BEYISM… BEYONCE’S CULT FOLLOWING… MARYMARY CURSING… GAY IN THE CHURCH…

Personally I have never quite understood the hype over Beyonce.  I have seen a million and 1 sisters who can look or do look just like her… including 1 of my nieces.

Okay, then you want to say it is the way she can dance.

Please…   What is she doing?

Nothing… that she has not copied from some Jamaican gals who have been jingling and shaking their stuff for quite some time now.  And on Labor Day in Brooklyn you can catch as many as your eyes can see walking up Empire Blvd doing just that during the Jamaican Liberation Parade.

Empire Blvd becomes a haven of men with their eye bungling out of their heads at a bunch of young and old Jamaican women making their way up the Blvd in a parade shaking every piece of flab they’ve got… and a lot of it you don’t want to see.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/jewish-center-shootings/jewish-center-shootings-were-hate-crimes-authorities-say-n80081

Going back to Beyonce… it appears her following has developed into some worshipers… calling Beyonce a ‘deity.’  And they have developed their own church down in Atlanta, called THE NATIONAL CHURCH OF BEY.

If nothing else it should be crystal clear to you by this time that we are truly living in last days and times.   And the evolution of Beyonce into a ‘god’ or ‘goddess’ can certainly be looked upon as a clear sign that Satan is busier than ever… and that there are some crazy folks out there.

“We are very disappointed in the failure of the public to recognize the existence of a divine Deity walking among them,” said the church’s founder Pauline John Andrews.  This woman must be the supreme witch of the group as she is the founder of such a ludicrous religious start-up group of the Beyonce worshipers.  I have heard of die hard fans… but this?

Come on…    Why would some woman want to worship any other woman in the way that makes a religious goddess out of her?

Something is definitely wrong with that woman.  And undoubtedly Beyonce is getting a charge out of… meaning she is loving it.

http://www.blacknews.com/news/does-beyonce-really-have-her-own-church-it-appears-so-well-sort-of101.html#.U0xPuuZdUmU

How do you become so taken with someone that you want to worship them?

Though I have heard of loving people to death.  But this is beyond loving someone… even to that length.  To death.  Here the woman loves her unto heaven.

Now, how stupid is that?

And from what I hear Beyonce and her hubby are in their own diverse religion… that illuminati mess.  Jay-z says he believes in 1 God… but not in hell.  He does not believe in Christianity… meaning he does not believe in Jesus.  That should speak volumes in of itself to many of you.

But going back to Beyonce…  Oh, I have heard it said in movies… when men or women desire someone so much sexually that they will tell someone anything… even that they want to worship them.  But before the end of the movie… the worship is all over and so wasn’t all that hot and heavy sexual desire that inspired those words.

I have heard too that Atlanta has a lot of strange things… and things Satanic going on.  It can’t be that far behind New York City then… because I know for sure that New York has all kinds of crazy things going on.

I was very surprised 1 night when a very attractive black woman, well attired, very professional looking… walked into Salsa-Soul Sisters and began talking to us about S&M.  It wasn’t until she pointed it out that I even noticed that she was dressed in all leather…black all leather… or maybe it was gray.  But it was all leather.  She called herself  ‘1 of the leather people.’

I never knew much about S&M but that night I got a very in-depth lesson of what was supposed to be the ‘joys of being involved in S&M.’   Now, if you can get to that you might be a better person than me.   No, a bigger fool than me… because can’t nobody tell me somebody standing over me  while I am all handcuffed and tied up…being whipped by that person standing over me… with a whip or beating me with a belt buckle… can give me any joy.  No, that you cannot tell me.  I know much better than that.  And I also knew something that I do not believe that woman ever recognized if she is still alive.  And that is… that at any moment 1 of those fools could be subject to torture her to death… but even that thought might have been pleasurious to her.

Evidently, that woman had not processed that thought.  For the woman claimed that she got pleasure out of what those S&M people had taught her and done to her.  And she said she got mad at her friends because they had waited until she was 50 years old to introduce her to that lifestyle… and it is very much a lifestyle.

That woman also shared with us that night at Salsa-Soul Sisters that there was a restaurant in Manhattan that at a certain time of night shut it doors and locked them… and then the fun (if you care to call it that) began.

I was horrified when she told us that.  Who would have ever had thought such a thing.

A restaurant??????

Full of people who were all into S&M?????

And all waiting on the clock to tick until they all got started on 1 another.

Insane.

That woman also picked up what looked to me like a notebook jacket… and she pointed out that it bared the S&M flag.  They had their own flag… a nation of people unto themselves.  Who would have thought it.

It makes you wonder how large could that thing be?

Large as it may be… it was not going to get me.  And I appeared to be the only person at Salsa that night who totally rejected anything that woman had said.

I found no part of it interesting or tempting.  But some of my fellow Salsa-Soul Sisters did… and I could tell.  Some time later… the 1 who had appeared the most interested in it that night… I came across a few years later.  She was all dressed up in leather… I knew what course she had chosen.

Then there was another Salsa-Soul Sister who had become part of a religious group in New York called Isis.  In fact, a few of the gay sisters I knew got involved in that religion.  I recall 1 night this particular sister had given this party over at her home down in Riverside.  She was dressed all in white, and as I came in her house I started to reach over to embrace her in greeting her… and she backed away keeping me at a distance without really touching me …talking about she had not yet gone over.

Gone over????

Gone over what???

Later a friend told me that the woman… our Salsa-Soul Sister had gotten involved in this Isis religion and that she was going through some type of purification ritual.  Why this woman became involved in that Isis stuff was a mystery to me as she always seem so afro-centric…  and also smart.   Needless to say I soon began to think of her as anything but smart.  She became odd and started acting funny… weird.  

This guy… obviously gay… and as gay as he could be… moved into an upstairs apartment in her home.  While at work… we later found out… her girlfriend would go upstairs to him.  At the party it was pretty obvious that there was something going on between them.  She kept dancing all up on him like she was crazy.  And later on the woman ran off with this obviously gay man… who was the head of their religious cult.

In looking up that Isis mess… just now… it says that Isis was a goddess of Ancient Egypt and the religion spread through Greco-Rome.

Then not too long ago while listening to the news, I believe, I heard of this church where the congregation went to church nude… totally nude.  They worshiped in their church naked.  And I had seen on 20/20 or something a while back about some church where they were snake worshipers.  They dance and pranced around their church twirling snakes.

While in the library 1 day a young woman came and sat down beside me at a computer.  After a small amount of time I noticed that the woman was wiping tears from her eyes.  Shortly thereafter I decided I should speak to her to see if I could help.  That is when she told me she was running for her life from some religious cult she had fallen into while living in Atlanta.  She was all messed up.  Jumping at her own shadow… because she was full of fear… saying the cult people wanted to kill her because she wanted out.

So, my point here is this… there are lots of crazy people around the world seeking to worship all kinds of things if somebody is crazy enough to come up with it.  And the group of people deciding that Beyonce is holy and should be worshiped is about as crazy as any of them can come… maybe worst.   And certainly to me… is as insane as anyone can get who joins them.

And there is 1 thing for sure… somebody may get mad at me for saying it.  Because people like to say that we should not condemn others.  I do not believe in condemning anyone… and it is not condemning if you speak the truth, particularly if you are attempting to warn them… better yet show them the errors of their ways.   However, there are many people who have no problem in condemning themselves to hell… and somebody needs to tell them so.

Therefore, people involved in S&M, Isis, Beyism, Muslim-ism, Buddhism, Hinduism… or any other kind of  -ism and everything and anything else that is not like Jesus and God… nor of His doing.   They will go straight to hell… and I did not condemn them there… but their acts did.

However, it is not the desire of God that any of us should be lost.  But due to foolishness most people will be lost.  I pray you won’t … or me.  But how are you going to turn a woman into a god and become a worshiper of her… and not think that something is wrong with you… is my question?

Beyonce cannot do anything for anyone… like heal someone… save someone from hurt… harm or danger… illness… disease… or any kind of enemy including the devil.   In fact, she is in as much of a need God as we all are.  And I hope she and her worshipers find Him before it is too late.

My Lord… have mercy.

Then I happened to catch a video segment from the MaryMary reality TV show where the 2 sisters, Erica and Tina… are having a ‘for real’ conversation.  Somebody should have called for the cameras to be cut off.  Because the words started flying  ‘God-Dang’ world???    Erica got beeped… who knows what she said.  And I am not trying to  figured it out… or even read lips.

We have all heard that the gospel world is not what we all thought or think that it should be when it comes to the language and behavior of some of the people walking around saying they love the Lord… singing gospel music… and that live lives that speak something totally else.

One of the worst things that could have happened to some of these people is reality TV.   They don’t know how to stay off of it.  Stuff slips… and everybody sees or hears something that wasn’t supposed to be seen… or heard… or hinted at.  Then again drama sells… and keeps the ratings coming.

One of the biggest disasters is that boy… Deitrick Haddon.  Nobody can tell me he is really saved.  Somebody is going to be mad cause I called him a ‘boy.’   Don’t send me any more comments professing to me about how cruel and ungodly I am… and how much of a man of God Deitrick is.

That boy is not saved and not trying to be.  If I wasn’t much of a lady I would post a picture of his lower half which evidently he is very proud of.  The internet is loaded with pictures of the boy’s penis… and he didn’t release that picture or those pictures some 10 or 20 years ago.  No, it was while he was supposed to be ‘Saved’… while he was a recognized gospel artist… while he was still married to 1 woman while showing his stuff to another …or who knows how many others.   And all this I guess while he had taken over the leadership of his father’s church upon the passing of his father.  I suspect those people must have put him out… and he deserved it.

We are living in a time when some folks have figured out how to get more exposure… any kind and any way they can.  They make sex tapes… send out instagrams of pictures they claim they didn’t send… or this they get arrested or shoplifting or while driving drunk etc..  It worked for Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Brandy’s little brother, Lil’ Kim, R. Kelly, Puff Daddy and the list goes on and on…

You cannot tell me that if you are a recording artist or a movie star or a wanna-be that you have not figured out that sending pictures of your naked sexual organs or videotaping yourself involved in some sexual act… that you don’t know it won’t find its way to the public eye.  It has happened far to many times for anybody to do it… and not do it with the intention that it is going to viral… where everybody and their brother and mother is going to see it.

Some do it to revive a fading career.  Others to jump start a career in the spotlight… news… or gain a reality show etc…

Unfortunate Video of Gospel Singer Kevin Terry Leaks Online

When my son told me this story I was on my way to St. Louis… and he mentioned to me how this gospel singer by the name of Kevin Terry had a videotape leaked with him down on his knees… and he wasn’t praying.  But giving some man a blow job.  I never saw the video but while in St. Louis I mentioned it a couple of times… and I know for sure that others saw it.

This Kevin had ties with our boy Deitrick whom I do believe has some issues in the same department.  I often realize something that goes over the top of the heads of most other people.

What I have realized is this… that a lot of time you will find men on the down-low who appear to be crazy about women.  That is because that is what they want you to believe.  They act like they want to sex down everything but the tree when it comes to women… while all the while hiding what they really like and with who.  It is a game that they play to throw people off from thinking that they are really gay.

I know I’m going to get some comments about this… but so be it.  I really do get tired of these so-called gospel ‘I love Jesus’ artists… who are more sinful that Joe Small out on the street corner selling drugs… or pimping girls or whatever.  They have a semblance of holiness… but they are not holy.  And I don’t care how many gospel songs they write …or sing.

And I get tired of people trying to make saints out Steve Harvey and Tyler Perry.  Come on now…

Have you heard how Steve curses?

There has got to be a line… some kind of a line somewhere.

Why does everyone want to make people holy just cause they like them… or they find them to be funny… or they write Jesus into their plays… or tell church jokes from time to time?

I do not hate either Steve or Tyler.  And I would never be jealous of anyone’s success… but in the same token success does not mean ‘godly’ just because they are successful… and happen to utter the word ‘God’ once or twice.

I have a cousin who totally blew me off when I told her I was not really a fan of Tyler Perry’s plays or movies etc.   They were something I just was not interested in.  Boy, did she call me everything but a child of God.  She said I was bourgeoisie… I was a hater… and I was this… and I was that.

Man, what did I do?

I am sure that I have work that Tyler won’t like either.  But it would not mean he hated me.  Needless to say I have not talked to that cousin since.  Not because she said all of what she said regarding Tyler… but because she called me ‘light.’  I don’t want or like people to call me ‘light.’  I hate it… and I am not really ‘light’… I am brown… black through and through.  But let me go back to my blog topic….

The Bible tells us that we have to ‘put off the old man.’   We become brand new.  Our language is new… how we dress is new… how we walk and talk is new…. how we think and behave is new.   Many of these so-called people… many pastors and bishops… evangelists etc. included they have not lost that old man… he’s in the closet and peers out when the coast is clear.  And they do what they do… believing nobody is going to find out… until somebody lets the cat out of the bag.

You can’t condemn someone who condemns them-self.  The Bible tells us to judge them by their fruits.  I would not believe that would be in the Bible if we are to be blind by the ways and the wills… and ways of people.

I am not gay bashing as that would be ridiculous for me to do… having come out of ‘the life’ myself.  Though I hear we can be some of the biggest critics of it.  But I would not do that.   Least way I hope that I would not… even if I hadn’t come out of ‘the life.’

But I really think that my thoughts today come out of me recently coming in contact with someone who supposedly is in the church but living or trying to live his life as a woman.

Yes, I did say… trying to live his life as a woman in the church.  The guy looks some what like a woman to most people I guess.  But I noticed right off that something was out of sync about him.  No matter how much they try whether it be the arms… the adam’s apple or their legs… body structure or something else…   No one can truly wipe away totally who they really are.

And let me just say here and now before I forget it… our God does not make mistakes.

Evidently, this guy had taken the pills…not the 1 in this picture but the 1 that I am talking about having just met.  His voice sounds very much like a woman and if you didn’t notice certain things about him… he could easily past as woman to most people hands down.  But I came out of  ‘the life’ so I would be subject to pick up on certain things that most people simply do not catch… as I had come to know a lot of gay guys… many of whom were my friends.  I know them for the most part to be highly fantastic people… highly creative… kind and giving… so not so kind… but many of them loving the Lord.

What I do not like though is this… it is about the kind of people who move far away from home so people won’t know who they are and can’t recognize them as being so-and so’s  son or daughter.  They assume another life  and identity as whatever role they are playing… be it either a man or a woman… walking around tricking …or a better word ‘fooling’ people.  Or attempting to fool people.    No, I do not like this kind of people… at all.

They have eaten up all these pills to either make themselves look and sound like either a man or a woman.  And some of them have gone the distance and gotten the operation… removing their breast or male gentiles… growing breast or facial hair etc….

What also disturbs me about this… and perhaps the most.  It is this…  the fact that it is all a lie.  It also undermines God perfect order.  And it is highly deceitful when people walk around pretending to be something that they know they are really not… but look and sound every bit like it to unsuspecting people whom they charm into their lives …and never inform the truth… unless somehow forced to.

I foresee a time when many will be marrying such people unaware.  There have past cases where someone found out that either their husband or wife was not really a man… or a woman.  I even read not long ago of a case where a woman found out that her husband had really been her father.   The world truly has gone crazy.  And everything is turning upside down.

I recently was hired for a job… and from the jump I recognized immediately that the person introduced to me as a woman… was not a woman.  It is from that moment I think I was going to write this blog regarding this subject.  Because it bothered me.

