh, no… that can’t possibly happen. But based upon the set-up left behind by George W. Bush it could become true.
Roosevelt’s fame as a President came from the mess he stepped into as a President. Stepping into the White House following Herbert Hoover, a
Republican and the 31st President of the United States…he sank the country into one big mess. Therefore, Roosevelt inherited an United States that was suffering. The Stock Market had crashed and dire poverty covered the land from coast to coast due to the Great Depression.
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/hoover/essays/biography/1
Roosevelt was the creator of ‘The New Deal.’ With the New Deal Roosevelt ushered in a new America…a reformed America and a series of new social programs designed to aid and assist the needy, and to strengthen and mobilize America back onto the road of recovery.
Often we have heard that history repeats itself. If this is indeed so…many then can see where President Barack Obama is set on the path to do for America what Roosevelt did for America some 78 years ago.
There is no doubt also that America when Barack Obama was elected in as 
the President of the United States a year ago, had been left in a questionable place and a time of vast uncertainty and downcline around the world. Allies around the world questioned our stability, truthfulness and fortitude as a still world leader after years of rule under the moral degradation and lies of George W. Bush as President of America.
Obama inherited a crashing Stock Market, a collapsing World Banking system, a
rapidly dwindling American dollar, skyrocketing fuel and gas prices, the highest ever in America… record numbers of out of work Americans, soaring health and medical costs with record numbers of Americans without any form of health care policies, corrupt leaning and borrowing systems, with record numbers of Americans being forced into 
the streets due to foreclosures, and soaring out of control country financial deficit fueled by 2 wars without a seemingly end…and much more. All of which had happend under the 8 years of administration and rule of George
W. Bush. And also under the Bush Administration, America for the 2nd time in her history was attack on her own soil…September 11th, known as 9-11. Where thereafter all kinds of other attempts, boomings and plagues came about.
If you examine the mess that Obama inherited including those things which generally come up during the term of a President… such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf…and when Russia decided to
invade Georgia, in the Baltics… you find that Presidents have to deal with all kinds of things…including unforseen natural disasters. But it doesn’t make it their fault. Though much of what happened under George Bush’s watch was.
Now, I am going to vent.
I am so tired of reading all these articles where people refer to our President Barack Obama using a small ‘p.’ It is so annoying to me. I 
absolutely hate reading anything about him written this way. It is so disrespectful to Obama.
I know that Obama being the man that he is pretends that it does not bother him…but he is an intelligent man, a historian and a man of letters. Meaning he has read all kinds of documents and 
articles past and present on all past Presidents of the United States, as it was for 1 thing…his field of study. And I am sure he has also noticed that at no other time has any other President of this country ever been 
referred to in any form of text using a lower case ‘p’ as has become the practice when writing articles about Obama.
Thus, to do so when referring to Obama is not only disrespectful but an act of racism. An act of out and out racism and I do not care what anyone else says. And it is all a campaign purposefully set to down grade and minimize Obama, his efforts, his effectiveness and his success.
But I want to let you know… every last one of you that it won’t work. Just like they say in that gospel song…it just won’t work.
Obama is going to be great in spite of you.
And he is going to be as successful…if not more successful than Roosevelt. And that if for no other reason than because some many racists want to see him fail…with Palin and that whole Republican machine riding in the front car.
But the Bible says…that he whom the Lord has blessed is blessed indeed.
And Obama is blessed…his family is blessed…his children are blessed…and this country shall be blessed because of him. 
If anyone has any doubts about whether Barack Obama is blessed just go back and look at those photos of his inaugural. Look at all those people who flowed into Washington, D.C. to celebrate with him and his family. And check all his record numbers…record number in the amount of money contributed to his campaign…the most money ever give
n to any political campaign ever. Record number in contributions from people who have never 
contributed to a politician ever. Highest number of voter turn out ever. And the numbers continue on and on in regard to Obama’s accomplishments.
He shall be like Solomon because God has set 
his course for him over this nation. And if you doubt it go back to his mother, and how she used to 
wake him up at 4 AM in the morning to go over and learn American History. Obama’s path was laid for him long before Obama was born.