I cannot lie and call someone a woman when I know that they are a man.  I do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings.   But to tell you the truth I would rather not come in contact with them.

Yes, back in the day I used to do it.   I used to say ‘hey, girl’…when I was hanging out to the gay guys… and play that game with them.   But I’m not that person today… or any more.    I don’t want to play that game.  And I just don’t want to lie… or aid or abet them in that lifestyle.

A lot of people do it.  They grin and smile all up in their faces (meaning the gay guys faces) …while ripping them apart when they are among their other friends… laughing and making jokes about them.  I have seen it.  And I might have done that myself… I think.

But these people (and I do not say ‘these people’ to demean anyone)… who live these kind of lives trying to fool people are truly ‘double-minded.’  Their mind is split… they are biologically whatever they were born… and then they are whatever they are pretending to be.  Over a period time yes… much because natural but still the core of who they really are cannot be removed by doctor… by pills… by surgery… or anything… unless God does it.  And we all know that He is not.

But what bothered me most about my meeting and supposedly working with this person… was that I knew them to be a liar from the very beginning.  You cannot be passing yourself off as something you know that you are not… and not be a liar.  If you would lie to me about a core thing such as who you were born to be… then how can I trust you regarding anything else?

And that was the dilemma I was thrown into.

And I just could not do it… because I knew the person could not be trusted… because he was definitely not a woman.

You cannot trust anyone who would introduce himself to men as a woman… with all the parts…having gone through the surgery… as though they were born that way.

I am not going to go to hell aiding someone in their lying by holding up their lie pretending like it is the truth.  No, I cannot do it.  But the people who brought us together… church folk… were and did do just that.  And I really could not understand it.

If there is 1 thing that I clearly understand… I understand that homosexuality is a spirit.  Now, I know many would disagree… and that is alright.  I will not argue the point.  But homosexuality is as much a spirit as lying can be on some people who will tell you a lie even when there is nothing to lie about.  Or as the spirit of drinking strong drink… or taking drugs.  The measure of a spirit is this… how they talk… walk… act out.

All people under the influence of alcohol slur… walk drifting from side to side or show some sign of being unstable on their legs… and can be funnier than usual or more argumentative or mean depending upon the spirit that has a hold of them.  The same is true with the spirit of homosexuality… their is a likeness in their mannerisms… hand movements… the way they talk etc.  Even with the women they take on similar characteristics…looks… mannerisms etc…. these traits are a mark of the spirit that is within them.   Some may say ‘I don’t have any gay mannerisms.’  Oh, yes they do… but they are not readily picked up by all people who don’t know what they are.  Because there are many gay people who pride themselves on being ‘invisible’... meaning they think nobody can tell that they are gay.

So, all sins are a spirit of 1 sort or another.  And if I were to hold up 1 sin or another I would be as bad as the people who doing that sin.

So, there are things I prefer not to become involved in… or with.  I can’t hold up a lie no matter how much I like you or may love you.  I would be contributing to the sin if I did… and I cannot do that.  That would make me a liar.  And lying is definitely as sin.  Should I lose my soul for the sank of holding up someone else’s sin by playing their game and introducing them as a woman when I know they are a man?

No, I cannot do that.  It does not mean I hate them.  It just means I can’t play the devil’s game.  And I will not be drawn into it… whether I like you or not.

It amazes me all the tricks the devil will play upon us.  The people who go through that thing they call ‘transitioning’ can get driver’s licenses that say whatever they change their new sex to.  Further evidence of a highly deceitful game.  And it is a game.

I feel sorry for anyone who believes that they were born the wrong sex.  I know that they are confused.  But they do not realize who has confused them.  Then others support that confusion by calling them ‘girl’ or ‘boy.’ 

I know devil to be a liar… and I am well aware of the tricks he can play on the mind… and it is a head game.  But I know someone who can remove the confusion and turn everything around… and make it right side up again.  His name is Jesus.

And I am not preaching… because preaching to the lost does them no good.  They are lost.  They have eyes but they cannot see… and ears but they cannot hear.  Until God removes the blinders and they step into his marvelous light… then they will come to see and understand how they were deceived.  It happened to me.  I know first-hand.  And I thank the Lord for Saving me… but it might not have happened if the church where God lead me had realized who I was at the time and what kind of spirit had a hold of me.

The problem is many churches… particularly African American churches chase out gay people… when God has called them in.  The Bible says that faith comes through hearing… and then it says ‘with love and kindness have I drawn thee.’  We must show love and compassion in our churches… and stop acting like none of us were ever in sin, or may still be as the case usually is.

Most church people won’t even testify about what God Saved them from.  But God did not give us a testimony for us to keep it to ourselves.   It is of none effect if we keep what God has done for us to ourselves.  It is to us His glory for us to share it.

I am thankful that God brought me out of lesbianism… and I will share it everywhere I go… along with all of His other goodness to me.  I am not shame that God lifted me up… and now I walk in liberty.

Well, God bless…. I’ve got to get busy now and do what I really came into this computer lab to do.  I said a bit more in this blog than I intended to.  Hope it is a blessing to you…

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  ©2014

37 comments April 15, 2014

THE CHURCH and ITS PREACHERS… CHIRLANE MCCRAY NEW YORK CITY FIRST LADY…

Just in from our Holy Convocation I must say that I feel refreshed and excited about the things of the Lord.  Though in looking around and seeing so many old Bishops and Preachers with young wives and girlfriends… it is hard to believe that the Church has taken such a backward turn.  For the most part all I can see is that this new branch or bunch of women that these men have taken up with bring to the table is sex appeal.  What happened to man in leadership wanting a wife who could add to his ministry…and not just be something on his arm?

Thank goodness our President didn’t think like some of these Preachers here at this convention.  Though I guess you could say that Barack Obama was smart enough to get the best of both worlds… beauty plus smarts.  But for some of men of the clothe smarts does not seem to be what they are after these days.

I hate to say it… but some of the young ladies which frequent these conventions are so hot to trout and come in dressed like they headed for the party… and are out looking for whatever old man they can entice.

I saw 1 couple that when they approached me I would never have guessed that they were even together …not at all… until the young woman called the much shorter man… very wide in stature man…  older and seemed easily tired man and out of breath man–   Well, I would never have guess that they were together until she called him ‘baby.’   In hearing that my neck almost snapped as my head quickly jerked back in their direction.  I just would not have put those two people together …no way… and no how.  But they were.  Guess he had money… a big church or something.

It’s funny also because in a way 1 could say that that television show PREACHERS OF LA…  is timely in a not so funny way.  It certainly does not feature such things.  Well, maybe it does…but they haven’t got to that part yet… if they get to it at all.  And that is Bishop Noel Jones and how he impregnanted a much younger woman.

That show also sadly portrays a direction in which the Church is moving… more away from God and more towards the world.

When reflecting upon Biblical text… you might even say that it is scriptural.  Meaning you can find the same thing being done back then in olden times in the Bible.  It happened throughout scripture, in fact, that God’s people continually kept moving away from Him.

When you go back to the book of Nehemiah you find that there are some Priests, as well as, many of the people who have married outside of the Israelite nation.  God told them not to either go in to them or to allow them in to them… or their sons or daughters to go into the women or men of the other nations of the land.  But all through the scriptures you find that God’s chosen people polluted themselves by disobeying the commandment of God to keep their bloodline pure.  They married into other races and religious groups… got into idolatry… and it was to their doom.

In the Preachers of LA the relationship of Deitrick Haddon and the young lady who had his child… can clearly be classified as an unholy union.  Haddon had carried on a sexual relationship outside of his marriage… to which throughout the course of the television show Haddon proclaims, as a mere justification for his unholy actions… that he is a man.  As if all men have a legal right and obligation to go out and do whatever they want to… with whom or whatever they want to do it with… because they are men.

REALLY?

Show me that in scripture.

As someone who wants to proclaim himself to be a Pastor/Minister… clearly Haddon must know that such talk or understanding clearly goes against all Biblical scripture and cannot be justified by any means… outside of 1 merely proclaiming, ‘I was weak and I pray the Lord forgives me.’  Something which is not anything that Deitrick Haddon has dared to say or announced to have ever said.

In the case of Noel Jones it is highly unlikely that any woman… with any kind of brains under her cap would be with any man for 16 years and he not marry her.  Also, no woman in her right mind would be with a man for some 16 years and still be with him… if he had gone outside of their relationship and fathered a baby with some young girl as Noel Jones has done… and there has been no mention of ithat at any time in their conversations on that Preacher show.  And no self-respecting woman would continue to play like a fool for 16 long years with any man who seemed to be so uncaring and lacking emotionally towards her, as Noel Jones to that woman, Loretta, in the show Preachers of LA.

Not unless…   Well, not unless he is taking care of her REAL good…

I do not watch the show after finally happening to see the original first episode of it.  Not much is really said about the show…among church people.  But while at the Convocation 1 night for some reason that network that carries the show kept re-running the same show over and over again.  So, I finally did see another episode and it over and over again.   And I did not change my opinion on the show one iota as being garbage.

While at the Convocation my path and that of Ron Gibson’s did happen to cross… and it was all I could do to contain myself and hold my tongue, and not tell the man what garbage I thought the show was.

Preachers of LA validates everything that people who are against the church  already say and feel is wrong with the Church.  That show leads people to believe that all Preachers are scheming and trying to get rich off of their congregations… which is not totally true.  Though there are some clearly who this is all that are about.

The show also portrays that Pastors are not really actively in the business of Saving or winning souls from the pitfall of sin.  But they are getting rich,  ascertaining prestige and messing with women.  Which could very well be true depending upon where you go to Church… and who your Pastor is.

Now, in the case of Ron Gibson… he shows us his down and out sister who has been 30 years dealing with addiction.  Something that he says he brought into his family’s house when he became involved in gang life and drugs as a young man.  But to me it was odd how publicly he decided to show up his sister as a drug addict with himself as her crusader, coming in to save the day and help her.

After 30 years??

He does this now?

I only wondered why he had not tried to help her before the cameras started rolling… and why he felt comfortable doing so while the cameras were on him… making himself appear to be doing this great thing.  Wouldn’t it have been great that he had been helping her before to kick that habit?

But we never heard that testimony when this is business he’s supposed to be in for everybody and anybody, who needs him to come to them and help them to overcome the demons in their lives.

Another observation I have of Bishop Ron Gibson… is the fact that he claims he is no longer involved in gang activity, yet he sits before the TV camera wearing gang colors and clothing… like a Blood.  I don’t know if anybody else has caught that… outside of maybe those in gangs.  But I can’t help but wonder about how much ‘out of gang life’ Ron Gibson really is?

Then while I was in the hotel at the Convocation I also caught a commercial a couple of times about some black church… another new reality TV show.  Boy, are really zooming in on us.  This show is about where they help you straighten out your Church some kind of way.  What happened to prayer and simplification?

What is it about Black Churches that everybody is throwing our religious institutions to the dogs?

Well, maybe not everybody… but we ourselves.

It appears that our churches are all messed up.  and it appears that we are willing to sell our churches, congregations, worship, songs, music, and sanctuary services etc. off for a dollar.

That which was sacred… is sacred no more.  We can barely recognize the Church any more… and in some Churches neither can we recognize what used to be regular Church services.  There is nothing regular about it any more in so many of these new Church under many new young men stepping into leadership.  Some of these younger Pastors have a new-skool philosophy on how service should be held… and how to bring in more numbers of people.  They have removed the podium…the altar and everything else that remotely looks like the inside of a church.

In some of these newer Churches with young Pastors the congregation stands for the entire time like they are at some type of rally.  They jumping up and down like they are at a concert… because for them the service has pretty much turned into an event similar to listening to a concert performance, for the whole entire time, rather than a Bible teaching or preaching orderly service.  And many Church pulpits have been transformed into performing stages complete with flashing lights, and everything like that found in a club, used to seduce and entice people psychedelically.

In all this has the Church lost sight… or is loosing sight of holiness?

Has the Church forgotten how to reverence the Lord and His house… and His Holy Word?

If the Church becomes the new club or dance hall where will the Saved folk go?

A new norm is overtaking the Church and that is to not to resist the devil but to use his methods and tools… supposedly in the name of God.  So, along comes these shows such as Preachers of LA and everything else which diminishes what worship really is… what real Church service is about… what going to Church is really so supposed to be about… and more importantly how to reverence God’s sanctuary… and the things of Him.

When I came in I knew I had to write a blog today… but I did not know what I was going to write on.  Guess I found a subject…

Well, God bless… it is nearly the weekend.  It is about as close as you can get to it without being in the weekend, I guess.  And I am starting to get sleepy so I’m on to end now.

I had gotten an early morning call and now I’m feeling like it is time for me to go and lay down.  So, enjoy the rest of your day.  And if I fail to post another blog between now and Thanksgiving… enjoy it anyhow…

A friend did this animation of me and her having lunch today.  I though it cute and decided to share it with you.  And as you can see… I really am a real person.  So much so that someone decided to draw me.   : )

Before I jet out of here though let me say that sometimes we should really look deeper into some of these situations happening in many of our Churches today.  We see on YouTube where some woman punched the Pastor… all the time I want you to know that some of these people make you so frustrated with wrong doing that in the heat of a moment ‘yes’ somebody might loose it.

The Bible says that the Pastors have scattered His sheep.  And I do not think we see this happening more and more and more than today.  Sad but true.  I wish I could tell you some things right now… but they are coming.  And what a tell to tell…

There is so much going on in the Church that it would make your head spin.

And 1 more quick caption before closing…   Just can’t believe my home-girl, Chirlane McCray is the First Lady of New York City.  It is soooooo amazing… and I am very very very happy for her.  Fantastic person… truly…  I know that together they are going to do much needed good for New York City.

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

2 comments November 21, 2013

ELMO and MORE…continuation of PASTOR’S OF LA my take on it…

‘Awh, come on, Bern.  Where have you been?”

A friend recently ask me shocked, as we were engaging in a conversation via the telephone around a variety of subjects.  When some how or other the conversation fell upon poor little ole Elmo.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” my friend continued.

Then she commenced to ask me where I had been for the last year, as she claimed that the story surrounding Elmo had been a big 1.  Evidently, I had not been reading much by way of the news because when I looked it up on Google… I found that my friend had been right.  It had been a big story.  A story of sex… underage boys and a Sesame Street employee.

It  had to have been a very big and alarming  surprising shock to the world of children… and their parents I am sure.  Elmo was being sued.  Well, not Elmo to be exact… but the man who had… or as my friend claimed to have been the creator of Elmo.  I don’t know if he had been the creator of Elmo… but for the last 30 or so years, which I guess had been about as long as the period that my son last watched that show… being that he is now some 30 years old himself.   The man had been the voice of the Sesame Street puppet named Elmo.  A man by the name of Kevin Clash.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/20/kevin-clash-longtime-voice-of-elmo-resigns-amid-underage-sex-controversy/

She said the guy was into young boys who were of mixed races, Hispanic and who had long flowing hair.

In Googling some pictures of the guy, here again my friend seemed to be correct.  He did like boys about 15 or so years of age… with their hair a certain kind of way.

I have to say, “Where had I been when this story broke?”

With the popularity of Elmo around the world… it really had to be a bit of a big shock to hear and then to read this story.  And to see pictures of the boys… suing the man.