Therefore, as it is said in the Scriptures…no weapon formed against him shall prosper. Meaning all the evil works being performed against him will come to nought. Every vote 
meant to hold him back and hinder a bill that he is trying to put through will be turned around, and go against those who are trying to oppose him and stop his progress…or hold up his candidates for offices.
Another Scripture says this…that what the devil means for evil God will turn it around for your good. Meaning the all the name calling, opposition and hindering in Congress and the Senate will be turned around for Obama’s good. Already I can see this happening in that Obama is becoming a lot sharper and more posed when attacks come against him publically. He is definitely far more Presidential now, and I am sure he would have more of a targeted response for anyone who should suddenly decide it smart to call him ‘liar’ again while he is speaking before the Senate. I have no doubt of it.
I am proud of Obama and I know that he is no joke. And he is not going to continue to allow people to treat him as one.
And as far as this Beck person goes… Well, I just hope that he has no children. I cannot 
imagine what he would do if someone so cruelly and purposely poked fun at his little daughter…and made a joke out of her.
I also hope that none of the children in Obama’s daughter class have heard that stupid radio clip. What an ignorant thing to do. And these people call themselves adults…but are too afraid stand up in front of Obama and say what they have to say.
No, they’ll do it from behind a microphone…and then issue out an apology from somewhere. A bunch of cowards. That is all they are…a bunch of racist ignorant cowards.
But then I guess I can kind of understand why some should be jealous 
of Obama. I mean after all…not only is he a great husband… but also a very loving and caring father. He is also handsome…and looks well in everything he wears. He’s smart…tall…and doesn’t have a problem with his weight. He’s athletic…and he has a beautiful and highly intelligent wife. And 2 very beautiful and intelligent…and very well behaved daughters. And oh, yeah…also an important part… a mother-in-law who loves him as well.
So, yes he is well on his way to be the most powerful and successful President of this country of all times…who will be spoken of and the measure that those who follow him shall be measured by. Of this I am sure.
So, yes…you who want to see Obama fail…I can see why. But instead of 
attacking Obama you should start working on your own life…and get it in order so that you too will have something to be proud of . Because I can tell you are a bunch of very sad and lonely people…and highly disappointed people… out attacking a little girl?
Come on, now. And you call yourself a man, Beck?
Go stand in front of Obama and mimmick his daughter…and I want to see what happens to you. I bet you are afraid to do that.
And is it true that BP stands for British Petroleum?
And is it also true that Halliburton, Dick Cheney’s former employer and big time war profiteer and scam artist… is over the operation of BP in the Gulf ?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37519216#37521148
Could possibly be a set-up?
Anything to make Obama look bad. With all the talk and Obama blaming you would think that Obama owned BP. And that he could automatically go down and just plug up a hole nearly 5,000 feet below the water surface…leaking over 5,000 barrels of oil each day.
It is not a pin hole. And the problem really belongs to BP…without a doubt it is a major concern to not only President Obama and those people down in the Gulf/Atlantic Ocean area. And probably might affect us all…but it is clearly a concern of Obama’s youngest daughter just as well. We can all tell that she is well briefed…and is growing up quite civic minded.
And we should all have a sincere appreciation for all children who cares about others…not make a joke or poke fun at them for any reason.
Monday is Memorial Day. We 
should all take a moment or 2 to reflect on the sacrifices of others, that we might all live here free and out of harms way. Thankful for all the freedoms we hold so dear…never forgetting the price paid and being paid so that we might stand in our liberty here in the United States.
I hadn’t thought about it for a while… but I had all but forgotten about the war. Since stopping even turning on the television to watch the news… so those images are no longer before me. It sadden me reading the list of names per week of young men and women who were killed in Iraq. Many of them just 19. And every so often you would see a name with an age of 
28…or 29 and above…and I would think of all their families that they left behind giving of their lives for an America not yet quite grown up.
While they huddled together with bullets flying over heads… or booms dropping nearby… or 
right in their midst… yet they marched on… fought on… for an America not yet totally grown up. A place where division and strife still lives on …while they struggle in foreign lands that we might proclaim peace …while we yet still pull against 
one another.