I totally dislike stories like this… news items about people who prey upon people… destroying young lives …and particular the lives of children… even seniors… or those who suffer from some sort of mental diminished capacity.  Or preying upon anyone in general.

In reading over the news articles on the internet all I could think of were those past Christmas commercials regarding Elmo products… in particular the tickle me Elmo doll.  Elmo seemed for some reason to have captivated both the hearts of children and adults alike… and over time has become quite popular.

I thought of Melissa, a young school teacher friend of mine… whose email address was ‘Elmo something something’ or other.  Can’t remember exactly what… which is why I have not been able to email Melissa for quite some time now.  But she utterly loved Elmo.

I wonder how she feels now?

Well, I kind of know exactly how she feels… very much like me.  But I never was into Elmo… so, I suspect that she has dropped any association with Elmo now.  Though I must say… it really wasn’t Elmo’s fault.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elmo-toymaker-hasbro-responds-sesame-393397

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/elmo-sex-scandal-kevin-clash-third-allegation-underage-sex_n_2197666.html

But in case you never heard the story either.   Sesame Street dropped the guy… Kelvin Clash… and the 4 law suits that had been issued against him by varying parties… were I guess… based upon some of the articles I read on story were dropped due to the statue of limitations.  Though at least 1 of the articles I read said that 1 of the 4 boys… young men at this time… was paid off in a settlement $125,000.

Shame that for the most part they had no real legal recourse due to the law of the statues of limitation.  Tragedies that happen in your life never go away.   Ruining kids lives should never have a statue of limitations put upon them to prohibit them from coming back to seek damages, for things done to them to destroy their lives… as most kids try to forget those kinds of things.  And during the time of the abuse children do not know anything about having a ‘legal recourse’ against perpetrators… or any laws that would protect them… though nothing can really protect them from such people.   And for many it totally messes with their physique as to who they really are… and brings about conflicts in sexual identity.

Of 1 thing I am sure of… child abuse ruins lives… future relationships… dreams…  and a sense of security and/or self-confidence and self-worth that children growing into adults may or may ever have.

Now, on to the Oxygen network TV reality show called Pastors of LA… another conversation that me and my friend hit upon the other day while speaking on the phone.

She told me snickering into the phone, ‘Bern, I watched it four times.’

WHY?????

That is my question.

Yes, I finally caught it…. episode #1 on on-demand I saw it yesterday evening.  And they will not have to worry about me having a desire to see another episode.

I had wondered why it was when I went up on YouTube to see some video reviews of the show… I had found so few of them?  As a rule the people who watch these shows like throwing a camera… or their cell phone up on themselves while they give play by play comments on the shows.  But not so with this show.

Now I know why.  The show actually really is not worth talking about.  And I too have to admit… like Bishop T. D. Jakes… that the show to be ‘junk.’   Absolutely and completely…  pure ‘junk.’

http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2013/10/bishop-t-d-jakes-slams-reality-series-preachers-of-l-a-calls-it-that-junk-on-tv.html/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/bishop-td-jakes-diss-preachers-of-la_n_4102447.html?ir=Black+Voices

It lacks any real reason for even being on TV outside of destroying what the Church is supposed to be really all about.  It makes leadership in the Church look bad and in particular… leadership in the Black Church.

People in the secular world already have a tainted view of Church and of most people in the Church… particularly when it comes to so-called Pastors.  Now this show only fuels those mis-perceptions.

If ever you want the Black Church shown in a bad light… then watch the Black Pastors of LA.  They will do it for you… bound to keep the captives bound… and sinners laughing.

Now what I am going to discuss next my friend, Linda and I did not discuss this story… however,  as I just happened to come across it just now.  But it struck a nerve so I decided to post it.

Somebody said to me…. ‘You know black people are starting to commit the same kind of crimes as white people.’   It was my cousin… now that I think back on it who said this to me just this week during a phone conversation I happened to have had with him.

If you are white please do not take offense… none intended.  This is, however, how we talk among ourselves… as I am sure you talk  among yourselves.

But it is true that there were certain type of crimes which black people never ever used to commit… least ways that was the perception.  In fact, when we heard that such and such type of crimes had been committed, such as mass murders… or people being buried in walls… or serial killings…etc… we often knew immediately that it could not have been a black person.  Least ways that is what we thought…. but very rapidly this has all changed.  We are becoming as guilty of committing crimes such as bondage… killing people and putting them in walls or floors (and still be living in the house) as everybody else …etc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/jamila-love-williams-teacher-sex_n_4116985.html?ref=topbar

So, of course, this story would leap out at me… as almost all the other stories of teachers indulging in sex with their underage students… as far as I had read… were all white women.  And now… here comes this story.  A black woman… a math teacher… she had been carrying on sexual relations with under age boy students in the school she taught in, in Michigan.

Though as I begin to remember some things… I remember a young college student… a friend of mine… who had been involved with her high school counselor.  She had been under age when the relationship started… and it went on and on through her years in college… and I guess afterwards.  And they were both black.

So, I guess maybe the story of a black woman being charged with committing such a crime really should neither be a surprise nor a shock to me.  And certainly not something that I thought only happened along other color lines.

I guess we are all guilty of narrow thinking.  So, I must apologize for my narrow thinking in this  …and perhaps many other areas in my life.  It is ignorant to assume that only certain people do certain things.  It is absolutely not true… and my remember of my college friend and her sexual relationship with her high school counselor certainly proves it.  And I think that relationship messed up her entire life.

The girl was absolutely beautiful in her youth… not that she looks bad now.  But her youth is gone.   And that man eat it up.

I often think that if any of us should have been married… it should have been her.  But it never happened for her.  And I think it was or is because she wasted all her valuable time on a loosing proposition… a rat.   Her formative years were spent hanging on a string… of  a worthless predator who stole that part of her life from her.

Well, God bless… hope you enjoy the rest of your week… and your soon to come weekend.  They had said rain… but it did not come.  Now, it is sunny and warm… beautiful.  And I am looking for the rain to come any minute now… as they say sunshine all weekend long.

In going back to the female math teacher above and her sex scandal… I don’t know what goes wrong.  But I do know that things go wrong in the mind of women.  And if carried out we would all be in prison.

But then even men could say the same.  The ‘thing’ is nothing short of demonic spirits… and if none of use are careful or prayed up… they can grab a hold of us all…

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 October 17, 2013

GATED COMMUNITIES…and the ZIMMERMAN CASE…

The first time I actually saw a gated community it was a warm summery day, and I was driving around with Mother Rochelle looking for some beach front property to buy.

We were in Coney Island when we came upon it… a gated community.  We were kind of in awe of it… because it was kind of off by itself.  We did not recognize immediately what it was that we were looking at… as it is just not the kind of thing you see in New York City.  And certainly not out in Coney Island ever… least ways I had not.

But by this time Coney Island had been converted into, I guess you could say, some type of urban oasis.  Gone were all the tall brick story housing complexes that used to line the skies in this section of Brooklyn, known to the world as Coney Island.  The place looked totally different and it was hard to believe what had once been.  I didn’t see the boardwalk or the amusement rides… none of it.   It was as if somebody had taken a pencil and erased it… all.

Then that is when Mother and I spotted it, a group of houses surround by a brick wall.  Up until this point… some time ago I had heard about gated communities but had never seen 1… or thought about it when I had seen them.  Because who thinks of these kind of things… gated communities?  I see such structures as just being more or less just  a group of apartments or houses… or housing complexes… or new housing developments.   But this place was  fenced in with wires going all around… almost like a prison.   The houses looked like that they had been shoved in and bunched up on top of each other… and that is what caught our attention.

The houses did not look like anything spectacular to me.  None of them had any real land around them.   Just a group of regular New York style non-distinct houses, of various kinds.  Nothing big or fancy.  Nothing that looked rizie… just plain common ordinary houses.  Nothing to brag about.  But they were fenced in by this brick wall that went all the way around it.

I remember saying to Mother, “Look Mother, a gated community.”

I was surprised to see it… and especially in New York City… and Mother was too.  And even more especially in Coney Island… a place where nothing but public housing complexes used to stand, for as far as the eyes could see… but they were now all gone.

I can’t remember having seen 1 public housing complex that day in this section of Coney Island, that I used to visit often once upon a time.

Actually, they are not all certainly gone… at least ways not all of New York’s public housing… otherwise known as projects.  But many have now been transformed.  The old tenants moved or were forced out by the city of the developers, who had come in to possess this waterfront section of Brooklyn,  known as Coney Island.  And the buildings that those people all once used to live in have become condos and co-ops, which are very popular in New York City among those who can afford it.  Or they were torn down totally.  And that was what Mother Rochelle and I were looking at… an area where all the old housing complexes were totally gone.

But while writing my blog, THE ZIMMERMAN CASE WHAT A FARCE, I had heard in 1 of the YouTube videos that I put into that blog… how Zimmerman’s gated community had had a few recent robberies.

In 1 of those videos…. 1 of the homeowners, said to have been 1 of Zimmerman’s neighbor in the gated community… he commented on how a couple of the houses had recently been broken into and robbed.  How Zimmerman had stopped robbers from breaking into his house.  And he also stated this was the reason for why Zimmerman should have been on his guard for any suspicious characters in their neighborhood… being that Zimmerman was Captain of the neighborhood watch.

Since having heard that I have been thinking…  Gated community… neighborhood watch?

Didn’t people move into gated communities for security?

Isn’t that the purpose for gated communities coming about?

Then why did Zimmerman’s complex… being that it was supposed to be a gated community need to have a neighborhood watch?

Something was not working here.  Either the police in Sanford were not doing their job.  Or the gate… usually some type of high brick wall… wasn’t working either.

Or maybe these people were just lying.  Maybe they hadn’t had those break-ins.

I would love to see the records regarding break-ins in Zimmerman’s neighborhood.  And I would love to know exactly how long their neighborhood watch had been in effect?

Were these just a bunch of fearful people?

I mean who else would elect to live in a gated community… except for people who are fearful of the world around them.

The gate in gated communities is meant to keep out certain elements.  These elements usually mean… the wrong kind of people… drugs and the woes that the rest of the world has to face simply by living among them.

Was Zimmerman’s complex actually under attack by the outside world?

If outsider’s were coming in… which as stated by the man in that video… some young black men robbing them… who was letting them in?

Most gated communities have security… mostly at the main entrance gate if nowhere else.

When I was in Altamonte Springs a small Florida town not far out from Sanford, where Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin… I recall visiting a friend whose parents lived in such a complex.  While driving into the complex upon her directions to me… I drove through the front gate and up to her parent’s house.  At the time it had not dawn on me that they had lived in a gated community.  I saw it only as an up-scale new housing complex.

When you consider it… isn’t it kind of insane to believe you can lock yourself away from all the trouble of the world?

Evidently, Zimmerman’s housing complex had some problems.  Otherwise there would not have been a need for someone like George Zimmerman… operating in the capacity in which they had assigned him… Captain of their neighborhood watch.

What were they paying all that money for… if their gated complex was no safer than that of the people on the other side of their wall, which was suppose to be their gate of secured safety.

Had none of them considered that the elements which lived inside among them was just as dangerous… if not more so than many of the people on the opposite side of their wall?

Because George Zimmerman lived within their midst.

Well, God bless…  Another beautiful day.  I got to get going.  Gotta edit some video footage for my television show.  In case you didn’t know you can check segments of it on youtube.  Just type in my name as it appears on my book cover, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the day… and your weekend.  Might be good beach weather.  A couple of Sunday’s ago that is where we were… aching foot and all.  My mother said salt water is good for healing the body.  So, we were out on the water front listening to the sound of the waves washing in… and getting our feet wet.  Bye… and enjoy.

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 July 31, 2013

Another Post I never got around to Publishing… SOUL TRAIN MUSIC AWARDS a couple years ago… TEXAS STABBINGS & EXPLOSION at BOSTON MARATHON

Talk about not getting around to POST… when I finally came back to this blog it was I don’t know how long.  Now, after that it has been several weeks more  …had to add the tags and things.  And finally today here it goes…after a bomber or more…struck at the Boston Marathon today just as the runners started crossing the finish line.

I almost wrote… I’m just shaking my head… but it takes more than that if we ever expect to get a handle on this.  And it goes beyond insanity to some type of morbid inner nothingness that these people have who go out and do these type of things.

Well, nevertheless…. here is another Post that I just never got around to publishing for one reason or other.  After briefly reading through it I thought that I might share it with you…it seems that I felt like sharing some more of myself in it to you… wonder why?

I rarely like telling much about myself… though I must say that you really cannot tell it by reading many of my blogs.  But for the record… I cannot remember at all when I wrote this but it was a while back… so today I am feeling great and the day is sunny and beautiful.

Now, here is that blog which I failed to published some time ago…

Not feeling well today… but I am not complaining.  Because I have had many more days when I didn’t feel bad at all.  And not many people can say that.

I am just a touch under the weather.  And because I am not accustom to being sick… it tends to bother me a little more than most people.

The other thing is… I do not take medication.  Not at all.   Well… almost not at all.  There have been times when I had to breakdown and swallow something… or go in and have them give me a shot or something… but not often.  And believe me when I say… I have to be in an awful lot of  pain and/or discomfort for me to do it.

Otherwise, I just suffer whatever it is that is bothering me… until it goes away.  Not many people can do that… or attempt to do that.  Since so many people rush to go grab up a bottle of this or that at the slightest on-set of something they think may be bothering them… they never even try to fight off anything.

But this is just a little slight cold.  A sliver of dust must have gotten into my system while I was helping my brother move some furniture that he chose to move from my parent’s house into his new apartment.  And since I am allergic to house dust… and it didn’t take much before I started itching then a tickle came into my throat.  But as soon as the dust gets out of my system I will be up and about again.

But this past weekend I had a chance to catch the Soul Train Music Awards.  Needless to say… I did not know most of  acts or  the awardees.  But, of course, I did recognize Anita Baker and Ron Isley as they paid tribute to them.

But I waited around watching because I had never seen Eryka Badu perform before… and boy…oh, boy…  What a disheartening show it really was.

For one thing how can anyone who portrayed herself as being so Afro-centric ever have lighten their skin?

Well, that is exactly what Eryka Badu has done… or so it appeared to be the case to me.  And she looked terrible.  At first I didn’t even notice it… because it was kind of subtle and her face was camouflaged by the hat she was wearing.  It cast a shadow over her face.

We have all read about black women in Africa and the West Indies doing it… but to see that Eryka Badu has stooped to bleaching????

It is insane.  If anything I have always wanted to be darker… but lighter no.  A cousin of mine slipped and started calling me ‘light’ and I totally disliked it.  She was trying to anger me.  And she did the moment she let that slip out of mouth.

Needless to say, Eryka has always been a bit wired and out there.  She likes doing things to grab attention… I guess you could say.   I remember when she first came onto the music scene… everybody thought that the very long dredlocks she was sporting then were her own.  But low-and-behold… over a period of  time we all came to find out that it had been a wig or more than likely dred extensions.   After that I think she went to having no hair at all.

But seeing Erykah Badu with lighter skin… was discussing to me.  Talking about a mindless woman… who evidently hates herself.  I wouldn’t want attention that bad.  And whatever song that was… that she song on the Soul Train Music Awards… if  it was intended to catapult  the re-emergence of  her  singing career?

I think not.  For all it was worth she could have stayed home.  But I must say that I did love the hat… and that was about all I liked about this whole supposed Soul Train Music Awards.

For the most part most of  the music on the Soul Train Music Awards show really wasn’t even ‘soul music’ any more.   But a bunch of that ‘neo-soul’  junk.

So, in watching the Soul Train Music Awards… I began to feel that we are loosing our identity…our musical identity and authenticity.   An identity and authenticity which has marked and ruled… in my opinion the whole music world in this country since we came to these shores as slaves brought to America.  And my did we bring something with us.

Some of the best and most authentic music America has ever had  really came out of a revised culture whose roots were founded in slavery.  Much like the food we developed here called ‘Soul Food.’  Hence, Soul Music… the Blues… Doo-Wop… Gospel Music… Rhythm & Blues  etc… etc.. etc…

In watching the Soul Train Music Awards show I felt that soul music had been replaced by a bunch of  people who neither wrote lyrics  or  played real instruments.  People who only looked black, but were trying very hard to appear as weird and way-out as they possibly could be.   This because it would seem that everything today concerning music is about branding and images… and far less than about true talent… real vocal skills or any skills as far as being a musician or a real song writer.  What happened to artists with the talent of a Little Stevie Wonder or a Prince?

Based upon what I had seen those type of talents had faded far far far away.

None of  them… this group or now generation singers seemed to want to have any connection to the music that put Motown on the charts, or  Philly on the map… or  Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, New York,  and LA.  Or that had made other urban places  hubs for the rich urban soul sound and melodic tones that had come to be called ‘soul music’  or  ‘rhythm & blues”  …or even “gospel.”

While watching the Soul Train Music Awards… there were no Anita Bakers or Ron Isleys awaiting in the crowd to hear their names called for award.  In fact, the only soulful talenst on the show was Anita Baker, Ron Isley, Pebo Bryson, Chante Moore, Rochelle Ferrell, Jeffery Osborne and a few others.  But clearly the ‘soul‘  that had been in the history of  Soul Train is now gone.

Everybody wants to be a cross-over artist… some neutral detergent that appears to be black or African American but actually doing some white thang.

The whole time I sat watching the Soul Train Music Awards… which is something I have not watched in years… or any other music or movie  awards show in years.   As I had long ago felt that they had been watered down to appeal to more less urban audiences.

But it was frightening for me to see  such a lost of what seemed to me to be a vast depreciation of  what has always been ours… our real musical genius and talenst… gifted voices and fantastic lyric writing… such as that of  Barry White and Issac Hayes… Holland,-Dozier-Holland, Ashford & Simpson, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield… etc…etc… all to be turned into something which sounded a lot more like that puff of glitter disco music and digitized junk.  And I must say that I see the exact same thing  happening to gospel music.

In gospel music there has developed a vast desire to be played on something ‘called‘ Christian Radio stations…  which in my opinion is nothing but a bunch of  rock music  stations playing rock music and calling it ‘Christian Music.’

It would be a shame to loose the richness of  our music… and the history that our music carries with it to the junk I bared witnessed to on the Soul Train Music Awards.  Outside of the tributes to some real Soul legends… there was nothing on that show I would have voted to give 1 award to.

One day we will look up and no one will know what ‘soul music’  was or that it had ever been.  They will not know that there had been such groups like Blue Magic, the Dramatics, Delfonics, Temptations, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Manhattans, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Chi-Lites, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Phyllis Hyman, Najee, Kirk Walham, the Sylvers, Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, the Sugar Hill Gang and the list goes on and on and on…  And those are just those from my era there tons more before them.

Who can forget when James Brown first cried-

“Say it loud I’m black and I’m proud.”

Or, “Baby, please don’t go.”

Or when Curtis Mayfield song these words-

“If  I had a choice of  colors.”

Or Nina came with-

“To be young gifted and black.”

Maybe there is no need for such lyrics like these today anymore.  But that can’t true… particularly after what I just said about Eryka Badu and skin bleaching.   But then how about-

“La-la-la means I love you… I love you.”

What about –

“They’re smiling in your face…all the while they want to take your place.”

Will soul music die like jazz has died?

There are no more jazz artists like Max… Coltrane …  Gillipsie…  or Yusuf LaTiff… or Miles …. any more.

Or how about a Junior Parker…  or another B.B. King…  or Muddy Waters…  or Bo Diddley and their special blend?

Now, I must admit that these days I am strictly into gospel music… but having a history in the radio industry it is hard for me to not realize the importance of preserving this cultural history.  It is ours… and our children need to be recipients of at least knowing of that it once was.  We cannot just forsake everything.

These musical forms and artists are long gone…  Well, more or less off the musical scene… the ones I just mentioned above.  And soon along with their names will the memories of Blue Magic, Phyllis Hyman, the Dells, Temptations, Supremes, the Staple Singers and everybody else either before them or who came after them like Chak Khan, Earth, Wind & Fire, Emotions etc. be forgotten too.  To be replaced by a bunch of  people who have forsaken moving bass beats for  neo- tinty sounds that have nothing soul about them.  Music you can hop and jump up and down to… like we used to watch those young white kids do on those afternoon after school dance shows like the Dick Clark Show.   But they can’t really dance to.  And I guess that is really the point… its not meant to be danced to… but just to make some money.

Forget art…   What does art have to do with it?

No wonder the Soul Train Musical Awards show didn’t resemble anything like their old award shows… or for that matter… didn’t come close to emitting anything I would have called ‘soul’… outside of having a tribute to a few past ‘soul’ artists.  What a real shame…a legacy gone to naught…

I hate to say it… but little wonder Don Cornelius took a gun…  When you sell off something your control of it goes too…  Truly the history of Soul Train will never be the same…

Well, God bless… it’s Monday and I have been relaxing most of my day.  Then I started getting calls about an explosion in Boston.

After the stabbings on a Texas Campus last week… and now these explosions in Boston during the Boston Marathon… coupled with the guy shooting up the movie theater and that boy killing all those children plus his mother, in a Connecticut classroom…  Can you really say that we are not living in divers times?

I can’t imagine anybody saying that since they were 9 years old they had had fantasies about stabbing people.   FANTASIES ABOUT STABBING PEOPLE?

When I called my son to tell him about the explosions at the Boston Marathon today, he said to me-

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 April 15, 2013

THE VERIZON ATTITUDE… changes in the workplace…

I can’t imagine working for anyone who threatened me.

In reading a posting on my facebook page, I read where the daughter of 1 of my facebook friends was told by her employer during Hurrican Irene-

“If any of you leaves, you’re fired.”

Meaning that if any of the employees left the job they would be terminated.

I can’t imagine me wanting to work for anyone who would even consider trying to strong-arm me like that… and particularly in a state of emergency.   But it made me think of 9/ll.

On September 11th …on the day that the airplanes flew into the World Trade Center, after the first plane hit the first tower  …many of the workers in the second tower were told to remain seated, to continue working.

But friends of mine who were inside the 2nd tower of  the World Trade Center that day… told me that when they saw that first plane hit… they didn’t care what their supervisors said… they were getting out of there.  And because many people had already began evacuating that second tower, as soon as they saw what had happened to the first tower… it for many meant the difference between life and death.

A few days ago while driving down to Atlanta, I happened to catch a news story on 1010 WINS …an all news radio network in New York City.  I had seen the picketers standing before various Verizon locations.  But I did not know what was going on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023428/Verizon-worker-strike-Thousands-picket-line-east-coast.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/9/verizon-workers-hit-picket-lines-mass-va/

It seems that the contract for 45,000 Verizon workers had expired… meaning the Verzion worker’s contract is now up for renegotiation.  Playing hardball, Verizon withdrew their worker’s health plan when the workers went out on strike.  Verzion claim that they could no longer afford to pay for the worker’s health coverage because they were losing so much money with them being out on strike.

BALONEY.

Everybody who is doing any business with Verizon should cancel every service …or whatever have you with them.

What money is Verizon losing?

None.  In fact, with the workers out… they are saving money.  Because Verizon doesn’t have to pay them while they are out on strike.

But the problem we face today is this…    IT IS AN EMPLOYER’S MARKET.

Do you hear me?

Can you understand that?

It is like how they say it is a buyer’s market in terms of  real estate sales.  Because not many people are buying homes …and banks are not lending as much as they used to.  So, if you got money …and it doesn’t matter about what the seller is asking for …make them an offer.  They may just take it… you never know.  Because they are not getting many other offers these days.  And who knows… your’s might be their only offer.

And you see this clear across the board.   Car sales and other large ticket items… because there is less cash flow these days with so many people out of work.

And therein lays the Verizon workers dilemma.Verizon is having its way with the Verizon worker’s union because so many people are out of  work… and Verizon knows that it has the power to wheel and deal as it pleases because of the way the job market is today.

These companies have no employee loyalty.  In fact, most companies today could care less about their employees.  This is why most companies today do not even offer full-time employment anymore.  Who needs full-time employees when there are millions of people willing… able …and ready to accept part-time employment with no benefits, and wages that amount to little… but beats nothing.

There had been a time when America was sending top executives to China to learn techniques of how to create a happy and more productive working enviroment.  It would seem that those executives learned something much more valuable to them.  How to take an iron fist and hold it over the heads of your employees… and keep it there.  Forcing them to produce more for less… while compensating them little… and forcing them to smile while the company break their backs.

I dislike companies with the Verzion attitude.  My cell phone is a Sprint account… but my broadband was with Verizon.  I can’t tell you how happy I am that it is off … and has been so for some time now.  But I can’t see myself giving money to a company that will not do its employees right.

Though these companies may feel that they have the power… the truth of the matter is… no they don’t.  We do.  And our power can bring any company to its knees just as the Montgomery bus boycotts brought that city of Montgomery to its knees in the mid 1960’s, and gave way to the opening of the doors that gave us all the right to vote, sleep and eat … etc… etc… where we wanted to.  Today we get on the highway and travel anywhere we want… as African American people in America… eat where we want to eat… and book a hotel and sleep where we want to sleep.  But for years this was not the case at all.

I remember listening  to Shirley Caesar talking about that very subject on a television show that she was being interviewed on.  She said that back then when they travelled… talking about her days as a young singer travelling with Albertina Walker and the Caravan… back in latter 50’s through the 60’s.   She said-

“We had to sleep in our car.  Because back then they did not allow us (black folks) to stay in the hotels or the motels like they do today.  And we just couldn’t pull up anywhere and eat either.  Because it wasn’t allowed.  If we wanted food.  We had to go back around to the back the door and see if they would give  us some food.”

Thank God for powerful people… who knew that they possessed power.  Or we would still be sitting on the back of the bus today.

Union busting is not anything new.  One of the greatest examples of it is when Ronald Reagon decided to interfere in the air traffic controller strike, PATCO …in August 1981.  Reagon froze the air traffic controller’s $3.5 million strike fund in order to force the striking workers back to work… saying that they were in violation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKX9EXSvrQ&feature=related

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/reagan.years/whitehouse/airtraffic.html

And if you remember any facts to this story… you will remember how  quickly many of the striking air traffic controllers were replaced.  While a the powers to be… then trained a bunch of  unprofessionals to replace to them.

And our air ways have never been the same.  They have found people sleeping and all kinds of crazy things.  And we will not discuss what took place on 9/11.

Because if the truth be told… that is still a mystery to me?

How is it that at least 3 airplanes took off from Logan Airport in Boston… and got so far off of their courses.  And nobody …not 1 person knew about it until very important buildings began to be flown into?

Something is wrong with that picture.  And for the life of me… how was it that the 2nd airplane was allowed to hit the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center?  This is even a bigger mystery to me?

Because before it did… every airplane and helicopter in New York City was up in the air that day soon after the 1st airplane had flown in the World Trade Center.  So then, how is it that nobody saw the 2nd airplane until after it hit the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center?

My niece woke me that morning with a phone call saying that an airplane had just flown into 1 of the towers of the World Trade Center.  And as she was still talking to me… some 20 minutes later the 2nd airplane flew into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center.

How could that have happened?

After the 1st airplane into that air space…  clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space should never have happened.

First of all, the air space around the whole area of the World Trade Center  and Statue of Liberty was and is…a protected air space. Which means it was supposed to be under the protection of fighter jets anyhow. But notwithstanding the admission of the 1st air craft into that air space… clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space should have most definitely been shot down…and shot down long before coming in contact with the 2nd tower of  the World Trade Center.

But going back to the then President Reagon who decided that he needed to step in on the striking air traffic controllers… and teach them a lesson.  Reagon, of course, being the idol of ever Republican… the 1 that they most try to exemplify, and proclaim themselves to be the most like.  And I wonder if that was before or after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?

But then of course… nobody knows exactly how long Reagon had actually been losing it.  Though I must say that most of the Republican Party seems to be fit candidates for an Alzheimer’s examination.  Because truly most of  them seem to be suffering from some sort of mental deficiency…  starting with but not limited to Palin.

Something has to be wrong …mentally with a bunch of people who claim that they love something and seek so vigilantly to destroy it.  And I am talking about America.

They claim that they love America.  Yet everything they have been doing lately… and I am talking … for years now… has been done to undermine America… if not to utterly destroy it.

One of the most disastrous things to happen to the United States of America was something called George W. Bush.  I understand how wars were used in past American History to re-jump start the economy.  But George who was supposedly an economy major from that great learning institution known as Yale University, in New Haven, CT.  George having gotten into hot water somehow either on his own… or via the un-wise thinking of some of his flunkies…they came up with a plan.  The plan was to go to war.  Start some wars and the economy will take off again… the money you spent will be forgotten… and forgiven…  and all will be well.

But there was a problem with the plan.  The work place had changed.

In years past America had plenty of factories and factory workers.  But by the time George stole his way into the White House all those jobs were gone.  Those factories had been closed… and years later turned into lovely condominiums.  And if  the companies still exists those jobs didn’t… robots had moved in and replaced the workers.

Do you remember when you used to read the Help Wanted Ads and saw a train of Bank Teller jobs being offered?

Look for that now.  You won’t find it.  Because many of those jobs no longer exist.  Bank tellers have been replaced by atm machines.

The same has happened to a position called ‘receptionist.’  When was the last time you heard that word?

It is voice mail… and automated voice activated systems now.  No more receptionist jobs almost anywhere today.

Most utility companies have closed down their offices which used to handle bill paying services.  They don’t do that any more.  Oh, no…   If you can’t send it in by mail… or go to a local payment center at your check cashing center  …or corner store… then for a charge call them and they will take your payment over the phone.

In 2008 Americans voted for a change.   While Republicans are quick to say that Obama did not… or has not delivered.

Yet  on the other hand Republicans will never say-

“And we  have done everything within our power  to ensure it.”

On every issue… and non-issue Republicans have done their best to block Obama from even trying to do anything to fix the mess.  A massive and highly expensive and burdensome mess… that George W. Bush… a Republican …whom I believe will never ever be forgotten… for the mess that he left us all in.  And when President Obama has managed to get something pass them… they … the Republicans attack it like a bunch of mad dogs.

Whoever said that Barack Obama was a magician?

Whoever said Obama was Merlin?

Or even had some kind of ‘black magic?’

In case you did think that let me be the first to just say-

“Are you for real?”

Magic is an illusion.  It is based upon trickery… cunning and deceit.  Thank goodness these are not traits that are found within our President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama has never lied to us about ‘weapons of  mass destruction.’

He has never tried to pull the wool over our eyes… by blinding us with a bunch of codes that meant absolutely nothing… code RED…  code YELLOW…  (if you have no understanding of  this then you would have had to have lived in New York City following 9/11).