I salute them and pray that one day this country will live up to what was the dream and the creed to which those men who signed their names…signed their names… to which they all marched off to war and became involved for… those soldier who fought and died in our name.
Well, enjoy your day off.
And…God bless.
THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
2 comments May 30, 2010
Venus’ Illusion…Gulf Oil Spill… Obama at West Point… and Lena Horne passing
When I read the story I knew I was going to be writing a blog on it. At 
first I chalked it up to something not clicking in their heads. And I said ‘they’… because first it was Serena and her nude layout in Esquire magazine.
Now here comes Venus with her illusion.
Had I wrote this blog about Venus and our outfit 
yesterday I would have been far more harsh than my thinking is today. Because between yesterday and today my mind came across something.
I thought about my young indiscretions. Things I did in my youth that I would never do or think to do now. Foolish things…some even down right ridiculous. But I did them.
And the thought came to me how I used to love going out on this nude beach in New York. Where I didn’t mind taking it off…and didn’t think 
twice about doing it.
And I wasn’t embarrassed about either…nor did I think anything wrong about me doing so. Getting almost naked…top off and letting it all hang out while I laid in the sun and walked along the rolling waves.
So, when I thought of this I re-thought what I was going to say in this blog. I am now a little more tolerant of youth…and yes they do…do crazy things…we all sometimes do and have too.
Yes, I think it bad taste the choice that Venus made in her design of her tennis outfit for the French Open, in making it appear that she wasn’t wearing underwear…and thinking that it was cute… or comical… or sassy…or sexy… or even stylish.
I would never, however, compare my removing my top and enjoying a day out on the beach to being on center court in Paris at the French Open with tons of TV and news cameras flashing at me.
Nor would I ever say that what Venus chose to wear before a crowd of people…mostly upper middle class and above…and mostly white… was in good taste… or for prime time viewing. 
In fact, thinking about it made me think of Josephine Baker and her 
bananas…and the scathy way she used to dress when she performed. I very much think that if Josephine were alive today that she might re-think wrapping bananas around her waist and shaking her stuff like she was crazy.
I have always held that both Venus and Serena were great role models in all aspects of their careers…not just for young girls and the young ladies within our own race, but also to those outside of it as well. That is…up until Serena posed naked and now Venus stepping out on the courts wearing something…wanting to give the illusion of being naked.
It is all rather a bit too much for me to take at this time.
They have burst my bubble…
What are they thinking?
First Serena…then Tiger…and now Venus.
It was nice while it lasted. It used to be such a pleasure picking up the newspaper…or watching the news…or catching stuff over the internet about them. Now all 3 of them seem to be falling from the mark… loosing their barings…and the 
standards they once set for themselves… that they once up-held. And that they are now dropping down by the wayside.
My father would call it…going out of the world backwards. He was great at saying that…and especially to me. Perhaps, it has much to do with why I am as I am today.
But maybe it’s been too much money?
Too much fame?
Or maybe it is just their youth…
Or too much pressure being Black…and being so in sports that many Black people did not participate in…and then landing on the top of it. Sports which had typically been dominated by non-Black athletes…and here you go ending up being the top money makers…highest paid athletes in their games…grossing the highest earnings as a male atheletic… and as female athletes.
What an achievement. I am sure that it must come with plenty of scars… hurt… and lots of anguish. Particularily, when you were just starting out. Nobody within those circles liked you then…much less loved you. You were just a dark spot coming into a lilly white game that nobody believed would bloom and grow up dominating…and then becoming number 1.
Yeah, that had to be hard. Going out on courts where everybody snubbed you…and didn’t want you anywhere around in their ‘white only’ club houses. But then gradually over time and championships all of that changed. They came to know your name…wrote stories about you… wanted private interviews with you… and a few even sought you out for sponsorships. But not as many as you could have gotten…and should have gotten…if you were white.
But you aren’t white. Never been white…and I’m hoping never wanted to be white. But now you are ‘in like Flen.’ They can’t deny your talent… or your gifts from God. But you still remember the
pain…the time when… When things didn’t seem that they were ever going to get to where they are now…but yet you kept pushing… kept reaching …striving… and achieving.