Obama has never tried to used 1 fear tactic to keep us up under our beds… or hid in our closets.

President Barack Obama is not the cause for why America is where America is today.   He had nothing at all do do with it.  He did not bring us here.  In fact, as quiet as it is kept… he is trying to fix this mess.   It is more than possible that he might aid in bringing us a long ways out of  this runt… if we all stop listening to lies.  Stop being deceived…  and turning every which way the winds blows.

It is Republican deceit and lies that have turned this country upside down… and not Barack Obama.

• Corporate greed and mis-handling of business was here long before Barack Obama walked into the White House
• Job losses many years before Obama
• National Debt was already there… but really began running away after George W. Bush stepped into the Presidential picture
• Problems on Wall Street with the stock market are not new… trace them back into the 1930’s

Several States now have had to fight against Republican Governors who lead people into believing that they were either the man or woman for the job… and would wholly work for them… the voters.  Telling them that they were a person with their interests in their mind and in heart… only for those voters to lament a vote that they ever casted in that person’s favor.  It ended up costing voters benefits… or their job… or a less powerful union etc.  Because that Republican political had an agenda.  And that agenda had nothing to do with the people’s minds… or hearts that they  con into believing in them with their claims of  ‘I want to serve you.’

The Republicans are so slimy they have created a 2nd Republican Party… the co-called Tea Party a group of real lunatics… formed by that lunatic queen Palin and few other crazies.  All of whom who have fallen out with one another… that is how firmly rooted they were.  Like a bunch of crabs in a barrel… all clamouring to be the top dog… and if they can’t then they pick up their marbles and go home.

They have all… whether they call themselves ‘Tea Party’ or not… they …the Republicans have all developed a seek and destroy attitude.  And that attitude did not just get started when President Barack Obama stepped into the White House… it is an attitude that they have long adapted to.

You need only to look at the 2000 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and John Kerry to see how demented the Republicans are.  They saw nothing wrong …NOTHING…in undermining the entire American practice of our right to vote… and to have ALL our votes counted.  And it was not something that they were not bold enough to do so all could see… and dared any of us to do anything about it.

So, don’t blame Obama.  This mess is not his.  But he decide to champion the cause… to try to set America back on the right course.  To raise Her from low depths She sank to under what no one can call ‘leadership’… but just say… George Bush brought Her to.

Don’t look for magic.  Look at it as it really is.  The world has changed.  And the work place and work force has changed with it.

Many jobs that people used to do… no longer exist.

Re-training people has it place… I guess.  But when they are re-trained where will they go?

Everyone is learning computers… but there are only but so many computer jobs.

The medical field is good.  In a field that had nothing but female mostly… had seen a great emergence of male.   Use to be you never saw a male nurse… but today hospitals are loaded with them.  Men are entering the nursing field in very large numbers.  And to think there was a time that such a thing… would have been seen as being sissy.

One thing is for sure… no matter what happens in this world… we all at some point or other need something medical.  As long as we are in these bodies the need for the medical profession cannot …or will ever be replaced.  But that is not to say that it too… will not evolve.  It has.

However, technology is forever changing things.  But even so there will still only be a need for but so many people to work in the medical field too… at any given time.

Radio stations have changed… television stations have changed.   Most newspaper companies have gone out of business… because few people read newspapers any more.  They get their news now over the internet… on their ipads… and cells.   And if you haven’t noticed… most news companies have cut back drastically on their staff.

For 1 of my journalism classes, my professor… a great woman… had been booted out of her position as a staff writer for a local newspaper… a job she had had for many years.  That company’s lost was of course … my great gain.  Because she came with a wealth of knowledge, and understanding about the history and future of journalism… and media at large.

But if you have noticed over the internet all the news sources seem to buy their stories from 1 source.  You can read the exact same story… word for word from 1 internet source to another.  And if you are like me… you always have a need to want to know more… but they don’t have it to give.

And somewhere along the way… they grab ahold of this attitude:   THAT LESS IS MORE.

Yeah, right…  When I want to know less…or read less… I will just stop.  I don’t need anyone deciding for me… when I have had enough.

Which I guess is the main reason why so many people like my blog… www.bsmith101.wordpress.com.  For as you can tell… I do not believe in the ‘less is more’ concept.  Nor do I just regenerate news items.  What a waste that is.  If  I follow a story… I want to read something I haven’t already read… or at the very least …give me some more details …or info on whatever it is I’ve come to your website searching for.

But going back to my thought… the workplace has changed.  It is not what it was 20 years ago… or even 10 years ago.

Remember all those customer service jobs that used to be in the newspapers?

Roughly about 20 years ago customer service became such a big thing.  There were tons of  ad campaigns about the type of  service you could expect if you did business with such and such.  Companies trained their employees to  greet you in a special way, and to service you as quickly and efficiently as they could.

Today all of that is gone to the wind.  You can stand in a line for up to 10 or 20 minutes listening to someone… who is working the only open window… or check-out line… carry on a conversation with another employee or either with the person who had been right ahead of before they got to the cashier.

Have you experienced that?

You are at the top of the line… but suddenly the ‘ONLY’ open window has a highly talkative employee… or someone looking around as though they are trying to wonder why ‘their’ window or ‘their’ counter is the only 1 open?

So, what do they do?

They slow down… as if mentally they have taken a mental stand in their mind… to not kill themselves trying to serve all the people who waiting in line.

No body cares about customer service any more.  And so… gone are these jobs.

Switchboard operators are a thing of the past too.  A little company in your area that hired local people… mostly women to man the phone lines.  But then it was for mostly doctor’s offices.  Today those people can be anywhere in the world taking tons of calls for everything from subscriptions to publications, orders for books or other products, complaints, messages, prayer requests …you name it.  But small companies in your town probably do not offer this service any more because it has been farmed out around the world.

Most of the manufacturing companies long departed …going into Mexico and other countries where the labor was cheaper.

This country really does not have a great number of blue collar workers any more.  Most of  the automobile workers were replaced by robots… or companies that sent large divisions of their manufacturing into other countries as well.

So where are the jobs?

Where are the openings that are available …or will become available for all the displaced workers who are currently out of  work… and have been so now for years?

There are none.   And nobody can do anything to change that… because of computers coming into the marketplace.  They… computers brought about an unpresidented change to what was our workplace.

The only thing you can do is look for the next big wave in the future.  That will

More and more colleges are offering on-line courses.  Have you noticed that?

Some schools are over the internet only.

I am dropping hints here.   Personally, I hate on-line courses… and feel that they are a huge waste of  time.   If you are going to sit in isolation… with no classroom interaction… then you might as well just read the book and be done with it.

But if you were considering a teaching career.  Great… but you should also consider this fact.  That soon many of  those teaching jobs too will soon be gone.  Due to on-line classes and on-line classrooms… and schools… cities… colleges and universities looking to cut their budgets.   It is coming… and soon the classroom as we know it today will  be gone forever too… just like yesterdays work force.

And with it will be gone… tenure.  Tenures will bite the dust just like pension plans… and all other full-time employment;  and whatever else they can do away with for the sank of the bottom line.

Soon even common currency as we know it will be gone too.  They are already talking about stop minting the $1 bill.  Soon it will just be all plastic… be it a debit card …or credit card…. or something else.  But the coins will be gone …and the paper bills.

Bet all those folks working at the Mints all felt that their jobs were well secured.  We have all better start to think again.

Who ever thought there would be no more pension plans?

Or health care benefits on your job?

I didn’t.

You really have to be a visionary.  You have to look deep into the future.  You must go beyond your nose… if you truly want to have a chance in the future.  You have to look deep beyond what you see.  The future is what you cannot visually see… but something coming.

Many people now do not even go into the office any more.  They can do all their work from home.  They write their news articles at home… edit news copy at home… edit books at home… and mother-frames and inter-locking networks are big things in corporations now.

I do see computers… and our dependence upon them growing.

In New York City they have all most totally done away with ticket booth operators down in the subway system.  They too have been replaced by machines… which can dispense to you fare tickets.  And while in Boston not so long ago… I noticed that they were doing the same in their subway system.

The world is becoming a place of less working people… and more automated machines.  And unless you are prepared to service these machines… or program these machines… your work history will too soon come to an abrupt end.  And you will find yourself with a need to be re-trained… to nothing.

So, when George W. Bush thought that he could jump start the economy by creating a war… with the hope that the war would create jobs.  He and his people forgot something.  All those factories were gone… and so weren’t those jobs.  And even if  the jobs could be revived… robotics still had replaced the manpower that used to produce the goods.

So, the wars didn’t work.  But only sunk us deeper and deeper into debt as the years have dragged on.  But of course …the Republicans will never tell you any of  this.  Any more than Verizon will tell you that they were happy for any old excuse to rid themselves of paying their employee’s health benefits.

Irene hit the East Coast hard… and it seems that my cousin who informed me of the storm was right.  Sadly there were a few deaths.  But thank God He saw most of us through it safely.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304431/ns/weather/t/irene-weakens-packs-punch-it-slams-coney-island/?GT1=43001

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304431/ns/weather/t/irene-weakens-packs-punch-it-slams-coney-island/?GT1=43001

My cousins and friends in various places… including my brother had to deal of electrical outages.  But that is the least.  Many suffered damages due to flooding and/or falling trees.

The good news is Irene wasn’t as bad as what had been expected.  To God be the glory.

The New York subway is up and running once again.  Though on our way back from Atlanta… I did notice where many of the over-passes in the New York area were being worked on.  And that was following the earthquake that hit us… before Irene came bouncing and blowing in.

Well, God bless…and enjoy the rest of  your week.  Amazingly we are at the end of August already.  Schools and colleges are already in.  I pray that all are safe and do well.

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 August 28, 2011

THE TIMES…Pastor Zackery Tims and Nicholas Ashford… gone…

First Zackery Tims …and now Nicholas Ashford.

Oh, I know… I know that Nick was not known for writing and singing gospel music.  But no one can deny that he did come from a strong gospel background… that sometimes even managed to show up in his song writing and way of singing.

And what songs they were.  He was gifted… and what he didn’t have …his partner and later to become his wife… Valerie Simpson had.  Together they wrote some of Motow’s best known music.  Songs like ‘Ain’t No Moutain High Enough,’ ‘It Takes Two,’ ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ ….just to name a few.  And I do mean just a few… because their list does indeed truly go on and on.

For a while Val and Nick could be caught holding down the evening drive-time radio slot at WBLS,in New York City.  In fact, 1 afternoon I decided to drop by BLS with the hope of getting in to see Vinny Brown, an old friend and co-worker who at the time was the Program Director for the station.  While waiting …to my unexpected surprise as I happened to look up… standing before me were 2 people I would have had to be totally blind to not to have recognized from the very moment my eyes came up on them.

“Val and Nick,” I heard myself say… as my head jerked back slightly in surprise.

It just kind of eased out of my mouth… I hadn’t realized they were handling BLS’s on-air  drive-time shift at that time.  So, I was really surprised to look up and see them, standing right there before me… close enough for me to just reach out and touch them.  Nick slightly smiled at me… while Val kind of looked off.

From the time I hit college Nick and Valerie had been busy in recording studios.  So, I had looked at and played  just about every album of their’s.  Definitely a sign of the time… because most of the kids don’t even know what an album was …or a 45 for that matter.  But yes …I had played Val and Nick for many years.  And it didn’t hurt for me to be a big fan either… which meant as often as I could I would sneak them in on my music lists rotations.

As the years went on I didn’t have to continue to ease… I just played them… back to back …or however I wanted.  Them and Phyllis Hyman… Donnie and Roberta… Friends of Distiction… Dells… Roy Ayres… George Duke… and whoever else I wanted to program.  Including Motown’s Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye… and just so much good music…  The kids don’t even have a clue… they have nothing like it today.

Nobody writes good music any more…  they don’t even know what it is to have anything called ‘good lyrics.’  They… the kids are too busy buying beats.  A lot of which are stolen from times gone… times that music like that during which Val and Nick came from …and wrote during.

Though they …Val and Nick had long since turned their attention to other things …such as going into the restaurant business… New York’s Sugarbar and I forget what their first restaurant was called …it had been on 22nd Street also in Manhattan.

And whenever traveling home on I-95… as I passed Stamford, CT… my mind would always run across them, as I knew that for a while at least they had made their home in Connecticut.

Having their number I called them once while seeking investors for 1 of my feature film projects.  Though I failed to reach them initially… you will never know to my surprise… how thrill I was to receive a call back from them concerning the message that I had left.  Val told me that they were just getting ready to open up another restaurant… which was to become the Sugarbar.  So, they couldn’t afford to do it at the time.  She appologized and told me maybe the next time.

I hung up not at all feeling let down.  All I could think was… wasn’t that nice for them to take the time to call me back?

This is my all time favorite song by Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford.

While living in Chicago… Millie J… used to visit a friend of mine by the name of

Jean… who was Tyrone Davis’ sister.  Millie had come to town to perform and while talking with Jean… I overheard her say-

“While I was coming through the airport guess who I came across?  These two people walking around holding hands.  I didn’t even have to look twice.  I knew right off it was nobody but Nick and Val.”

They had that something special… kind of like what Michelle and Obama have.  A total appreciation for each other… and a desire to always be in touch with one another… as though they cannot do or bear to be without each other.

Just a few seconds ago, a friend of mine informed me that Nick had dealt with sustance abuse.  Never knew that …or ever heard that.  So, I don’t know for sure.  I have not seen him or Val for years now.  But I know their music anywhere or anyhow I hear it.

Personally, I cannot imagine Val without Nick.  She loved him… and held on to him.  And he loved her… and held onto her.   And together they held on to each other …a profoundly good example of 2 people who truly walked in love with one another.  I certainly pray her strenght in the Lord… and that of their children and other family members.

I had heard his testimony.  And what an awesome testimony he had had regarding how God had saved and pulled  him out of a messed up life of drug addiction… and having come from a home where nobody knew the Lord.   How God had put someone in his path that gave him an invitation… and 1 day for whatever reason Zackery Tims, some 8 or  so years ago… called a man on his job who had invited him to come and go to church with him.  And that night he got saved… and his life was forever changed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20092873-504083.html

A megachurch Pastor having a congregation of more than 4,000 members in the Orlando, FL area… on this past Wednesday, Pastor Zackery Tims was found dead on the floor of his Time Square hotel room.  The first information said… heart attack.  But later information started circulating… that a white powder sustance… cocaine had been found on him.

I had long ago stopped watching him … or some reason or other.  I cannot remember why… but it always seems to me that as you watch some of these television evangelists… you like them in the beginning, but then they begin to shift.  And everything about them and what they are preaching changes.

I cannot say that about Pastor Tims… because I cannot remember what prompted me to stop watching his program. And it might not have had been anything with him… but a time conflict between the show schedule and my schedule.

His eyes lately were watery or shiney… glossy I guess you could say… whenever I would happen to catch the tailend or some part of his show.  And I am not just saying that because I am hoping that after the autopsy is finally released… it will show any drugs in his system.  Because I am not… if anything quite the opposite.

I would hate to think that he would have been drawn back… into something that he was blessed enough to have been released from.   But when you think back to the events that lead to his divorce… you have to think…    Well, maybe.

He was involved with a stripper for a year… that is what the article read.  But if it read a year… then it is possible that it was for a longer time than that.  While he was engaging in adultry with her… it is very likely that he was also indulging in other things too.  And while that relationship may have ended… and who really knows…  But if  he was drinking or indulging in drugs as well… it is not so likely that he also just stopped abusing either.  And do note I said ‘if’… because I don’t  know.

I didn’t know him… or much about him except what most of you who also watched the Word Network knew about him.  But I was watching the day he leaped upon the top of his pulpit  podium to dramatize something he was preaching.  I did think that  was very odd… and all I could think was-

“That is suppose to be holy.  How could he jump up on it?”

But it would seem that not much is still considered to be holy any more in church.  I see preachers with baseball caps and hats on in the pulpit… and sweat suits and sneakers.  Anything it seems  goes today… whatever… however…  whenever.   My, Lord…

Whatever happened to reverencing the house …and the things of the Lord?

UPDATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 2012…As of New Years Eve this year Pastor Paula White has been chosen the Board of Regents of New Destiny Christian Center.  And it would seem that since the autopsy done on the body of  Pastor Tims was never released to the public…that drugs had indeed been found in the blood system of the late Pastor Zackary Tims.

With the announcement of  Paula White becoming the chosen replacement…  Well, it did not seem to sit right with Pastor Tims ex-wife.  Tims’ ex-wife claims that Tims’ and her children are being robbed of their inheritance.  You can read more on that by CLICKING the LINK below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/riva-tims-paula-whites-appointment-process-was-illegal-and-deceptive-66161/

Since I am on the subject of Pastors… and since I did write a blog on it.  Let me just note here that I read somewhere… or heard it… that Bishop Eddie Long quietly settled his cases with the young men who had filed law suits against him, for supposedly taking sexual advantage of  them while they were under his religious leadership as young teenaged boys.

The settlement is said to have been $15 million total going out to the young men in question.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times… but I sincerely hope not.

Visiting with a niece and enjoying myself.   Can’t you tell?

I have so much time on my hands that I decided to take some of  it to write this blog.  I rarely have much time these days.  I am on assignment… and must pick up my pace.  I have to stay busy in the things of the Lord.   And at the end of the day… I just want to be ready when He comes.

And for as long as I can remember that has not changed.

I still love this picture… It is sooooo refreshing looking.

Speaking of which… while talking with a cousin this evening… she told me that they were buckling down for a bad storm that they… the insurance claims agents of the company she works for …are being prep for if  it should hit us this week on the east coast.

Better get out and pick up a few things for just in case.  And no need to wait until the last minute… do it now since you have gotten some advance info.

One other thing… while here.  My niece took me by Dr. Martin L. King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  Took a picture with a tour guide who informed me that every house on his street was bought by the Federal Government… and the only house on the street that is not owned by the Federal Government on that street is the King house… which is still owned by the King family.  But the house is open for tours …which are done on the half-hour. 

It was amazing watching the people… black and white touring the grounds of the King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  And it is all free… parking and everything without any hassles.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a very smart woman.  A woman who was determined that her husband’s death was not going to be in vain… or forgotten.  And I mean she did it… and she didn’t do it half-stepping either.

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

4 comments August 23, 2011

Arnold living ghetto fabulous…transitioning and other gay tales…

I have never thought much of  Arnold Schwarzenegger since a controversy once arose about him being a racist.  I have since forgotten the details… but I think it had to do with him not hiring minorities within his staff, as governor of California.  Or maybe it was something to do with him not having any minorities in his movies.

Through the course of  living we have grown accustom to reading and hearing stories of men and women who have fallen down… who were living double lives and baring children with people outside of their vows of  matrimony.  So, this story about Arnold Schwarzenegger really shouldn’t be a great surprise.  He is afterall… a man.

Don’t you hate hearing that?

“Well, he’s just doing what men do.”

“All men do it.”

“Maybe he wasn’t getting any at home.”

And the list goes on and on… as to the kinds of things people will say.

But sometimes we are caught off guard.  People who we never would have suspected… though I would never classify Arnold as 1 of  those as there had been rumors.  Things about him groping and feeling up on women.  But there were people like for instance… John Edwards.  Even watching that mess unfold while standing at the counter of a local corner store… I just could not believe it.  Not him was all I kept saying.  Not goody 2-shoes… squeaky clean John Edwards.  The John Edwards who said-

“I’m in love with my childhood sweetheart… that John Edwards?”

Then before him… there rose up Jesse Jackson.  What a fine dude he was in his day.  And I do mean fine.

He was the 1 that all the networks turned to concerning ‘black issues.’   He was a man for all season when it came to… his peoples…

Yeah…right.

Up to the point where he called Obama the ‘N’ word.   But let’s go back before that… to those pictures displayed upon the front page of the New York Post and everywhere else… of  Jesse…  and ‘the’ woman… the very pregnant woman …carrying his ‘love’ child… who at the time that story broke… she had already had the baby.   That was the picture with him and Bill Clinton…another 1… and her just grinning like there was not going to be a tomorrow for any of  them.

Yes…the ‘right’ Reverend Jesse Jackson.   Needless to say that controversy certainly changed a lot of people’s opinion about him… and what he truly represented.  Which as already mentioned… was compounded by that little incident with him talking off camera with an open mic on… talking some crazy stuff about what he would like to do to Obama while referencing him with the ‘N’ word.

Clearly, if  I had been Jesse’s wife… and I have said it over and over… since seeing that 1 picture in  the New York Post.   The 1 with the woman being 7 or 8 months pregnant with Jesse standing… I think behind her… grinning from ear to ear with his hands stretch around her inflated belly.

Oh, yeah… I would have been just like Morgan Freeman’s wife, and got me 1 of  those high power lawyers.   And he would have been seeing stars for the rest of life… after I got through with him.  He would have been too dizzy to ever walk up onto any stage ever again… when I got through with him.  But I guess Jesse’s wife is kinder… gentler… and more forgiving than I am.

But some women when they have had enough… they truly have had enough.  And Morgan Freeman’s wife was 1 of those women.

One could argue… what was he thinking?

Maybe it was a lapse in judgment.

But for how many years did he suffer that lapse?

I am talking about Schwarzenegger now.  What could he have been thinking?  And to be doing it with someone who worked within his own house.  Who was impregnated with his child at about the exact same time as his wife with their last child.

And who allowed the other woman… a maid to bring that child into the house of  his wife… where this little boy probably played with his other son… the 1 born about the same time as the child he fathered with the maid… a woman who worked for his wife… aiding  Maria around the house… and probably with her children as well.

Is this a confusing story?

Obviously, not.  It did not seem to confuse Arnold at all.  Because some how during the course of the last 10 to 13 years… the span of the life and birth of his outside son… he  never slipped up.  That is Maria Striver claims to have never known about the child before Arnold finally told her about him some weeks ago.  Whereupon, she packed up and moved out… taking her children with her.

Not to be or seem evil… but I never thought the Striver/Schwarzenegger marriage was a good match.  And it goes beyond him being Republican… and her being deeply rooted as a Democrat.

It just seemed to me that Arnold Schwarzenegger had a need to legitimize himself.  Coming from Austria… and having a funny last name… combined with a funny and then quite thick accent… as well as… I guess he had some political ambitions.  What better way to create for himself the type of  American acceptance that he might not have ever gotten any other way than by marrying a Kennedy.

In seeing a picture of  the woman… 1 would have to wonder what did Arnold see in her.   She appears to be older than Maria… and I don’t know what she looked like some 20 years ago when she started working for the Schwarzenegger family… but that is all gone now.   But then I thought that about the woman John Edwards impregnated… and about  Marla Maples or Naples…or whatever her name was.  The woman who Donald Trump took up with… and soon married.  She probably was pregnant too… because that whole thang happened pretty quick.  And soon it was over.

They snub their noses at those who do not have the money that they do… or who do not live quite as well  off as they do.   I’m talking about the supposed ‘high class’  who talk  about… ‘all they do is make babies.’  But when push comes to shove they themselves are about as ‘ghetto fabulous’ as those they often look down upon.  And they have far less class in the dealings of  their own infidelity… than those they shun.

Though now nearing the end of his term as a governor, I have no doubt… Arnold felt it now safe to disclose his little secret.  However, what men do not take into account is how women feel about men who cheat.  And particularly if they not only cheat …but also make someone pregnant in the process of their cheating.  And don’t let them walk around for years like they had not done anything… pretending.

But Arnold was so bold… he got the woman pregnant and then decided he wanted to be governor too.  That is about just as bad as John Edwards deciding to run for President of the United States a second time… while his wife is dying of cancer… and his mistress was pregnant.

And to put the icing upon the cake for Arnold… it was all done  within the preview of  his wife and children.  Right there under  their own noses.

This is why I will never be able to stand that little guy… Woody Allen.  I will never support him or anything that he does.  To think that Mia Farrow adopted some children… and during the course of some time… he began taking lewd and questionable pictures of the then quite young girl… whom he later divorces Mia Farrow for… so that he could marry her.

What kind of craziness was that?

Clearly, the man had… and has problems.  And I for 1 do no sanction them.

Another rat was… or is… that Rudolph Giuliani.  Yeah, that guy from New York City who used to be the Mayor…then ran for President… and might try to run again.  But he will never make it.  Because women do not forget.

Giuliani… when he was Mayor of New York started seeing this women.  This woman… he would bring to Gracie Mansion… the Mayor’s place of residence. in New York.   This mind you was where  his wife and his son lived.  And Giuliani… the good mayor… would have this woman staying there with him… under the same roof with his wife and child.

What kind of  a dog is that?

At least in the ghetto… most men know not to try that.   If the woman doesn’t have an apartment of  her own… then they know how to find a cheap motel or hotel.  But ain’t nobody in the ghetto going to pull up to his wife’s house talking about he going to bring some other woman… in there to do his thing.  Huh-uh… that ain’t happening… ever.   Not with the wife knowing about it… it is not.  Definitely not.

You have got to be kidding.  And I am not joking about this… as this type of behavior is not acceptable.  It is immoral …and it can be traced throughout history.  Infidelity is not new… you only have to go back a few years to Bill Clinton and his little 24-year-old friend… named Monica.

It would seem that wedding vows do not mean very much today.  Maybe never… as long as men and women have allowed themselves to become enticed sexually outside of their marriages.

Through the course of the 20 years that woman who worked in the Schwarzenegger household was taken care of by Schwarzenegger.  Who knows maybe Schwarzenegger placed her there… got her the job in his home in the first place?

Who knows?

But upon retiring from her job as a maid for  the Schwarzenegger… he bought the woman a nearly $300,000 house in an exclusive LA residence.  And it also looks like he paid for her to have a boob job as well.  Because in her pictures she clearly looks like she had 1.  It does not look natural.

The 1 thing about outside of a marriage children… it is funny how many times those children look more like the men that fathered them… than the children within the marriage.

The Bible says a good name is worth more than rubies.  I was listening to a Preacher preach and he began to talk about rubies.  He said that rubies are more rare than diamonds.  I had never thought about that… but you know what it is true.

The way most things operate in this world is based upon supply and demand.  The higher the demand and the less the supply…the greater the price.  Except for this 1 thing… rubies.  We often hear of the diamond mines in South Africa and other places.  There are some areas where I have heard it said that they… the people who live in some places… almost stumble upon diamonds daily.  In these places the people are banned from gathering the diamonds in their country.  But I have never heard anything about rubies.  I really don’t even know where most rubies come from.

Hold it …I have got to ‘google’ this up.

They are 2nd only to diamonds …and are only the 2nd hardest mineral known to man.   They are found in Thailand, India, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Kampuchea, and most notably  in Burma.  And here is 1 for you… they are also found in North Carolina… right here in the United States.  Imagine that and we rarely ever hear anything about rubies.

But back in Biblical times it is possible that rubies were considered more valuable than diamonds are today.  Because the Biblical texts says that ‘a good name is worth more than rubies.’

When you think of  it through history certain family names have stood out in this country such as ‘the’ Kennedy’s… ‘the’ Rockefeller’s… and so on.  And with those names has come a certain level of  respect… and to degree of  regard… reverence and honor.  These names are held in high regard and come with a track record so to speak of  commitment and success.  Having such a name opened doors and created opportunities for those who bared their family mark… their name.

Maria Striver has held onto her family identity being part of the Kennedy clan.  I never once ever heard her being refered to as Maria Schwarzenegger.  Though I guess that was kind of  hard to get away from totally as she was, and at this time… still is married to Arnold… who is still governor of  California.

How it all plays out remains to be seen.  But Maria has lawyered up… and if she moves forward this will be a big 1.  And it will cut deeply into Arnold’s fun money.

The moment I read the headline to this story… I knew that I was going to write something on it.

http://msn.foxsports.com/wcbk/story/Transgender-basketball-player-calls-it-quits-at-George-Washington-051811/?GT1=39002

I cannot believe that a 17 or 18…or maybe 20 something young woman would elect to surgically have her body transformed to pretend to be something that she is not.  But then to do it… and want to play on the women’s basketball team… is more than a bit puzzling to me.

What is the point?

It just does not make sense.  Maybe the boys team is too rough for her… or whomever.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-11-02/sports/27079970_1_gender-identity-transgender-outsider

Okay…so, you believe that you are man… and that somehow your body type got confused.  And you decide to straighten out whatever mistake that you tell yourself that God must have made… why then after doing all of  this… changing your sexual organs and such… I guess… from female to male… then why would you want to play basketball on the women’s team?

Could it be that somewhere down deep… she still feels and knows that she is really a woman?

Perhaps, as confusing to me …it must have been for the young lady, Kye Allums, who ventured out to do it.  And recently she has decided to come off of the Georgetown University women’s basketball team amid all this controversy.

It is perplexing.

And maybe… you don’t care to hear this.  But if  it had not been for the Lord we would all be just as equally confused.  Making all kinds of  crazy decisions and seeing them as right.

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/mind-your-business-queen-latifahs-sexuality?wpisrc=obinsite

I first heard this story when a friend relayed it to me.  I, of course, had always had my own thoughts on this as I had come in contact with Queen Latifah a couple of times.  I hadn’t run into her at any parties …but I had heard where she hung out at when she came across the bridge into Manhattan.

And I am all for letting people along… and letting them live their lives.  I once was there and I always felt that what I did in the privacy of my bedroom was my own personal business.  I, of course, at that time never had any consideration of  God.  I just felt that as along as it didn’t involve children or animals… then leave me alone.

I also felt that same way about other people and their lives.  I never liked listening to people tell me about their long weekends with their boyfriends.  BORING.

Because I never thought of the workplace as a place of sharing every detail… and particularly those kind of stories.  I was more quiet… laid back.  I didn’t talk about my business… and only half  listened to what other people were telling me about theirs.

So, the story is finally out… and with pictures.  But if you believe it or not… because most people believe whatever they want to… pictures or no pictures anyway.  I have always admired Queen Latifah.  I am not interested in looking into anyone’s bedroom… I have too much on my own plate for that.

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/mind-your-business-queen-latifahs-sexuality?wpisrc=obinsite

But to me Queen Latifah has always been a good role-model.  Even as a rapper… she did not sell herself out… or our people… or other women.  She was clean… decent… and came with rapps that jammed not insulted… or made us shame.  And then she flipped that around and made herself a movie star…it just showed that she was also capable of reinventing herself… and she was always an entrepreneur.

So, I applaud her.

The fact that you or I may not agree with what she does in the bedroom… does not take away from the fact that she is an adult woman making her own choices and decisions and doing well at doing so.  And 1 day she may make another decision just as I did… but that choice is hers… God gave that right  to her.