At the time it may have seemed like a great idea when Venus sat down and decided to design it… but to take black lace and create something which looks more like a ladies bustiea was never ever a good idea…when it was her intention to wear such an outfit out in public.
Why would Venus want to go out on center court…on a world stage looking like a cheap downtown hustler or prostitute?
All I can say is…. blame it on her youth…perhaps the times.
Young women today see nothing wrong in baring it all…wearing as little as possible… or wearing their
under clothes outside in the street…and call it ‘fashion.’
Nor do they see anything wrong or filthy in wearing their pajamas out in street. Or the boys with their pants hanging down to their knees.
There is something very wrong with the way culture and fashion seem to be clashing today. Standards in etiquette, style and class have all taken a back seat to the tasteless, classless and raunchy. And it doesn’t seem to matter 
how much money you make… or whether you are our new set of athletic supper stars… or new found musical talents and movie stars of today.
All tattooed out from head to toe…and pierced all over the place. There was a time only a chosen few rebellious outcast doorned the way out hair, blacken fingernails, body piercing and tattoos. But 
not now. It’s your daughter and my nieces and some nephews…and practically all the guys who play 
professional basketball and everything else. And every drummer…and groupie alike.
Used to be that everybody was searching for their own ‘unique’ them. Now it seems that everyone wants to be like everyone else. Marked up and grossly ‘un-individual.’
I feel sorry for Venus…Serena… and Tiger. They seem to have lost their way. Once they were champions…now I am just not all that 
sure any
more.
No one could ever say that she wasn’t a class act. No, they could never say that about Lena Horne. Always beautiful…and sassy… she had an air of proud-ness about her that could not be mistaken.
Can’t say I personally met her…but I once did have an opportunity to catch her in a performance at McCormick Place in Chicago. It was an opening when the seniors of Sixth 
Grace United Presbyterian Church decided to sponsor a trip to catch Lena in her finale show she was on tour with. Though I didn’t really want to go…by the time I got in my seat and Lena started to perform I was more than happy to be there.
I had never really thought much about Lena Horne as she was before my time. But the show was a retrospect of her life in the entertainment business, obstacles she had encountered, her determination to make it to the top in spite of…and it was filled with 
plenty of spunk and humor. I thought about Lena for days after that show… I loved it. I had absolutely loved that show and fell in love with Lena. And all those seniors who dragged me there loved it too.
I remember Mother Emma Turner so well. She just would not let me say ‘no.’ Nor would Mrs. Ripperton…Minnie’s mother…they teamed up on me. And so I got a wonderful opportunity
to see and hear a legion. Someone I think I had seen her on the old Ed Sullivan Show several times…and had certainly seen in a couple of old movies. But that 
night even as an older woman…Lena was radiant and still just as beautiful.
Lena Horne passed recently a few days ago…and I had never known she was a native New Yorker. A Brooklyn girl in fact. I guess that accounts for why she had so much spunk and a wonderful attitude. And boy….did she have attitude…and in a good loving way.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-207_162-10003452.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/arts/music/10horne.html
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/10/theater/20100510-hornebroadway.html?ref=music
Got a ton of hits today regarding this story. So, I decided that I would comment on it.
This is the story about the ex-Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick who just got thrown back in prison by a Judge who decided that Kwame hadn’t really learned his lesson…though he contended that he was changed and 
had become a ‘good guy.’
So, Kwame hires her as the personal assistant to the Mayor. And somewhere along the line they began carrying on romantically…texting messages and meeting up in various hotel
rooms…then chatting about it in their text messages…him and Christine.
All of this while Kwame was taking the city for a ride…and living large…and I guess a little too large. For which the City of Detroit is demanding restitution. Well, they demanded it back in 2008 when the city took him to court…sued him… and then sent him to jail for 2 months. But 
Kwame after paying $140,000.00 against a $3 million debt…claimed that he had no more money. And did not the court find out otherwise.
BAM!
Now, he is back off to jail again. And as you can see in the top courtroom picture of him…he is none too happy.
Being a supposed lawyer himself it is hard to see how Kwame failed to be more careful…smarter…or act wiser.
I have to agree with the woman below in 1 of the youtube clips.