But here is something we can all agree upon… at least she is not walking around trying to make it seem that it is alright.  She is not flaunting it.

That takes me now to Tonex.  I saw Lexi’s interview… even posted a blog about  Tonex.  But it is hard for me to agree with anyone who knows scripture… as it is written in the Holy Bible… to believe that living such a life is agreeable to the will of God.  It is totally out of step… and I would be remiss if  I did not say so.

To some level I will not deny that I have and do still now suffer with my own level of  homophobia… which might sound strange coming from an ex-lesbian.  But even while living ‘in the life’… I had it.  But the 1 thing that I am careful not to do… is to hopefully not offend… hurt… or despise anyone.  Nor do I poke fun at… or laugh at… or make light of any situation of  being.  And this is the way that more people should come to be.

I am not talking about being in acceptance… but being understanding… loving… kind… and not confrontational.  The Bible say that with ‘love and kindness have I drawn thee.’

Find that spirit within yourself… and you may start drawing more people to the Lord.

Oh, on my final note… since so many people have been hitting my blog for more information on Cher’s ex-daughter…Chastity… since the release of  some pictures this week and the announcement that she is going to marry her long time girl-friend.   Here is what I have to say on the matter…

http://celebrity.uk.msn.com/news/gossip/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=157500663

Well, she has managed to harden her facial features and looks more like a man… but at the end of the day… none of us can really un-do anything that God has done.  No matter how hard me try… or how much medication… and surgeries you have.  It can’t be undone… no matter what the mirror says… or what people tell you.

I’m sorry, Chastity… it is just the way that it is.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-05-13/gossip/29558011_1_jennifer-elia-chaz-longtime-partner

Gender transitioning is a misnomer.  There is no such thing as transitioning your sex into another.  We are what God says we are.  Removing or having certain things changed about our physical being does not change our basic DNA.  It may corrupt certain cells etc… even effect  parts of our chemical make-up.  But it is impossible to totally reconstruct certain core things about our inner workings and true gender.

Just have any gay transgender male sit down beside you and go to sleep…  and see if  they sound like a woman then.  Impossible…

If you can transition your sex… then why stop there?

Why not transition yourself  into being rich… or famous?

That’s the point… it just does not happen like that.  Though becoming rich and famous are certainly reasonable and achievable goals.  But reconstructing your entire physical chemistry is not.

Well, I have been working on this blog for the better part of  my day now.  Started at about 2:30 this afternoon… and it’s now  a little after 4:30 in the morning.   Definitely time for me to go to sleep now.

But I did get up to mop the kitchen and bathroom… and got me something to eat in the in-between time.  In a few hours it will time for me to get up and go to church.  So, I will say good-night…

Hope you have a bless day… and weekend.  They say mostly sunny and warm weather this week.  I really didn’t mind what we got this past week.  It was dark and rainy most of the time.  But I like the rain… and  that is not to say that I don’t equally enjoy the sun.  Because I 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

2 comments May 22, 2011

Who is to blame?

I rarely follow 1 blog right behind the other… but I just finished reading this as I hit the button and said ‘post’ to my last blog.

It is a story about a woman who killed herself and 3 of her children with her.   Perhaps, you heard or read this story.  I now recall hearing someone vaguely mentioned something about it last week while I was in the beauty salon getting my hair done for Easter.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110427/ap_on_re_us/us_river_deaths_blame;_ylt=AvTGBx5blvs4ltAwbzNIdjA7PcB_;_ylu=X3oDMTM3c3E4MGFuBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDI3L3VzX3JpdmVyX2RlYXRoc19ibGFtZQRjY29kZQNvZmZwemYzMARjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNmYXRoZXJnZXRzY3I–

So, I just finished reading the story to the situation…just CLICK the LINK ABOVE if you want to read it too… if you haven’t done so already.

Much effort in the story…the slant in the story is who is to blame.

Who is to BLAME??????

I am a firm believer that we all have to take responsibility for all our own actions.  It is something I tried to teach my son and to all of my nieces and nephews.  Because at the end of  the day… we have no one to blame but ourselves for the course of our own lives.  And many of the events that happen in it.

In the above story about this young woman who decided to take her own life and the lives of  her children… just 3 of  them by default.  Because she had a 4th child but when she drove into the Hudson River…he being older (her eldest child)…I think the story stated that he was anywhere from 7 to 10 years old.  But he somehow managed to swim a shore.

Supposedly, just prior to the woman driving into the Hudson River… she had just had an argument with her boyfriend.  The man who happened to be the father of  her last 3 children… to which she was not married.

The story states that the father… the man who was the father of the woman last 3 children was 25 years old.  Which leads me to believe that the woman who committed the murder/suicide… was also somewhere in her early 20’s.

The story goes that she supposedly became distraught after the argument… jumped into her car after packing in her children… and headed for a ramp leading into the Hudson River.

Now, who is to blame?

It seems that many in the story blame the supposed father.  They labeled him as a cheater and other things.

Some I have no doubt blame it upon the times.

Some maybe blame it upon the hardship of  just being a mother.

Others might say that she just became ‘overwhelmed.’

Then others might just say that she was just plain crazy.

Any and all of  these might very well be true.

But I see it as a bigger picture which is why I am taking this time now… while I should be up and doing something else… to write on this issue.

And it is an issue.

Recently, 1 of  my brothers started seeking treatment for diabetes.  A couple of weeks ago he was in the hospital due to now  dying kidneys.   Upon him being released from the hospital he called me and asked me to come sit with him.  So I have.

I have also started going with him to all his doctor’s appointments… and that has meant that every week since he came out of the hospital I have been sitting in some doctor’s office listening to them discuss my brother’s condition with him and me.

A couple of  times my brother had me pull up to a liquor store telling me he was going in to cash a check.  But the other day as we were on our way to the doctor I smelled the smell of  alcohol upon him.  So, I asked him about it and he told me that-

“Yeah, I take a couple of  sips every now and then.  Ain’t no big biggy.”

Here he is dizzy and hands shaking…and his kidneys on near collapse, and he is telling  me that taking a drink of alcohol  is ‘no biggy’  …not  a big thing?

Who in the world does my brother think that he is kidding?

Perhaps, he is trying to fool himself.

But I asked the doctors-

“Is there anyway possible that he can be maintained right here at this level without him going on dialysis?”

And somewhat hesitantly the doctor kind of  said yes.  But only if  my brother did what he was supposed to do.

But while at another doctor’s office when the doctor asked him about drug abuse… my brother informed him of something I was not aware of.   He told the doctor he used to snort heroin.  I just thought people shot that up… that is how native I am about drugs and alcohol.

But when the doctor asked my brother why he had done it… my brother told him because he had gotten with the wrong girl.

The doctor then commenced to tell me brother to not blame that on the girl.  And that he… my brother had made the choice for himself  to do it.   That the girl had not forced him to do anything.

And the doctor told my brother that he needed to take the responsibility for the choices that ‘he’  …my brother had made.

Having said that I imagine that you can guess where I am going with this.  But I am lead to speak it anyhow.

In regards to the young woman who drove into the Hudson River killing herself and 3 of  her children… who would you say is to blame?

Who would you blame for her chain of  circumstances?

Who would you say put her in the situation where she found herself?

Did her environment have anything to do with it?

Was it a matter of up-bringing?

Who made the choice to lay down and bare all those children?

Would marriage have made a difference in this story?

Can anyone say that anyone does not know or believe that the act of  engaging in sex was not given to us merely for pleasure… but for procreation?

A vast majority of  women become pregnant usually after indulging once… the very first time.   This was true for me as well.  So, I know this for myself.  But I elected not to continue.

I made my choices too.

Oh, I wasn’t against having children.  I wanted as many as I could have.  Truly, when I was a very young girl I made that decision 1 day.  But I also made another decision… that I wanted to save myself for my husband.  And I did up until the age of  25.

At that point I stepped into another lifestyle that greatly variated and deviated from the thoughts of  me as that young school girl.  But had I not… I still doubt that I would have laid down and allowed people to use me time and time again without any commitment… while yet aiding me into digging myself into a deeper hole.

Because truly 1 could say that the young man in this story…the supposed father… did aid in digging this young lady into a deeper and deeper hole.  And without a doubt he does have his own share of  blame concerning  some of the  problems and difficulty in her young life …and the lifes and end of  lifes concerning his children.

But every choice made by that young woman was her own… including the thought and action of  committing suicide …and the eventual murder of  3 of  her 4 children.

In terms of  Biblical text…1 could look at the story of  Leah.  But the difference here was that Leah was married to Jacob.  And  though Jacob loved Rachel… and was married to both… there had to been something about Leah.  Because she continued to give birth to children for him.  In fact, Leah was the mother of  Judah… and Judah is the line under which both David and Jesus emerge.

But getting off the Biblical angle and just going back to today’s reality… and this story there is only 1 reality when it comes to baring child after child for someone you hope you will be able to hold onto… or who will marry you.  And that is… baring children is not going to do it for you.

Yes, you have created a tie with a person that will be between you and that person for as long you and/or  he and/or the child lives… and in this case children lived.  But that is it.

It does not make them love you.  There is nowhere written that after Leah bared Jacob all those sons…and a daughter… that at any time Jacob came to love Leah.

But just for the sake of  Biblical text… let me note that Leah did get him in the end.  Because Jacob was buried in the tomb with her… while Rachel was buried along side the road on their way  after having died in child-birth.

It is evident that this young mother neither loved herself  or her children as much as she hated the prospect of  loosing this young man to another woman.

And that is the travesty of  it all.  Because at the end of  the day it does not matter what area you come from… or your level education… or your socio-economic advantages… or the lack thereof…  if you do not love yourself you will continued to make mistake after mistake and doom your own life.  And there will be no one to blame but you… yourself … and the ‘I’ whoever you are.

I have no doubt that the young woman in this story became overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed with having made 1 bad choice after another… and another.

Overwhelmed with trying to deal with those bad choices and not having any real support mechanism in place that might have aided her… or even assisted her in some way to start making some good choices in order to turn her life and situation around.

Nobody heard her voice.   Nobody saw her tears… nobody realized that she was way over being overwhelmed.

I am sadden by the lost of  her… and her innocent little children.  And by the knowledge that the little son  which survived will now live with this  for the rest of  his life.

If any of us were perfect then I guess we could all point fingers and laugh… joke about this… I guess to some degree.  But life is no joking matter.  It is precious.  Everybody’s life is precious.  And none of  us is exempt from mistake making.  Even at this age I still make mistakes.  But thank God…He is working on my behalf  that I am not overtaken.

I pray that God steps into every bad situation …and situation where people need help…

Now, maybe I can get up from here and finally do what I really have to do.  I have been up and working on blogs since 6 AM this morning.  And it really hadn’t even been my intent.  The day is slipping pass me… I have got to get moving.

Hope you have a beautiful rest of the day.

I have been searching for something that I really need to find.  So, I have really have to put my all and all into it today.

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 April 27, 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 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

Celebrating women… Mrs. Dorothy Height’s passing… and women we cannot applaud …what some women won’t do…

I don’t know where you live…but here where I live it’s cold.  And I do mean cold.

This morning before leaving out I made me a bowl of  Cream of  Wheat.  Then I made sure I put on a coat.

Yes, a coat.  Because…    Well, because it is cold.

Though in speaking with one of my mother’s cousin’s I found out that they are having 90 degree weather in Florida.  Wow…90 degree weather already.  It is going to be smoldering there in Florida this coming summer if those kind of temperatures hold up.

But here it has been cold.  And though I had been denying it.

I am now ready to face the hard and very cold facts…it’s cold.  And I am not imagining it.

So, getting off the bus with my mind set on getting in the house and having myself a big hot bowl of  steaming soup, but I decided to head in the opposite direction upon stepping off the bus instead.

Yes, my conscience was bothering me… because I haven’t blogged in a short while.  So, I decided that even if  I just started it tonight then I could finish it tomorrow.  And that would be so much better than not getting started with this at all.

So, that is just what I am doing.   Because I have so much I want to talk about… I just know that there is no way that I am going to be through before this lab closes at 11 PM tonight…and it is just about 7:30 PM now.

First, let me start by mentioning the passing of  Mrs. Dorothy Height.  Though I had never met her, I certainly did know of her.

Mrs. Height along with her many years of work as a Civil Rights activist, and as head  of the National Council of  Negro Women… she was also known for her signature hats which she always sport without fail through the years.

Women upon whose shoulders we their daughters and grand-daughters now stand.  And what I see in these women is a vast amount of humility and a humbleness you do not see in the spirit of  people of  today.  When you view the video clips BELOW of  Mrs. Height you will exactly what I mean.

http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/beth-mar.htm

http://hubpages.com/hub/Freedoms-Sisters–Twenty-Great-Arfrican-American-Women

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-201_162-10003285-4.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/04/20/GA2010042001303.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g1wclP0PXt3NaBWLcwbFUjRs9bawD9F73F081

It is odd that I am writing this blogg on this topic today.  I never plan these things and never have any idea where I am going when I first start.  And believe me that some people have written me pointing that out to me.  But I welcome your comments…good or bad…or indifferent feel free to comment or drop me a note or 2.

Since this past Sunday was Mother’s Day…you really would have thought I had planned this.  But I did not.

I love celebrating women…and it has nothing to do with me being a past lesbian.

Maybe it is that my mother was a woman…my grand-mother was one…my great grand-mother was one… and all my aunts and nieces and most of my friends are one.  And I think of them as being phenomenal people…and women.  Clearly, Mrs. Height and all the women that I mentioned above were phenomenal women…but the women I am going to mention now are not.  Some how they both fell well below the mark.

Many times while surfing over the internet looking for things…mostly to buy…I sometimes come across things or an article that sparks my saying something.  And these 2 stories did just that…though one of  them I saw on the Oprah Show.

But this story I came across over the internet.  In reading it …it made me wonder-

“What women won’t do for a man.”

What this women did was insane…and she is not the first.  Though if  I were a  Judge…she would have never been able to walk into my court with such an excuse…though I do not know exactly what her lawyer or lawyers plead for during her court trial.  But if I had been the Judge it would not have been that…because what this woman did and the reason behind it was so sorted and sick …and just  plain selfishness.

This woman was a grandmother…and had been a school teacher…who at the time she committed this heinous crime against a young mother…she was 42 years old.

She was not some uneducated woman out in the streets.  But I guess we may all very well agree that her mind wasn’t half as good or as decent as many of  those women who we so often look down upon, when we come across them.

I will not call this woman’s name…not because I fear being sued or anything.  But I do not want to add to her ever becoming famous or known.  I feel she should go down into the depths without fanfare or pity.  She was indeed evil.  Her mind was without a doubt twisted…and she did it for a man.

This is what she did…she sought out some woman who was pregnant along with a group of  thugs…beat and killed…and tortured.  Then she stole the woman’s infant child to pretend that the child was her’s in an attempt to fool some man…with the hopes of  being able to keep him.

You can read the story if you like…the LINKS are BELOW.  But what kind of  woman would have done such a thing?

And I think what bothered me more about this story is that there are those rallying to keep her from being executed for the insane criminal act which she committed.

I am sorry…and yes I am very much a Christian.  But I have no tolerance for people who allow the devil to use them in such a vile and evil way.  And by judging my her most recent picture she seems to be highly content.

We have all…I imagine…been the recipient of  some vile and most evil thoughts.  The kind of  thoughts that came to us that were so foreign to us.  It was some insane maybe even immoral act…or something that we would never imagine doing.  Something that we  totally rejected even the thought of  it…or thoughts of it.

And yes…I too have experienced it.

I have a cousin who told me of such an incident which occurred with her.  She told me that she used to be an alcoholic, and once while sitting at a table the thought came to her to get up from the table where she was sitting.  She said she was told to take up a fork and begin stabbing a baby…a little infant that was nearby…and to stab it to death.

My cousin told me that at that moment  is when she realized she had to stop drinking.  She recognized the thought at being crazy and that it had frightened her…because the impulse to do it was so strong.  And she said that she never drink again since that night.

In looking up info for this blog I came across information on Malcolm X’s grandson.  The grandson who set his grand-mother on fire while she laid sleeping.  Betty Shabazz suffered for nearly 2 months or more before finally succumbing to those injuries.

I have often wondered about her grandson whom she loved so much…a problem child…and perhaps is still troubled today.  A child that she loved so much that she rather to have him come live with her than to see him placed some place and  locked away, because no one could control him.  And at the age of  12 he killed his own grand-mother.

What I have thought about on the times I have since reflected on him…was what went through his head that he would have done such a thing to someone who loved him so dearly?

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/26/nyregion/malcolm-shabazz-moved-to-center-to-serve-term.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/08/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-new-york-boy-who-killed-shabazz-has-made-two-escapes.html

It cannot be argued that some of  toughest demons to resist are those which live inside of us.  It is sad.  But when crazy thoughts come into our minds we must with all our might resist them.  A very large part of  it is learning how to pray…and how to call upon the name of  the Lord.   It is what my cousin did.   And it works…I know it for myself.

Now, on to the story I watched on Oprah last Thursday or Friday.

I had been in New York when the story broke…but like most people over time I had forgotten it.  But if  I thought the woman I wrote about above was evil that goes doubly for Vanessa Jackson…whom one of my brothers informed me was a member of the Church of God in Christ.

Note in the picture above…you will notice that 4 of the children look like something is wrong with them.  They are different from the other children…not quite as well dressed…and if you look real closely you see that they were not as well…

Well, healthy looking…meaning not well nourished.  Because they were not.  That woman and her husband straved those little boys…while she, her husband and their biological  children all eat well and seemed to be quite happy.

I do remember this story when it first broke…

Some neighbors called 911 because late one night they heard a noise outside their window.  And when they looked out they thought they saw what looked to them like a very young child rampaging through their garbage looking for food.

That young child was the boy in the picture to the right of the woman.  The little tiny boy who looks so light and fragile.  He was actually 19 years old and weighed under 60 pounds.  And look at her own children…some of them quite plumb… as well as, she and her husband.

I was dumbfounded when I listened to Oprah interview the brothers of that boy.

How could anyone be so heartless and so cruel?

These people called themselves ‘saved.’  They took those boys to church with them and their other children every Sunday.   These people adopted those boys.

On the show the boys told how the woman would dress them in 3 or 4 sweaters under their clothes to make them appear fatter.  How we gave them pancake mix to eat…and would tell them that they only had ‘x’ amount of time to eat it.

What kind of  depraved people exist in this world?

Is money that important?

Vanessa Jackson and her husband, who has since died while in prison, went to church where they…I hope…were taught ‘love’…and that it is better to give than to receive.  But somehow they felt that taking and cheating…and being evil and cruel was a better way.

They straved those little boys…and aided in seriously debilitating their growth, physically and mentally.

I could never love money that much.  The world is filled with sick and degenerate people.  I am so thankful to God that He gave me a mind to not to be 1 of them.  And I hope that you aren’t either.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050930/050930_malnourish_vmed_6p.widec.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9547444&usg=__NNUvgADbge3k933xbmjP_w2iniU=&h=373&w=298&sz=23&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=EwgKXTa3Gv80HM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draymond%2Band%2Bvanessa%2Bjackson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2HPND_enUS361%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/nyregion/11starve.html

My Mother’s Day started with my cousin Jean…who loves reading her name in my blogs…waking me up early.  It was then followed by my son telling me to get up and get dress because he was taking me to breakfast.

He greeted with a large bouquet of flowers in a tea cup.  They are so beautiful…and I love my tea cup.

I hope your Mother’s Day was great too…or that you did something especially special for your mom or wife.

And what do you know it is not 11 o’clock yet.   I must be getting better at this…because I am just about finish with this blog.

Well, God bless…and hope that you have a beautiful day tomorrow.

And if it is cold where you are…  Don’t forget about a bowl of  Cream of Wheat before going out…or a nice hot bowl of  oat meal.

And don’t you dare leave out without your coat.

And 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…

Add a comment May 12, 2010

Nothing in particular… Obama and Michelle’s weekend retreat… and on wisdom… sex psychopaths…

Yesterday I got soaking wet.  Today I went out thinking it would be warmer…but I quickly found out I was wrong.

When I first stepped outside yesterday the sun was shinning, and all was well.  But while standing at the bus stop the skies suddenly turned dark…and shortly thereafter came 1 little sprinkle followed by another.  And before long  it was all over I was soaked, and the bus was nowhere in sight.

Today, while riding on the bus…which is why this month I decided to buy me a bus pass since my son started complaining about me using his car.  It is just as well…I really don’t mind…though the buses are a bit small and can be not as clean as I would always like.  But I got tired to listening to my son sounding as though I’ve been taking advantage of him.  So, I bought me a bus pass…now nobody can complain.

But while riding the bus today I overheard a woman say-

“They got 2 feet of snow today.”

I do not know who they were…or where they was.  But I do know that that sounds bad for us.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/blankets-246326-northeast-snow.html?pic=1

Here it is almost May…and it is still snowing.

Yes, it sounds very bad for us.  Because I know that the snow is on its way here too.  There is no getting around it.  Plus, it is cold.  And cold enough now to go back to wearing our winter coats.

It is hard to believe that just a few days ago it was in the 90’s.  But that is gone now…and been gone now for more than a week.

But least ways when I went away for the weekend this time…I didn’t come back to any frozen water pipes, and water all over the place.  And I didn’t have to worry about the cat being left in a cold house due to our furnace still being out.  But if  all things work out this summer my winter will be very different come October, November, December etc…etc…of this year.   Yes…very very different.

So, we were on the road again this pass weekend, and needless to say we had to travel through some rain.  But it was beautiful nonetheless.  And one of the best parts is…is that while on the road we saw no accidents.

That is not to say that we did not meet up with some traffic.  But there were no accidents.  And I just thank the Lord for that.

I now have grown to not only pray that we travel safely but also everybody on the road with us does too.  And though I never thought of  it before…it does indeed make a lot of sense to do so.

Just think about that.

When I started this blog I thought that I had a lot to say.  But right now I can’t think anything outside of the weather…and I’ve already mentioned that.

What else did I want to talk about?

I just do not know.

I was awaken from my sleep early yesterday morning.  It was one of the church ladies calling me.  She had called me saying-

“We lost Deek last night at about 11:30.”

It made me think of the last time I had been with them.   I was in New York City and it was the night before the New York City Marathon.

I had gotten into the city late and had found a great parking spot not too far from their apartment building.  My plan was to get up early…about 4 or 5 AM and move my car as I knew that the Marathon went right pass their building.  But when I went out to move my car early that morning…it was gone.  And all I could think about was the New York City Towing Hell that I was bound to be in due to getting towed.

First of all, the car was a rental and that was a problem right there.  Since, when they tow in New York they want you to submit papers on the car…all of which were inside the car.  Since we didn’t own the car…it meant that they were going to send me to the rental place to have them give me documentation on the car and that I was going to have to be the valid driver.  Of which I was not…since my son had rented the car for me.   And he, of course, was hundreds of miles away back home.

So, this meant trouble.  I could hear my son talking to me as I stared at the spot where the rental car had been parked.  And I dredded calling him.

Because it meant that he was going to have to get up, get dress and now drive in to New York City…something that I knew he was not going to want to do.  And certainly was something that he wasn’t going to be happy of doing it either.

So, I put in the call.  He didn’t answer.  And I took a deep breath of  relief…it was after all now just about all of  4:30 in morning.

The street was clear…no cars anywhere.  But the roadway was filled with squad cars riding up the avenues and crossroads making sure everything had been towed.  Turing I went back into the building feeling that I was in for it now…and wondering how much all of  this was going to cost me?

By the time I got back upstairs and explained the situation to Deek and his wife…he ask me-

“Did you go and look on the other streets?”

That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard.

Why would I go walking around to look for my car when it was obvious that it had been towed?

And all I could think about was how mad my son was going to be hearing this.

So, I finally decided to go back downstairs to try and find out where  they had towed it to.  And get directions to get there.

By this time Deek had gone out on the balcony trying to still tell me that  I should walk around looking for my car.  I thought he was loosing it.

Why would they pick up my car to tow it just to set it back down somewhere else outside of a car bound?

Was what  I kept thinking in my mind.  When they tow your car in New York City…you are in big trouble.  And you better have cash…if you want any hope of getting your car back.

Downstairs I walked out to the street and flagged down one of the police squad cars to asked them about my car being towed.  And they directed me to call the precinct.  And when I did it was just like Deek had said.

We laugh about it now.  I have to smile every time I think of  it.  It makes me think of  wisdom  every time…this story…and those of us who lack it.  We don’t even have good enough sense to know wisdom when we hear it.  We pass it up thinking that it is foolishness.  That is what I thought Deek was telling me…foolishness when he kept saying that I needed to walk around looking for my car.   

He had wisdom over a situation which I thought I knew everything…after having been towed more that a few times in New York.  Sometimes we can be so foolish because we think that older people don’t know nothing.  That they are off the mark…far removed from things…and even at times lack real understanding of things…or knowledge of things.  But nothing can be further from the truth.

Oftentimes given a chance their wisdom far exceeds any mere thoughts we could have on the matter.  As such was this case.

To me it sounded ludacris that my rental car was picked up to clear the roadway for the Marathon runners only to have the City of  New York without any profit to themselves re-assign me another parking space.  But that is just what they did…and Deek knew it.  While during the whole time  I refused to pay him any attention.  And you know…he never held that against me.

Even that shows great wisdom.  How many people would have been mad…or become upset because you discounted their suggestions or ideas?

But Deek didn’t.

So many older people get kicked to the curb and totally disregarded simply because they are older.  People refuse to believe that they have anything legitimate to offer…all because they are aged.  But age breeds wisdom.  It brings about a plethora of  experiences and knowledge.   A richness that we just should not pass up…or so freely let get away from us because we lack the wisdom to see just how valuable they are to us.

While on the road we caught the news over the radio that the President and First Lady, Obama and Michelle were taking a little weekend-get-away together.  I grinned and my sister turned to me smiling saying-

“I love them.”

And I just loved hearing that they stopped and got some ribs.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/travel/bal-trav-obama-weekend-0423,0,6829607.photogallery

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20003269-503544.html

I just happened not long ago to come across this story listed below.

http://www.aolnews.com/story/ny-wants-man-who-spread-hiv-locked-up/1035429?cid=10

And if  you took the time to read it then you realize that the story is about some black man who purposely passed the HIV/AIDS virus to 13 women.  And that there seems to be a debate about what should be done with him.

What are they debating?

Spreading AIDS knowingly is like taking a loaded gun, aiming it at someone’s head and pulling the trigger killing them.  So, what is there to think about? 

The guy should clearly be thrown into prison and never released ever again.

Why should he be allowed to walk around…enjoying himself  while he knows that he committing someone else to a death sentence?

AIDS kills…and not everybody has the resources of a  Magic Johnson to sustain them and their medical needs.  The medication for AIDS treatment is not only very costly but they have to take tons of different types of medicine.  I will never forget all the pills my cousin Vincent had to take daily.   And I have seen what that type of  death looks like…and it is not pretty.

I have seen youth turn into the very old…go from being very  fit and carefree to bent over and broken, with all types of medical problems and conditions that most of us never have to think about because our system works fighting off everything and anything that might try to invade our bodies.   But their system does not…it can’t.

I saw a 34 year old man turn into an old man before very my eyes.  He could barely operate his hands, walk or hear well.  Vincent became old…a senior man at 34 years of age.  Had I not seen it I would have not known anything about AIDS…but I saw how it ravaged his body and stole his youth and everything else from hm.

No one should be allowed to purposely inflict that disease upon anyone.  Such a person is quilty of  murder.  And clearly after reading what his mother had to say…I can see why he is the person he came to be.

When I was teaching…I recall one day that 1 of my student’s mother came to school to pay me a visit.  Upon meeting my student’s mother I realized why I had the problems I had with her daughter.  Or perhaps I should say…why she was having the problems that she was having with me.  Because in my class I do not have problems with students…but there had been some students who may of  have had a problem or 2 with me.

This girl’s mother came to my class and she…her mother…had to have been an utter embarrassment to her daughter.  The woman was very un-rulely and out of  order….but at the end some of  my students while handing in their work gave me their take on it that situation.  And you know what they said?

They said-

“I had my money on you.”

Smart kids.

I think that that girl’s mother thought that I was going to back down or become intimidated.  But that was far from the case…though she did everything she could to get me to be so.   Needless to say that mother never visited me again…and I don’t think I ever had any more problems out of her daughter.

But when her mother came to my class I could see why the girl was like she was.  She was very much like her mother.  But in my class and classes I lived by one motto-

“It was going to be either them or me.”

And I made up my mind early that it was always going to be me. I was going to be the one in charge and who ruled my classes…and not my students or any one student over me.  No…and that went doublely for mothers.

Some mothers are the reason why their children are the way that they are.   Many men children are not men because…

Well, because of their mothers.

The weight and impact of  ‘mother’ upon the lives of  her children or child is great.  It can either enable them or aid in making them become strong, fully thinking and functioning adults with high hopes of success in their lives.

http://hubpages.com/hub/DONT-BE-AN-ENABLER

Clearly, anyone wishing to get back at women or others because they have contracted AIDS is a person not willing to take their own personal responsibility in the matter.  There are so many people who go around blaming others for everything wrong in their life.

It would seem to me…not that I know a whole lot on this subject…but knowing that so much is out there besides AIDS, that it just makes sense to use good common sense and judgment.  Personally, I am an advocate of  abstining…but if you love sex that much that you can’t protect yourself then why blame anyone else?

I knew that there was something that I wanted to write about.  And now I have found it.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-noahs-ark-found-in-turkey-science-religion-culture/

Can you imagine that…the possibility of  possibly really finding Noah’s Ark?

It might just be some large ship that became ship wrecked many years ago.  I doubt that Noah’s Ark will ever be found.  It is not that I doubt the story…but what purpose would it serve God for Noah’s Ark to be found?

None.  So, therefore, God would not leave it around to be uncovered several thousands of  years later.

But it does make for an interesting story  though doesn’t it?

And before I close I have to mention this.  Perhaps my son has been so mad at me over his car because I never stop for gas.  And it was until we hit the road that I realized that the gas prices had gone up so much.  It was costing $4 plus in New York.  Mannnnnn……

While on our little road trip this weekend I also got my first chance to publicly talk about my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.  And I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.

And you know what?

I didn’t even think about getting nervous.   There was a time I would never have done it…and certainly not as freely and as well as I happened to present my book to these people this weekend.

I guess I am growing.

Well, enjoy your day…and night.

And 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…

3 comments April 29, 2010