“When you are voted in by the people you have a moral responsibility to the people.”
And you also have a debt of service…which should not be converted into a self-serving attitude.
There is something about power…if you are not careful you can become too full of yourself and abuse it. I think that is what happened to Kwame…he became too full of himself. And then started thinking he was untouchable.
I have to say that after watching this footage I feel sorry for her… Christine Beatty. Almost everybody deserves a chance… and an opportunity to be forgiven. We have all done some foolish things. I know that I have.
It is highly unlikely that Ms. Beatty will resume her studies in law…or become that lawyer. But perhaps she will… sometimes these kinds of things come to prove to us who God is… and to make us better…stronger and more determined to succeed… and to labor to do the right things.
I wish her well… both of them really.
Some of us have to rise up out of the pits of hell to find ourselves and our true calling in life.
Worst oil spillage ever?
I thought that the oil spill that hit Alaska some years ago was the worst. 
And based upon what I hear the effects of it are still being felt. Perhaps it is time…or way past 
time that a little more time and oversight should be spent on ensuring that these type of things just do not happen. And at the very least certainly not to this extent.
The oil spill that hit Alaska in 2009 was due a boat transporting oil owned by Exxon. The Exxon Valdez ran aground spilling nearly 11 million gallons of oil upon a clean and scenic Alaska water way. Now the BP oil company is currently dealing with a oil rig which exploded killing 11 of its workers releasing an inestimable 
amount of crude oil which is now beginning 
to wash up on the shores of Louisiana and Florida. And is threatening to not only damage the Gulf and its coast line but also that of shores on the Atlantic Ocean side.
It is terrible seeing the birds covered with oil trapped down under the weight of it covering them, near dead in the muck of muddy tar like waste just waiting to die. The pollution that has filled their air, shores and an ever enlarging area destroying lives…and undoubtedly causing plenty of soon to come health issues. And while destroying the beauty of our dear Mother Earth.
Besides having to deal with the news of the oil spill President Obama was at West Point this past weekend delivering their Commmencement Speech. He has grown to not look Presidential but also sound it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37519216#37521148
Though in reading the story I could not help but notice how whenever the writer spoke of the President…he always used the lower case ‘P’ …like when he wrote ‘and the president…’, as opposed to a capital ‘P.’ Which in the past has always been the custom in this country when referring to our Presidents in print. And that is why it always leaps out at me now whenever I come across it this way. Because I am not accustom to seeing that done at any other time in reference to the President of the United States.
It would the equivalent of using a lower case ‘q’ whenever someone wrote something in reference to ‘the Queen.’ Which is a definite no-no…just ask the British. You never see that…nor did I ever see a lower case ‘P’ ever being used in newspaper articles or anything else in reference to our other Presidents… past Presidents of the United States prior to Barack Obama. That is until this time. To be sure Barack Obama is ‘our’ President…and he definitely got voted into the White House. He is owed the respect that is due him as any other man who has operated in that capacity. And I have read several articles now written with that lower case ‘p’ when referring to him…and I find it to be a slap in his face…an insult and total lack of respect.
It speaks volumes as to the state of mind and hidden agendas… and bias feelings which still exist here in this country. And I do speak of racism.
At least Barack Obama got voted in…whereas George W. Bush stole his way into the White House. And what a set-up that was…not to mention a mess he created of this country under him.
Now, if they…those newspaper columnists and others could refer to George W. Bush in their writings…their news articles and the like with a capital ‘P’…then I see no reason why they have a problem and cannot do so when referring to President Obama. Who by the way…got voted in…and by a resounding number.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/25/louisiana.spill.town.hall/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html
I am so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open.
I started this blog near 7 PM and it is now 5:45 AM. And I really can’t go a step further.
So, I will say…good-night. And hope you enjoy your day…and some time later today I will go over this blog and try to weed out the errors.
I can’t do it now…because I just can’t keep my eyes open. It gets like that sometimes.
But I just had to try to finish this as so many people have been hitting my blog to check on some things. Now, I feel much better…because it is done. And if I think of anything else I will add it later. Good-night….
And…God bless.
THE BISHOP’S WIFE is now on sale…
Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2010
2 comments May 26, 2010
